[sunnyerteit]

Greetings, I have a presentation about Radiohead, but I have some issues: Radiohead is untraditional music, yet it has achieved critical and commercial success. Why is this?

I have some ideas:
-Radiohead has changed their sound over the years, but not their direction. This means that every new Radiohead-album will differ, but it will still be a Radiohead-album.
-Radiohead appeals to those who seek an alternative to mainstream music: You can label bands, groups and solo-artists with genres; but you can't put any label Radiohead as any other genre than alternative, cause that's the only thing that's static with Radiohead, except the line-up.
-Radiohead-albums always seem like a reaction to the contemporary mainstream music. For instance: "New Rave" dominated 2005-2007. "New Rave" was known for mashing up as many instruments as possible and it's sparkling colors. As a reaction, this influenced "In Rainbows". "In Rainbows" had a much cleaner and spartan sound. Also the album-cover was a cum-load of colors, possibly mocking contemporary art.
-Radiohead has "unexpected" notes, if you catch my drift. Also in some songs they alternate in rhythm; this doesn't bother me, rather it enhances my listening of Radiohead.
-They are not afraid to try set-ups: Most of Radiohead's bandmembers are multi-instrumentalists, which again widens their genre-capabilities.
-Their lyrics is not set in stone. You can interpret it in several different ways.

For the love of God: Add some arguments!
Also, why do you enjoy Radiohead? And please don't say: "They're awesome!", rather explain why they are awesome. And if you enjoy because of a particular song - explain what you enjoy with that song.

[irene]

Radiohead isn't untraditional music.

[`n Vliegtuig]

i just came into this thread to say 'untraditional' sounds like a word irene would use and behold!

[irene]

I've heard untraditional used before, but I've never really used it myself.
I'd say... intraditional.

[sunnyerteit]

And I'd say untraditional (:

But I assume you enjoy Radiohead more than other bands. Are you able to express why?

[irene]

I'm p sure the correct phrase would be "non-traditional," actually.

I couldn't really describe why they're my favorite band, to be honest.

[mugsy]

Radiohead are an avant garde pop/rock band, fairly straight ahead and easy to get into, the people who can't get into radiohead and think they are too experimental are narrow minded and probably only listen to rob thomas and pink on a daily basis.

also i wouldn't say that radioheads music has received commercial success, the band itself has but not the music, only creep. radio doesn't touch radiohead's music at all where i live except for creep because radio is god awful.

[irene]

Apparently the radio stations around here play Karma Police and some other songs a lot but I don't know what songs they are because this is according to my dad since I don't listen to rock stations

[babydoctor]

the hard rock station here, which plays shit like stone sour, chevelle, avenged sevenfold, and a whole lot of grunge/nu metal/90's music, plays creep, karma police and for awhile there, bodysnatchers. this means they've achieved commercial success.

[ms*ali]

this paper sounds like it is going to be kind of annoying
i got mildly annoyed halfway through the post and had to skim through the rest of it.

what is this paper for?

[Brian]

Why not use unconventional instead of non-traditional? Non-traditional makes it sound like they invented a new way to play or made their own instruments or something.

[bitumen]

I'm gonna take this spot and edit things in here as I think them up but two things about RH are very important to me -

- deep creative integrity that extends beyond the music

- almost nothing they do is straight - there's always a sick twist like juxtaposing sweet melody with dire lyrics or vice versa.

edit:

- impeccable taste (see raaainbow's post below)


more will likely follow

[sunnyerteit]

Thanks for the feedback bitumen.
The presentation is for my Norwegian class. I am sorry if my writing annoys you, I tend to loose myself in translation sometimes. Also, we can't all agree that Radiohead is A, or B. But in my presentation I am presenting Radiohead as an untraditional band which have achieved commercial success. By untraditional I mean that they're nothing like any other musician/group I've heard, except for perhaps those who find inspiration in Radiohead. Of course; I might be wrong (no pun intended), because I've not heard every song produced. Also, I claim they've achieved commercial success: Mostly because they've sold over 30 million albums, according to WikiAnswers. For instance Lady Gaga has sold about 10 million records - world wide - and I'd say she's achieved commercial success.

