(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 10 May 2025 14:00, UK
The worst thing that rock and roll can possibly do as a genre is stick to one sound for the rest of its days. Every single genre knows how to roll with the punches and come up with fresh ideas so that the audience doesn’t get bored, and that’s why those that refuse to change either get thrown out or manage to hunker down and perfect their sound until it practically can’t go wrong. Then again, Bono knew that there were ways of being adventurous that could be a bit risky as well.
Because looking at U2’s career, there are a lot of misses and hits scattered throughout every single record. There are pieces that are still revered to this day for being brilliant left turns that no one saw coming, but the majority of their best work has to do with them taking risks no one thought they were capable of, like shedding their skin on Achtung Baby or returning to their roots on All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
However, the reason those sound so great looking back is because we know how bad their choices can be from time to time. A song like ‘Beautiful Day’ is much more appreciated knowing that we had to deal with tunes like ‘Discotheque’ first, and since Rattle and Hum accidentally painted them in the most pretentious light possible, it was important to see them take the piss out of themselves a little bit and realise that it was okay to complain about the phoniness of stardom.
Especially when they reached the 1990s, there was no room for the same massive rock stars who made The Joshua Tree. The world of rock was returning to something much more authentic, but it did seem like the age of excess started to come back with the Britpop movement. But in between the shots of Oasis and Blur happening at the time, Bono was tuned into a band that looked familiar back when rock was leaning towards the depressing sounds of grunge.
While Radiohead were often seen as a one-hit wonder, Thom Yorke was never completely satisfied staying in one place too often. He knew that he needed to transform the usual formula for what a song should be, and on OK Computer, fans not only got an album of music but also a warning about the dangers of technology, taking elements of organic and synthetic instruments to create a cautionary tale of what can happen when people give their life over to machines.
“Radiohead proved how elastic a band could be with melody and guitar. They write extraordinary melodies. OK Computer is full of beautiful pop songs. I just want rock music to expand, and challenge people.”
Bono
And while U2 were about to get on the Pop train, Bono could still see the merit in Radiohead branching out, saying, “Radiohead proved how elastic a band could be with melody and guitar. They write extraordinary melodies. OK Computer is full of beautiful pop songs. I just want rock music to expand, and challenge people. If I know of an innovative way of putting those songs across when you write them, I’m going to do it. That’s really why we are a rock band.”
Judging by where Radiohead went from there, it seemed like rock and roll didn’t suit them after a while, either. Kid A almost completely did away with anything resembling a traditional guitar sound, and while they have continued pushing themselves on every record, any of their traditional rock songs are often stop gaps in between more interesting detours, like making the polyrhythmic tunes like ‘Daydreaming’.
But beyond the great pop songs, Bono knew that the best part about Radiohead was the sense of adventure when listening to them. Anyone can make rock and roll sound exciting by banging out a great guitar riff, but whenever someone picks up a Radiohead record, there’s a certain feeling of discovery knowing that they are going to make something that no one could have ever expected.
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