Radiohead Mini-essay (long version)

radiohead_essay.txt

This might seem silly, but one of my favorite activities is analyzing my
musical taste and my favorite bands.

Radiohead is one of my absolute favorite bands, and I've been listening to them
since I was a Freshman in high school. Radiohead has an interesting record as a
rock band. They started out as a lite-grunge outfit, developed a more mature
style and released an album at their height that combined the noises of
Kraftwerk with their alternative rock roots. Then, as they were being hailed as
the saviors of rock, they shocked the world by releasing two electronica
albums. They returned to a guitar-based sound for their next two albums, and
their latest album was another electronica effort.

Two weeks ago, I was listening to their first electronica album, Kid
A. Immersing myself in the music, I suddenly realized that there was something
that linked together all of the seemingly-disjoint tracks on the album. Every
song incorporated different electronic sounds in layers, and those layers were
used to build and release tension throughout the songs. The most obvious use of
the technique is on the song "How to Disappear Completely". Layers of music are
introduced one at a time until the voice starts, and as the song progresses the
layers are cut back and then built up again.

As I thought about their use of musical layers, I realized that all of
Radiohead's music fit into that framework, where all the "twists" were simply a
new set of noises for the band to layer together and create their pop music. On
the band's first three albums they created these noises with distorted guitars
and electronic instruments; on their electronica albums they used electronic
instruments; on their next two albums they mixed electronic sounds in their
songs with distorted guitars, but they began to experiment more with voice as
sound; and on their latest album they dived into electronica waters again, but
this time they relied on the use of voice as music much more heavily. On a more
speculative note, Radiohead's layered music might be a part of their appeal,
because I've read that our brains search for patterns in music and we like
songs that are "pleasantly surprising".[1] Our brains could be uncovering new
sounds, melodies, and harmonies on repeated listens to Radiohead songs, and
that could explain their lasting value and large influence.

Being a fan of Radiohead is exciting partially because I can learn new things
about their music six years after first listening to them.

Source: [1] - http://news.sciencemag.org/2013/04/why-your-brain-loves-new-song