Radiohead’s OK Computer
By: Christa Purdy
About Radiohead
• Alternative rock group
• Formed in 1985
The Band
• Consisted of five members:
▫ Thom Yorke
▫ Jonny Greenwood
▫ Colin Greenwood
▫ Ed O’Brien
▫ Phil Selway
The Band
• All of the members but Jonny Greenwood
graduated from an all boys school together.
• Originally they called themselves “On a Friday”.
The Album
• OK Computer
• Third album the band released
• Released in 1997
OK Computer
• Alternative rock sound
• It was unlike any of the other British alternative
rock bands at the time.
• Paved the way for their other albums.
OK Computer
• Reached number-one on the UK Albums Chart
• Debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200.
• Triple platinum in the UK and Canada, double
platinum in the US and platinum in Australia.
OK Computer
• “The only concept that we had for this album
was that we wanted to record it away from the
city and that we wanted to record it ourselves”
-Collin Greenwood
The Band Takes a Break
• "The Bends was an introspective album... There was an
awful lot of soul searching. To do that again on another
album would be excruciatingly boring". –Phil Selway
• "The big thing for me is that we could really fall back on
just doing another miserable, morbid and negative
record lyrically, but I don't really want to, at all”.
–Thom Yorke
OK Computer
• The band started recording the album in 1996 in
“Canned Applause Studios” in Oxfordshire.
• It was the first time the band would record in a
non-conventional studio setting.
OK Computer
• They decided to make the lyrics more personal
in this album.
• “On this album the outside world became all
there was... I'm just taking polaroids of things
around me moving too fast…” –Thom Yorke
OK Computer
• The band used different instrumentation on this
album.
• All of the vocals were done with one take.
“Airbag” by Radiohead
• First track on OK Computer.
• Inspired by DJ Shadow
• Features an electronic drumbeat.
“Airbags”
• The bassline stops and starts in random places
throughout the song.
• "I thought I'd probably think of something to put
in the gaps later, but I never got around to it".
-Colin Greenwood
“Airbags”
• Inspired by an article titled “An Airbag Saved My
Life” and The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
• “Every time you go out on the road you could
die”
“Airbags”
Work Cited
• "Airbag by Radiohead Songfacts." Song
Meanings at Songfacts. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.
• Hale, Jonathan. Radiohead: from a Great
Height. Toronto: ECW, 1999. Print.
• "OK Computer - Radiohead." AllMusic. Web. 28
Mar. 2011.
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