Artist Radiohead

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Radiohead

Few bands have turned on their own success as well as Radiohead, who quickly revolted from the fairly typical alternarock that made its name in the early ’90s. By the end of the decade, the group was well on its way to becoming The Only Band That Matters, with stunning albums like 1997’s OK Computer and 2000’s Kid A sending listeners scrambling to create new superlatives. The rhetoric, of course, was and is overheated—bad-mouthing Radiohead these days is indie heresy—but that doesn’t make the band’s output any less interesting. The unexpected release of In Rainbows in 2007 followed Radiohead’s challenging precedent, with deconstructed songs upstaged by the band’s decision to self-release the album and allow listeners to pay what they wanted for it.

Updated 09/11/2009