walking upstream…
Radiohead
photo: raph_ph · cc by 4.0 ↗Radiohead
sourcesWikipedia · Rolling Stone · Jazzwise · The King of Gear
Formed by five schoolmates in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Radiohead spent the 1990s dismantling the very alt-rock success that made them famous, trading the raw confessional of "Creep" for the anxious, glitching architecture of OK Computer and the electronic rupture of Kid A. Thom Yorke's keening falsetto and Jonny Greenwood's restless arranging turned rock-band instrumentation into something closer to orchestral unease, absorbing jazz, sampling culture, and electronic music along the way. Few bands have carried "most influential of their generation" status and then spent two decades trying to outrun it.
the sound in question
1992
CreepRadiohead
walk the tributaries ↓
R.E.M.1980s · Alternative rock / Jangle pop
Radiohead supported R.E.M. on their 1995 Monster tour, and Thom Yorke has said flatly that Radiohead "ripped off R.E.M. blind for years" — he's named "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" specifically as a song directly inspired by them, and called Michael Stipe his favorite lyricist.
listen: upstream & here
1992
Everybody HurtsR.E.M.
1995
Street Spirit (Fade Out)Radiohead
listen forPut R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" next to Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" — both let a plain, arpeggiated guitar figure carry an almost unbearably naked vocal, restraint doing the emotional heavy lifting instead of volume.
Miles Davis1950s · Jazz / Modal jazz
Thom Yorke has cited Miles Davis's Bitches Brew directly as a touchstone for OK Computer's construction, saying "it was building something up and watching it fall apart, that's the beauty of it — it was at the core of what we were trying to do."
listen: upstream & here
1970
Bitches BrewMiles Davis
1997
Paranoid AndroidRadiohead
listen forCue up Miles Davis's title track "Bitches Brew" next to Radiohead's multi-part "Paranoid Android" — both pile up tension across long, unstable sections that keep threatening to collapse before lurching somewhere new.
DJ Shadow1990s · Trip hop / Turntablism
Jonny Greenwood has said the band was chasing DJ Shadow's cut-and-paste production directly on "Airbag": they sampled fifteen minutes of Phil Selway's drumming and sliced it up on a computer, though Greenwood admitted "we missed again" and it ended up sounding like Radiohead rather than Shadow.
listen: upstream & here
1996
Building Steam with a Grain of SaltDJ Shadow
1997
AirbagRadiohead
listen forCompare DJ Shadow's beat-collage classic "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt" to Radiohead's "Airbag" — both are built from a chopped, looping drum break run through processing until it sounds mechanical rather than played.