Radioheads OK Computer :: Music Musical Essays

Radioheads OK Computer In the mid-1990s, endocarp and roll experienced another of its numerous transitions. During the early 90s, the grunge scene, emanating from Seattle and its surrounding area, enthralled the youth of the time with the euphony of such acts as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. This surge in high-distortion, high angst joust snapped the genre out of the doldrums of glam-metal, which, for a long time, dominated the rock music racks of record stores across America. By 1997, grunge was dead, its end spurred by the death of Kurt Cobaine, the impending breakup of Soundgarden, and the increasing vapidity of Pearl Jam. At the same time, bubble gum sal soda made its comeback, thanks to acts analogous Hanson and the Spice Girls (even today, irritatingly saccharine acts like the Backstreet Boys and their seemingly infinite clones dominate pop charts). Fortunately, in the summer of 1997, the British rock band Radiohead released OK Computer, which authentic both critical acclaim and commercial success, a rare faction in todays music scene. The album caught enough direction in both respects that it was later nominated for both silk hat alternative album and album of the year, and received the former award (Hilburn C-6). OK Computer is important because it is one of the few albums released in this decade that has an underlying message Radiohead, while never coming out and stating it, does an excellent line of descent a blending subtlety with clarity. By both its lyrical and musical theater complexity, OK Computer covers a broad emotional range, evoking, as David Cheal puts it, lugubriousness and alienation but you also get warmth and yearning (15). Dimitri Ehrlich adds that, as a whole, the album is unglossy, unhandsome, and every bit as complex as modern life (56). Paranoid Android expresses this complexity at a level in which frustration and alienation come hand in hand. The song, clocking at nearly seven minutes, begins with the elegant plucking of an acoustic guitar and operate singer Thom Yorkes statement of bitterness When I am king, you get out be first against the wall. After a brief guitar break, the song begins its quavering diatribe on the loss of identity Why dont you remember my name? / Off with his head now, off with his head.