Radiohead

Radiohead formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards), Ed O'Brien (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Philip Selway (drums) met at Abingdon School. They started as On a Friday — named after the day they rehearsed — and became Radiohead in 1991, taking the name from a Talking Heads song.

EMI signed them on the strength of the Drill EP. Pablo Honey (1993) was a competent but unremarkable debut — except for Creep, which became a worldwide smash after US radio picked it up. The band hated the song almost immediately.

The Bends (1995) was the album that earned respect — Fake Plastic Trees, High and Dry, Street Spirit. Then OK Computer (1997) changed everything.

After OK Computer, Yorke had a breakdown. The result was Kid A (2000) — a record that abandoned rock entirely for electronic textures, Warp Records aesthetics, and Thom Yorke singing through vocoders. Critics were divided.

Fans were confused. It debuted at number one in both the US and UK and is now considered one of the greatest albums ever made. They've never stopped evolving since.

Pablo Honey (February 1993) is the album Radiohead wish didn't exist — except for Creep. That quiet-loud-quiet dynamic, Yorke wailing "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo" — it became the anthem for every outsider in the '90s. The rest of the album is solid alt-rock, but Creep overshadowed everything.

The band stopped playing it live for years.

The Bends (March 1995) is where Radiohead became Radiohead. Fake Plastic Trees — Yorke crying in the studio after recording it in one take — is one of the most emotionally devastating songs in rock. High and Dry is the accessible single.

Just has that legendary music video where the man lies on the pavement. Street Spirit (Fade Out) closes the album with pure existential dread. The guitar work on this album — Jonny Greenwood's tremolo, the layers of feedback — defined a generation.

OK Computer (June 1997) is the album that changed rock music. It predicted the alienation of the digital age before the digital age existed. Paranoid Android is six minutes of shifting time signatures and mood swings.

Karma Police is the singalong that somehow sounds like the end of the world. No Surprises — that glockenspiel, Yorke's resignation — is the prettiest song about wanting to die. Let Down is the hidden masterpiece.

The album is consistently ranked in the top 10 greatest albums of all time.

Kid A (October 2000) was the nuclear option. Everything in Its Right Place opens with warped electric piano and a Yorke vocal processed beyond recognition. The National Anthem has a free-jazz horn section.

Idioteque is built from sampled electronic compositions. How to Disappear Completely is the most beautiful song they've ever written — Yorke singing "I'm not here, this isn't happening" over strings that sound like drowning.

In Rainbows (October 2007) was released as a pay-what-you-want download — years before anyone else tried it. The music matched the ambition: 15 Step opens in 5/4 time, Nude is the most sensual song they've ever recorded, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi builds and builds until it crests like a wave, and Reckoner has the most beautiful melody Yorke has ever written. A Moon Shaped Pool (2016) brought orchestral arrangements and the devastating True Love Waits — a song they'd been playing live since 1995, finally recorded as a piano ballad about the end of Yorke's relationship.

Radiohead proved that commercial success and artistic integrity aren't mutually exclusive. OK Computer went platinum while sounding like nothing else on radio. Kid A debuted at number one while being actively hostile to pop music conventions.

In Rainbows changed the music industry's distribution model. Every album was a risk, and every risk paid off.

The influence is everywhere. Coldplay's early work is essentially The Bends with the existential dread removed. Muse built an entire career on OK Computer's paranoid grandeur.

The electronic experimentalism of Kid A paved the way for every rock band that incorporated synths and samples in the 2000s. Even hip-hop felt it — Kanye West has cited Kid A as a major influence.

But the real legacy is the permission they gave. After Radiohead, a rock band could release an electronic album, a folk album, an orchestral album — and the audience would follow. They proved that reinvention is not just acceptable but expected.

Thom Yorke once said he never wanted Radiohead to be a nostalgia act. Mission accomplished.