Music: High and Dry - Radiohead

I've been combing through the contents of my old computer's hard drive which are now stored on DVD. This is a paper I wrote for my Music 308: History of Rock and Roll class. I was proud of it and got a perfect grade. Enjoy:
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Radiohead: Rising to Expectations

Any rising rock and roll band has had to deal with obstacles on its way to the top. Internal squabbles, drug and alcohol abuse, and corrupt management are among a long list of factors which could turn a potential legend into yesterday’s news. For Radiohead, an innovative five piece band from Oxford, England, perhaps one of the biggest obstacles on their path towards musical recognition and a spot in rock and roll history has been expectation. After all, the band which today is often used as a benchmark against which new and innovative rock bands are compared, was once expected to be nothing more than a ‘one hit wonder’. While such a paper is not appropriate for taking on the exhaustive task of describing Radiohead’s entire career (a book would be far more appropriate and many, in fact, have been written on the subject), tracing the expectations surrounding their five major albums serves to illustrate the challenges that expectation can present for a band.

After gaining acclaim in their native Oxford under the name ‘On a Friday’ (which refers to the day they would practice), the band signed with major label Capitol, adopted the new moniker, and released their first major album titled ‘Pablo Honey’ in 1993. The album’s biggest single ‘Creep’ was an anthem for disillusionment and alienation and included lyrics such as “What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here” (Pablo Honey, track 2). Despite its rather depressing subject matter, the song garnered Radiohead huge success becoming an international hit, “it shot up the Modern Rock charts to number two” (Hale 53), and spurring a world tour to promote the album. While Radiohead’s stock seemed to be on the rise, critics were already forecasting their demise, using the ever-feared label ‘one-hit-wonder’. Although it had been their breakout song in the United States, the members of the band began to detest ‘Creep’. Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood describes an ominous trend which had been occurring at concerts on the Creep tour, “we used to get people that would come and just leave after ‘Creep’” (Hale 58). The creative desire to come up with new material and develop musically was being quashed by record company pressures to cash in on ‘Creep’s’ success in order to boost record sales. The pressure to live up to past success and also to distance themselves from ‘Creep’ surely weighed heavily on the band as they returned to the studio to record the follow up to ‘Pablo Honey’.

In 1995 Radiohead released their highly anticipated second album ‘The Bends’. A line from the album’s title track seems to articulate what they must have been feeling while writing the album, “Where do we go from here? The words are coming out all weird” (The Bends, track 2). The response of critics was overwhelming and perhaps exactly what Radiohead wanted to hear, “Radiohead have moved on, and offer 12 examples of why they’re one of the UK’s big league, big rock assets” (Hale 75). In their true, modest fashion the band took the glowing acclaim with a sense of humor, never letting it go to their heads; “It’s four stars in quote marks. Does that mean they just swore at it?”(Hale 75) was the response of bassist Colin Greenwood. With a heavily guitar laden, hit filled album that earned them the nickname ‘Punk Floyd’, Radiohead had silenced their derisive critics and soared past even their own expectations. Although it did not have one big single which carried the album, a number of hits including ‘Just’, ‘High and Dry’, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘Street Spirit’ helped records sales for ‘The Bends’ to surpass Pablo Honey in every single country except the US (Hale 169). In another of the album’s tracks ‘My Iron Lung’, vocalist, and lead songwriter, Thom Yorke scathingly addresses the ‘Creep’ phenomenon and the aforementioned fans who would often leave concerts once they had heard it, “This is our new song, Just like the last one, a total waste of time” (The Bends, track 8). For now, Radiohead had gained critical success and moved beyond the status of one hit wonder which so many thought they would retain. Even more so than ‘The Bends’, the release of their next album was fervently awaited by both fans and critics alike.

After delivering ‘The Bends’, which many critics grouped among their top ten albums of 1995, the expectation for Radiohead to produce a worthy successor was enormous. Still using guitars, the band did tend to lean to the experimental side while recording. After all, their huge success had the advantage of allowing the band buy “over $140,000 worth of gear” (Hale 95) which they would employ on the new album. Feeling a strong need to be free of creative constraints, the band produced the album themselves, although the presence of talented studio engineer Nigel Godrich was crucial. The result was 1997’s ‘OK Computer’ which, in general terms, dealt with the alienation of modern living and technology. The band however, was not brimming with confidence at the end of the creative process. Thom Yorke is quoted as saying, “At the 11th hour, when we realized what we had done, we had qualms about the fact that we had created this thing that was quite revolting” (Borow 120). Tracks such as the seven minute plus ‘Paranoid Android’ which includes the line “kicking, screaming, Gucci little piggy” (OK Computer, track 2) did not seem destined to be radio darlings. Any fears that the band had about the album surely vanished the minute the critics responded, “there will not be a better album released in 1997 than Radiohead's OK Computer” (Greenplastic.com). Critical response however, can be seen as only half the battle. The other challenge was meeting the expectation of fans. Good reviews from critics do not necessarily translate into impressive record sales, “critically acclaimed albums are often consigned to obscurity” (Hale 108). Radiohead were lucky as it was not only critics, but also fans that recognized ‘OK Computer’ as something truly brilliant and special. The album debuted at number one in the UK, 21 on the Billboard charts, and went platinum in the US after a year (Hale 170). Fans, it seemed, had been more than willing to go along for the ride as Radiohead ventured further from the mainstream modern rock format which had given them the success of ‘Creep’. The question then seemed to be, ‘how far would they venture and how far would fans be willing to follow?’

