Radioheads OK Computer :: Music Musical Essays

Radioheads OK Computer In the mid-1990s, rock and roll experienced another of its some(prenominal) transitions. During the early 90s, the grunge scene, emanating from Seattle and its surrounding area, enthralled the youth of the time with the music of such acts as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. This surge in high-distortion, high angst rock snapped the musical comedy 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 impend breakup of Soundgarden, and the increasing vapidity of Pearl Jam. At the same time, bubble gum pop made its comeback, thanks to acts corresponding 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 received both critical acclaim and commercialized success, a rare combination in todays music scene. The album caught enough attention in both respects that it was later propose for both best 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 decennium that has an underlying message Radiohead, while never coming out and stating it, does an excellent job a blending subtlety with clarity. By both its lyrical and musical complexity, OK Computer covers a broad emotional range, evoking, as David Cheal puts it, gloom 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 el egant plucking of an acoustic guitar and lead singer Thom Yorkes didactics of bitterness When I am king, you will be first against the wall. After a brief guitar break, the song begins its tremulous diatribe on the loss of personal identity Why dont you remember my name? / Off with his head now, off with his head.