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It is interesting to see 'OK Computer' jump so much. Did streaming benefit Radiohead more or just that the dystopian theme really goes well the current times.

It is interesting to see 'OK Computer' jump so much. Did streaming benefit Radiohead more or just that the dystopian theme really goes well the current times. Also, amusing to see 'The Piper at the Gate of Dawn' increase in rank while the other Pink Floyd albums have gone down.

mhh__ 6y ago
Although I don't think Radiohead are anywhere near as good as a lot of people say they, OK Computer - thematically at least - was very prescient in capturing the feel of a world rapidly accelerating towards the world we have now.
deeblering4 6y ago
Kid A jumped significantly as well. I think we collectively/culturally embrace electronic and “experimental” (awful term but widely used) music much more now than in the 2000s. Radiohead while popular on the charts were quite ahead of their time.
runawaybottle 6y ago
Liz Phair is #56. There’s a 90s cohort in that voting bunch that is overweighting things. Just goes to show you how the people making judgements can change the landscape and make you feel like you’re the one that’s crazy. Guess never be upset about interview rejections.
raverbashing 6y ago
And The Bends (which is a great "traditional" Radiohead album) went down But maybe it's just the demise of traditional rock music
CydeWeys 6y ago
I think it's the effect of sometimes only realizing in hindsight that something was truly groundbreaking and trend-setting. I still listen to OK Computer and Kid A frequently; they absolutely hold up. The same isn't true of so much other turn-of-the-millennium music that was massively popular at the time. The trend-setting part is the real distinction here. You don't know what ends up being a dead end and what ends up being foundational to entire new genres of music until enough time has passed to see how things turned out. You need to wait enough time to see it all shake out. E.g. the first jazz and rock'n'roll musicians (who were all black) were not remotely appreciated in their time as much as they are now.
- actuator 6y ago
  Yeah, Radiohead has stayed in my playlist from a long time. While they are known for 'Creep' mostly for some reason, the constant experimentation they did with their albums created some really nice records.
  - CydeWeys 6y ago
    Creep is directly the reason that I didn't get into Radiohead until much more recently than when all of their ground-breaking albums were actually coming out. I've never liked that song (it's too whiny for my tastes; maybe it's nascent emo?) and yet it was getting all the airplay on the radio in my teens. So it directly discouraged me from delving deeper into the Radiohead catalog and listening to all those killer songs because that one song didn't gel with me (and of course one song is never a fair representative of an entire artist's oeuvre). Meanwhile, that station, despite very much being a modern rock station that would blast Nirvana and various other 90s rock bands all day long, nevertheless still had real DJs who would occasionally play older "classic" rock songs like those by Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and those songs fucking rocked. So a few good representative songs from them led me down the rabbit hole of listening to those artists' entire catalogs N times over. Funny how Radiohead, which I actually lived through, I wasn't into at the time, but I did immediately appreciate the older classic rock. People like me are exactly the reason that Radiohead is moving up the list over time but classic rock bands aren't; they've already gotten their due for decades now. Now it's Radiohead's turn.
fmoralesc 6y ago
It's funny how these things go. In my circles at the beginning of the 2000s it was somewhat of a mantra that Radiohead's OK Computer or My Bloody Valentine's Loveless were the best albums from the 90s (I would go for the latter). Loveless was somewhat of a rediscovered thing; before that, I imagine that Nirvana's Nevermind was one of the most beloved.

mhh__ 6y ago

Although I don't think Radiohead are anywhere near as good as a lot of people say they, OK Computer - thematically at least - was very prescient in capturing the feel of a world rapidly accelerating towards the world we have now.

deeblering4 6y ago

Kid A jumped significantly as well. I think we collectively/culturally embrace electronic and “experimental” (awful term but widely used) music much more now than in the 2000s. Radiohead while popular on the charts were quite ahead of their time.

runawaybottle 6y ago

Liz Phair is #56. There’s a 90s cohort in that voting bunch that is overweighting things. Just goes to show you how the people making judgements can change the landscape and make you feel like you’re the one that’s crazy. Guess never be upset about interview rejections.

raverbashing 6y ago

And The Bends (which is a great "traditional" Radiohead album) went down But maybe it's just the demise of traditional rock music

CydeWeys 6y ago

I think it's the effect of sometimes only realizing in hindsight that something was truly groundbreaking and trend-setting. I still listen to OK Computer and Kid A frequently; they absolutely hold up. The same isn't true of so much other turn-of-the-millennium music that was massively popular at the time. The trend-setting part is the real distinction here. You don't know what ends up being a dead end and what ends up being foundational to entire new genres of music until enough time has passed to see how things turned out. You need to wait enough time to see it all shake out. E.g. the first jazz and rock'n'roll musicians (who were all black) were not remotely appreciated in their time as much as they are now.

actuator 6y ago
Yeah, Radiohead has stayed in my playlist from a long time. While they are known for 'Creep' mostly for some reason, the constant experimentation they did with their albums created some really nice records.
- CydeWeys 6y ago
  Creep is directly the reason that I didn't get into Radiohead until much more recently than when all of their ground-breaking albums were actually coming out. I've never liked that song (it's too whiny for my tastes; maybe it's nascent emo?) and yet it was getting all the airplay on the radio in my teens. So it directly discouraged me from delving deeper into the Radiohead catalog and listening to all those killer songs because that one song didn't gel with me (and of course one song is never a fair representative of an entire artist's oeuvre). Meanwhile, that station, despite very much being a modern rock station that would blast Nirvana and various other 90s rock bands all day long, nevertheless still had real DJs who would occasionally play older "classic" rock songs like those by Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and those songs fucking rocked. So a few good representative songs from them led me down the rabbit hole of listening to those artists' entire catalogs N times over. Funny how Radiohead, which I actually lived through, I wasn't into at the time, but I did immediately appreciate the older classic rock. People like me are exactly the reason that Radiohead is moving up the list over time but classic rock bands aren't; they've already gotten their due for decades now. Now it's Radiohead's turn.

fmoralesc 6y ago

It's funny how these things go. In my circles at the beginning of the 2000s it was somewhat of a mantra that Radiohead's OK Computer or My Bloody Valentine's Loveless were the best albums from the 90s (I would go for the latter). Loveless was somewhat of a rediscovered thing; before that, I imagine that Nirvana's Nevermind was one of the most beloved.