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Radiohead is an English band from Oxfordshire, UK who are often praised as being amongst the most creative musical groups of their era and noted for their multilayered songs and often radical evolutions from album to album. They are seen by many to have maintained a spirit of musical and political independence throughout their career, even when they were signed to the major label EMI.
Formed by school friends in 1986, Radiohead did not release their first single until 1992’s “Drill EP”. The cathartic Creep, from their debut album Pablo Honey (1993), became a worldwide hit as grunge music dominated radio airwaves. Radiohead was initially branded as a one-hit wonder abroad, but caught on at home in the UK with their second album, The Bends (1995), earning fans with their dense guitar atmospheres and front man Thom Yorke’s expressive singing. The album featured the hits “High & Dry”, “Just” and “Fake Plastic Trees”. The band’s third album, OK Computer (1997), propelled them to greater attention. Popular both for its expansive sound and themes of modern alienation, it has been acclaimed by critics as a landmark record of the 1990s, some critics go as far to consider it one of the best of all time. The album featured the popular singles “Paranoid Android”, “Karma Police” and “No Surprises”.
Radiohead’s original influences were alternative rock and post-punk bands like The Smiths, Pixies, R.E.M. (Thom Yorke, singer of the band, refers to himself as an R.E.M. groupie), Magazine and Joy Division. With their albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), the band reached their peak global popularity even as their music became less conventional, turning toward influences in electronic music, experimental jazz and avant garde classical, ranging from Autechre and Can to Charles Mingus and Olivier Messiaen. Although the band’s recent albums have polarised listeners and failed to spin off major radio hits, Radiohead continue to be seen as figureheads in the music industry, drawing adoring crowds to their live concerts, influencing artists in many genres and enjoying surprising commercial success for a band of “outsiders”, later releases being 2003’s Hail to the Thief and 2007’s In Rainbows.
