Radiohead

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Radiohead was founded in 1985 by pupils at Abingdon School, a school south of Oxford. The band consists of the singer Thom Yorke, guitarist and keyboard player Jonny Greenwood, his brother Colin Greenwood on bass, guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Philip Selway. At first the group was called On a Friday; the new name comes from a song by Talking Heads. Radiohead is important because after a guitar hit the band kept choosing a different direction, and took a large audience along with it.

Music and breakthrough

The first single, Creep (1992), and the album Pablo Honey (1993) made the band known as a guitar band. After The Bends (1995) came OK Computer (1997), recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich, who has worked on every album since. Paranoid Android from that album is a suite of over six minutes in four parts, with changes of time signature. OK Computer won the Grammy for best alternative album. On Kid A (2000) the band largely abandoned the familiar rock line-up. You can hear influences of electronic music, jazz, classical music and krautrock, and an ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument.

Influence

In October 2007 Radiohead released In Rainbows itself as a download. Buyers decided for themselves what they paid, even nothing. That experiment belongs to the story of the music industry after the CD. In 2019 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The motorik beat of Neu!, which SoR describes in connection with krautrock, is one of the lines that lead to Radiohead.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1993Pablo Honey
• 1994The Bends
• 1997OK Computer
• 2000Kid A
• 2001Amnesiac
• 2003Hail to the Thief
• 2007In Rainbows
• 2011The King of Limbs
• 2016A Moon Shaped Pool

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still Pop^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 5^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 8^NL Reader
• After Hours: Session 4^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Krautrock GenreTheir motorik beat later returned in post-punk, in electronic music and with Radiohead.
• The new piano trio GenreBrad Mehldau played songs by Radiohead and Nick Drake.
• Ambient, drone and new modernism GenreJonny Greenwood, guitarist of Radiohead, wrote string music with quarter tones and clusters for There Will Be Blood (2007).
• OK Computer AlbumRadiohead recorded the album in 1996 and early 1997, in a converted barn near Didcot in Oxfordshire and at the country house St Catherine's Court near Bath.
• Kid A AlbumAfter the success of OK Computer, Radiohead were exhausted.
• In Rainbows AlbumAfter the end of the EMI contract in 2003, Radiohead no longer had anything to deliver.

See also

• Amnesiac
• Hail to the Thief
• The King of Limbs
• A Moon Shaped Pool
• The new piano trio
• Ambient, drone and new modernism

Sources

1. Wikipedia (en): Radiohead
2. Wikipedia (en): Colin Greenwood
3. Wikipedia (en): Jonny Greenwood
4. Wikipedia (en): Paranoid Android