Happy Birthday, Thom Yorke: How Radiohead's frontman's experiments challenged music as we know it today
It is Thom Yorke's birthday today (October 7) and what better way to honor the legendary singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist by sharing the impact he's had on music so far.
Most commonly known as the lead vocalist for the art/experimental rock band Radiohead, Yorke lived with his family in Scotland before settling in Oxfordshire, England, where he formed the band along with his schoolmates. After he graduated from the University of Exeter, Radiohead signed to Parlophone, where Yorke would step into the musical arena as a formidable songwriter.
Bursting into the scene with their early smash hit 'Creep' off their debut studio album 'Pablo Honey', Radiohead's music began to capture the attention of a shrugged-off audience. Initially, 'Creep' wasn't a chart success, but it became a worldwide hit after being re-released in 1993. Hearing the song for the first time with lyrics like, "But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here," the listener couldn't help but be captivated by such bold negativity. Guy Capuzzo said the ostinato musically portrays, "The song's obsessive lyrics, which depict the 'self-lacerating rage of an unsuccessful crush'."
The wicked sounds of distortion guitars, alternating arpeggiated chords in the verses, loud power chords in the chorus, coupled with the painful lyrics were threatening, hard-hitting, and enthralling at the same time. The experience was sublime.
Here you had a group of outsider musicians passionately belting out their pains and not only were Radiohead a magnet for misfits everywhere, but your stereotypical jocks or preppies were entranced as well (even if they didn't want to admit it at the time). The success of 'Creep' was probably also a turning point for the band as Radiohead members eventually grew weary of the song, feeling it set narrow expectations of their music and did not perform it for several years.
When you hear "experimental rock," the word "experimental" automatically suggests an unknown, yet for Yorke's hardcore fans, describing the artist's music so may fall off the mark. In the years that followed, the band would see ongoing success with critically acclaimed albums such as 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer' and Radiohead became a true tale of the underdog, or rather, for the underdog.
The Electric Robe
Cue in 'Kid A', an album that deserves its own thesis. The electronically-charged LP began to divide listeners, but it was hailed as the best album of the decade by several publications. For some fans, it was the band's best, yet for others, it did injustice to the rock sounds tethered to the band's name. This is also when fans began to notice the true genius of Yorke.
'Kid A' took on a dramatic change in style, incorporating influences from electronic music, jazz, 20th-century classical music and krautrock. The LP uses instruments such as modular synthesizers, ondes Martenot, brass and strings. Guitar sounds were now processed, samples and loops were incorporated, recordings were manipulated with software, and lyrics were chopped up into bizarre phrases and assembled to the point where you thought it was all random. With 'Kid A', Radiohead's music was forever changed and its impact was felt. A good example of this can be found in songs like 'Idioteque' and 'Everything In Its Right Place'.
The topic of 'Kid A' may have presented many arguments among fans but it also weirdly brought them together and that is thanks to the abstract mind of Yorke. The band's music began to go in several directions. You could hear glimpses of rock but peculiar eccentricities pierced through. Yet, one message still remained: the concept of music itself was being challenged. 'Kid A' and the following electronic-centered music felt like all of Yorke's cerebral activity was firing out onto the instruments and portrayed by the digital sounds. One can argue that you could call his music "experimental" electronic music, but as Yorke's confidence came to the fore, it was no experiment but the unrelenting display of musical rule-breaking. Just like you watch a film a second time to catch interesting content you may have missed, 'Kid A' required many a repeat to unravel more of the mysteries. And that sense of genius is what makes Yorke and Radiohead's music so addictive.
With albums like 'Kid A', you had listeners trying to dissect the music, misfits inspired, as the singer's pains and abstract creativity was something new to relate to and Yorke's musical confidence was a subtle kick-in-the-gut that couldn't be ignored by mainstream media.
Radiohead would then go on to achieve widespread critical acclaim and sales of over 30 million albums.
Influences
Dozens of artists/bands have been influenced by Yorke and Radiohead. Their early rock-heavy incarnation during the '90s had inspired Muse, Keane, James Blunt, Coldplay, Travis and Elbow and their later electronic music had fathered numerous followers such as Foals, Alt-J and Django Django.
Their experimental approach has been credited with expanding alternative rock. Talking Heads singer David Byrne spoke at Radiohead's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and praised their musical and release innovations, which he said had influenced the entire music industry. 'Kid A' is credited for pioneering the use of the internet to stream and promote music.
The pay-what-you-want release for their 2007 LP 'In Rainbows' is credited as a major step for music distribution. Forbes wrote that it "helped forge the template for unconventional album releases in the internet age", ahead of artists such as Beyoncé and Drake.