Radiohead rules. Coldplay sucks. (or Why Contemporary Music Listening Tests Are Hard – Part Two)

Radiohead’s first album Pablo Honey (1993) was not groundbreaking stuff – some fuzzy guitars, puzzling lyrics sung with tortured emotion, a heavy reliance on the juxtaposition between soft verses and loud choruses – they easily could have been mistaken for a British version of Nirvana.

The Bends (1995) proved that Radiohead was not a one hit wonder. While Pablo Honey sounded very consistent, The Bends explored new sonic territory with the addition of samples, keyboards, and heavily modulated guitar tones. The songs were also more compositionally complex, exploring chromaticism, mid-song key changes, and alternate time signatures.

OK Computer (1997) went one step further. Building upon the progress of The Bends, Radiohead delivered OK Computer, which was amazing as a collection of songs, but even more impressive when viewed as a whole. The concept album – a concept which hadn’t been popular since Pink Floyd’s heyday [The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), and The Wall (1979)] was back. OK Computer was widely praised by fans and critics alike:

OK Computer is consistently featured on 'best albums' lists, and has been seen by some critics as one of the most significant rock albums ever recorded. It received a number one placing in a 1998 Q magazine poll in which readers were asked to name the "greatest album of all time", and achieved top placement once again in 2005. Critics at Q magazine also named it as the 2nd greatest British album of all-time in June 2000. It was nominated for the 1997 Mercury Music Prize. In 1997 it was placed at number 7 in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM; while in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 94. It's often placed inside the top 10 albums of all time on the Rate Your Music: Top 100 Albums of All Time although this list changes regularly. Rate Your Music users also voted it as the greatest album of all-time in March 2006 .The Mexican version of Rolling Stone Magazine named it as the 4th greatest album of all-time in 2004. The album also came in at number one in Channel 4's 100 Greatest albums programme broadcast on Channel 4 on April 17, 2005 in the United Kingdom. In 2004 it placed number 5 on MuchMoreMusic's 40 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years. In 2003, Pitchfork Media placed it at number one in a list of 100 Best Albums of the 1990s. In June 2005 it was named as Spin Magazine's number one album of the years 1985-2004. And in April 2006 Irish musicians at Hot Press named it the 2nd greatest album of all-time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 162 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album ranks at #14 on The All Time Top 3000 Albums at Acclaimed Music.net (The Most Recommended Albums and Songs of All Time), and only second behind Nirvana's Nevermind for albums released in the 1990s. In December 2006, it was voted #3 in the My Favourite Album survey by Australia's ABC national media organisation, behind Dark Side of the Moon and Jeff Buckley's Grace.

So Radiohead had some big shoes to fill with their next album. But instead of delivering OK Computer, Part Two they completely changed their sound and put out Kid A – an album that eschewed multi-tracked guitars in preference of lush keyboard textures – moving away from alternative rock and towards electronica music.

And this brings up a common characteristic of great composers – they innovate. Great composers are constantly exploring new ground. Instead of playing it safe, they take risks. They may sometimes fail at their attempts, but when they succeed they have the potential to stumble upon unparalleled innovations.

And this can make the work of great composers difficult to identify. The consummate example of an innovative composer has to be Igor Stravinsky: neoclassicism, primitivism, nationalism, serialism, as well as the use of ostinato, musical quotation, and folk material. The scope of these innovations is beyond the scope of this blog (and frankly beyond the scope of my understanding) but they served to solidify Stravinsky as a major part of the musical canon.

Let’s contrast this with Coldplay. Coldplay is a second rate copy of Radiohead at best. (Even their name is similar – two short unrelated words merged into one new compound word.) Coldplay cribbed the sound of “Fake Plastic Trees,” the biggest single from The Bends, and adopted it as their blueprint for their entire repertoire. Coldplay has never produced one innovative musical idea, and it is doubtful that they ever will.


"Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead (1995)
"Yellow" by Coldplay (2000)
"Blue" by The Fruit Guys (2006)