Other things that I think contributes to Radioheads commercial success:
-The release of In Rainbows: 100 % free distribution means more listeners, also it increases the profit from whenever someone actually pays for the album digitally, because you cut so many corners with not having to sell it in a physical format. Also, the band gained much attention from the media due to they're as far as I know - the first big group to this.
-Their live versions may differ drastically from their album versions: This make attending to gigs all the more exciting, which again will further their fan-base. For instance "Like spinning plates" is composed backwards on the album, however it's played on the piano live.
-They have a wider understanding of what music is. During my first listening "Fitter happier" and "Like spinning plates" for instance I couldn't bend myself to think this was music. It was so very... Different.
-Their album art and titles on songs/albums have always intrigued me. For instance in my head "Ok Computer" is a warning of the time that will come: A time where we are so dependent on computers that we wont make our computers fit our surroundings, rather we fit our surroundings to our computers. Thus answering the computers request: ok computer.

Again the big question is: Are you able in words to define in words what makes Radiohead so wicked for you? And don't say song X and Y is so awesome. What I am looking for is what make song X and Y stand out so much? Is it the composition? Are the lyrics particular poetic, and why is the lyrics of X more poetic than Y? And so on... !

[irene]

This thread makes me feel uncomfortable now because I can't pick anything unique about Radiohead at this point

[sunnyerteit]

irene, on 12 March 2010 - 10:32 AM, said:

This thread makes me feel uncomfortable now because I can't pick anything unique about Radiohead at this point

What about the fact that Thom Yorke never cries out "baby baby" or "yeah!" during a song. Instead he's muttering unintelligible words in Bodysnatchers, and during Pyramid Song it sounds like he's crying.

Also they seem tho have rather nontraditional percussion. I am listening to "Pyramid Song" at the moment, and the drums seems off-beat, yet it sounds perfect.

Also "In Limbo" sounds like it has six beats instead of four, if you catch my drift. This boggles me.

[danielnichols8]

Am I the only one who noticed he/she said cum-load?

[raaainbow]

apart from such qualities like Thom being an exquisite singer and the overall musical and technical mastery of the band, there is one fundamental value that marks out RH's output:

it is an absolute lack of triviality, an absence of cliche in every single category you can think of (i.e. the lyrics, melodies, songs' structures, artwork, and so on).

the second important thing that comes to my mind is that they're never repetitive. they always surprise and they're unpredictable, preserving at the same time that idiosyncratic and characteristic tone/vibe.


I don't know how do they do this...
I suppose it's a rare mixture of the over-average talent and intelligence, sensitivity, authenticity, humbleness and vigilance (in right proportions).

[bitumen]

well said raaainbow and I completely agree. I was going to enter a similar sentiment as impeccable taste. .. and I will

[danny]

Raaainbow, on 12 March 2010 - 06:57 AM, said:

apart from such qualities like Thom being an exquisite singer and the overall musical and technical mastery of the band, there is one fundamental value that marks out RH's output:

it is an absolute lack of triviality, an absence of cliche in every single category you can think of (i.e. the lyrics, melodies, songs' structures, artwork, and so on).

the second important thing that comes to my mind is that they're never repetitive. they always surprise and they're unpredictable, preserving at the same time that idiosyncratic and characteristic tone/vibe.


I don't know how do they do this...
I suppose it's a rare mixture of the over-average talent and intelligence, sensitivity, authenticity, humbleness and vigilance (in right proportions).

well said. i share the exact same sentiment of the band.

[OkComputer]

I dunno what you mean by untraditional but if that means mainstream then yuh Radiohead are totally mainstream come on yo.

Quote

Also they seem tho have rather nontraditional percussion. I am listening to "Pyramid Song" at the moment, and the drums seems off-beat, yet it sounds perfect.

Also "In Limbo" sounds like it has six beats instead of four, if you catch my drift. This boggles me.

It's not complicated, Let down has a 5/4 guitar and a 4/4 guitar I think. Although I havn't listened to it in ages so maybe it's another song. Loads of Radiohead songs use displacement like this though. But uh, nothing wrong with baby or yeahyeahyeah in a song y'know.