Few bands of this generation have changed music the way Radiohead have. Since Creep hit the charts back in 1992, the Oxford five-piece have worked their way through just about every style out there and have eclipsed the achievements of their contemporaries, both artistically and commercially.

While Radiohead’s six studio albums have sold millions of copies, Creep remains their only mainstream hit. Under pressure from their label to include a single of similar appeal on album number two, the band almost fell apart. Eventually, they emerged with The Bends in 1995, an album that put an experimental spin on the guitar-based pop-rock that dominated British music at the time. As fans and critics took their time warming to The Bends, a 1995 tour with REM raised Radiohead’s profile on the world stage, while captivating videos for Just, Street Spirit and High and Dry started to win the band new fans in the USA.

When the band returned in 1997 with OK Computer, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway were without doubt the best band in the world. Still regarded as the best album of the 1990s by most critics, OK Computer was a unique musical interpretation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. From opener Airbag right through to closing track The Tourist, Radiohead’s third album was a stunning critique of modernism and drew worthy comparisons to Orwell’s literary masterpiece.

After an extended break, the band returned in 2000 with an album just as important as OK Computer. Rather than rehashing the same ideas, Radiohead deconstructed their usual band dynamic and built a new sound around electronic and jazz influences on album number four, Kid A. With the guitars seemingly picking up the dust in a cupboard somewhere, Amnesiac followed the next year, reiterating Radiohead’s newfound role at the centre of avant-garde and experimental music. While singles Pyramid Song and Knives Out helped Amenesiac shift units, it was the band’s reinterpretation of their experimental works in a live setting that stood out the most. A combination of the band’s live dynamic and their innovative ethic was captured on 2003 album Hail to the Thief, which translated the sounds of Kid A and Amnesiac into a more conventional band setup.

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