Given the success of ‘OK Computer’, there were widespread expectations for Radiohead to follow it up with an album built on the same premise. Once you reach the top there’s only one direction to go: down. Such a thought must have plagued members of the band as they felt the pressure from fans to come out with what might be described as a sort of ‘OK Computer 2’. Worn out from overwhelming touring and promotion schedules for ‘OK Computer’, the band retreated from public view for a while. The result would be their longest break between album releases which only served to heighten the anticipation for ‘OK Computer’s successor. In 2000, three years after the release of ‘OK Computer’, Radiohead unleashed ‘Kid A’ onto an eager public. With this album, Radiohead might have chosen a more traditional route to attempt to reproduce the warm reaction received by ‘OK Computer’. What they did however, was anything but traditional and defied expectations, “Radiohead chose to test the creative and commercial license that came with the prize” (Fricke 44). The album strayed further from the guitar based rock of ‘The Bends’ and more towards electronic gadgetry and synthesizers. Even the promotion of the album was anything but what was expected. Given their past success, Radiohead could have been seen to be at the peak of their commercial viability, yet they chose to release no singles or videos for the album. Instead, fans could download innovative animations that accompanied sounds from the album and were called Blips. Even touring was limited and done so at the leisure of the band and not the urging of the record company. Where many had expected Radiohead to stick to what had worked in the past, they instead took an entirely new route. Nigel Godrich, who stepped into the role of producer for ‘Kid A’, described the situation, “Thom really wanted to try and do everything different, and that was … bloody difficult” (Borow 112). Guitarist Ed O’Brien also lent insight into the creative process behind ‘Kid A’, “he [Thom] did know what he didn’t want it to be, which was anything that smacked of the old route” (Borow 112). Such techniques on the part of the band led to the caption on their Rolling Stone cover reading “In Order to Save Themselves Radiohead Had to Destroy Rock & Roll”. Returning to the earlier question, “how far would fans be willing to follow?”. Apparently they were more than willing to go this far as ‘Kid A’ debuted at number one in the US.

Created from the same recording sessions as ‘Kid A’, a follow up album, ‘Amnesiac’, was released only months later in June of 2001. While its opening week sales were even higher than those of ‘Kid A’, stiff competition prevented it from debuting higher than the number two spot. Representing the most recent chapter in the Radiohead story, ‘Amnesiac’ has left fans satisfied and again put the band in a position from which their next move will be eagerly awaited. As far as what fans or critics might expect in the future, the message seems clear (and pardon the cliché): expect the unexpected.

Expectation can be a force that either destroys or enriches the creative process. Tracing back Radiohead’s career through five major albums, expectation, both positive and negative, has been heaped on the band from the very start. At times they have achieved success through living up to, or exceeding expectations, while at other times it has been their refusal to give into expectations that has won them not only critical respect, but also fan support. Radiohead can certainly be said to be a band that has learned to deal with the high expectations set on them, not just by fans and critics, but also by themselves.

Works Cited

1. Borow, Zev. “The Difference Engine” Spin. November 2000: 110-120.

2. Fricke, David. “Radiohead: Making Music That Matters.” Rolling Stone. August 2, 2001: 42- 48 + 73.

3. Hale, Jonathan. Radiohead: From a Great Height. Toronto: ECW Press, 1999.

4. Watch. “OK Computer? Try Incredibly Powerful Computer!” Greenplastic Radiohead. 1997. (25 February 2002).

Discography

Pablo Honey (1993), Produced by Paul Q. Kolderie, Chris Hufford, Sean Slade.

The Bends (1995), Produced by John Leckie, Radiohead, Jim Warren, Nigel Godrich.

OK Computer (1997), Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.

Kid A (2000), Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.

Amnesiac (2001), Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.

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Some Radiohead Links:

Official Radiohead Site

Waste.com (for merchandise)

GreenPlastic.com (an excellent tribute site)