This pessimistic view of society appears strikingly at odds with the Cool Britannia phenomenon on which New Labour had partly relied to win the General Election only a few days before the album’s release.Īs a band who has garnered critical and commercial success without forsaking their taste for musical experimentation and subversive, yet poetic, lyrics, Radiohead offer multiple facets to their listeners and to popular music scholars alike. While very different in tone and arrangement, songs like “Electioneering”, “Paranoid Android” and “Fitter Happier” contribute to building a coherent vision of British society whose members are described as apathetic, manipulated and driven by consumerism. Furthermore, a careful look at many of its arcane lyrics highlights Radiohead’s taste for social commentary and outlines the band’s political thought. The album was met with critical acclaim from the New Musical Express, which awarded it a perfect 10/10 rating, and continues to this day to feature in the music press’s lists of the best rock albums of all times.Ī complex, at times experimental, album, OK Computer provides a sharp contrast with the dominating trends in mid-to-late 1990s British rock, especially Britpop. Upon release in May 1997, the album reached the top spot in the UK album charts, and remained ranked in the Top 40 for two years, with sales in excess of three million units. OK Computer, Radiohead’s third album, has captivated many rock music fans worldwide and contributed to enhance the band’s prestigious status within the British rock scene. Symposium, Université Rennes 2 (France), May 18th, 2017.
OK Computer, twenty years on: Radiohead’s musical, cultural, and political legacies
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