Radiohead's Kid A Read Online Free PDF Page A

cares about the political tumult at the time of its release?
The music tells me everything I need to know
.
    This myth, however, was difficult to perpetuate with
Kid A
. The album has the distinction of being Radiohead’s most emotionally, intellectually, and musically challenging work, so it’s no surprise that this tender, fall-off-the-bone slab of meat had everyone sinking in their incisors. What
was
surprising is how the entire project — its release, its artwork, even the band’s website — begged for further scrutiny, amassing the kind of marketing hype that a cynic might imagine to have been concocted in stuffy boardroom meetings. And the more we discussed
Kid A
, the more we found ourselves knee-deep in its mythologies, its cultural contexts, its politics. In fact, these dimensions often served to trump the music itself, making the platitude “music is just music” seem like nothing but a superficial exit strategy.
    But if
Kid A
is not “just music,” it must be
something
, right?
    * * *
    Nowadays, listeners are so culturally deft that the notion of “rock” has expanded to the point of non-meaning. In 2000, however, the idea of “saving rock” was as ubiquitous as the ILOVEYOU computer worm. “If there’s one band that promises to return rock to us, it’s Radiohead,” published
Melody Maker
just months before
Kid A
’s release. These stories functioned as the media’s way of decrying the declining hegemony of rock without pointing fingers or lambasting its successors (that year, ’N Sync and Britney Spears, combined, sold more than 20 million albums in the US alone). It was their way of placing the burden on bands like Radiohead rather than shouldering the responsibility of their own rockist fairy tale: to them — and, by extension, to many purists — rock had gone astray, had veered too far, had become “inauthentic.” ROCK MUST BE PURIFIED.
    You could probably predict where Radiohead’s allegiances were. “I never wanted to be in a fucking rock group,” said Thom in a
Spin
interview. “The Pixies were not a fucking rock group. Neither are R.E.M. Sonic Youth are not a rock group and neither were Nirvana. We use/have used electric guitars therefore we are a rock group?!” And if that interview didn’t quite capture his utter disdain for “rock music,” then his interview on Dutch TV did:
    Fucking rock music sucks, man. I hate it! I’m just so fucking bored of it. I hate it. It’s a fucking waste of time. It’s not really the music; it’s not sitting on a stage playing guitar, drums, and singing. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is all the mythology that goes with it. I have a real fucking problem with that. I have a real problem with the idea you have to tour yourself stupid, do certain things and talk to certain people.
    Though, if
Kid A
wasn’t the “authentic” rock album the press had hoped for, then what was it? A surprisingly large reserve of culture vultures pegged
Kid A
as Radiohead’s “electronica” album, throwing around the acronym IDM (intelligent dance music) as freely as they salted their potatoes.
All Music Guide
, for one, described
Kid A
as “the most successful electronica album from a rock band.” Which wasn’t entirely unfounded: one of the first things Thom did after the
OK Computer
tour was purchase the entire back catalogue of Warp Records, a Sheffield-based electronic label featuring artists like Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada, and soon after Thom collaborated with electronic-based artists Björk (“I’ve Seen It All”) and UNKLE (“Rabbit in Your Headlights”). And not only has Radiohead’s music been remixed by a plethora of electronic producers (at one point, Massive Attack was scheduled to remix the entirety of
OK Computer
), but the band members themselves were no strangers to employing loops and samples on Radiohead tracks like“Airbag,” “Planet Telex,” “Meeting in the Aisle,” and “India