Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • - Alright, I swear you guys are gonna love this, okay?

  • It's so good. It's so good.

  • - [Man on Record] : You're doing a great job.

  • - Okay, sorry. A brief history of Radiohead.

  • (groaning)

  • - What!? Shut up.

  • - You already talk about Radiohead like, all the time.

  • - We know everything. Please no more.

  • - Alright, listen.

  • I was very respectful during your presentations.

  • I just ask for the same respect back for mine.

  • Okay?

  • (pencil snapping)

  • May we begin?

  • Thanks.

  • - [Narrator] : In 1985, at a 750 year old boys' school in

  • Oxfordshire, England, a band formed.

  • - Originally calling themselves On A Friday,

  • because that was the day they would usually practice,

  • they would casually play gigs around town

  • until the band members had to leave for college,

  • and the band went on hiatus.

  • - Their new label, E.M.I.,

  • insisted they pick a less terrible name than

  • On A Friday, so they chose a title

  • taken from a Talking Heads song.

  • - It was then, that the greatest band of all time

  • Radiohead, was born.

  • (heavenly music)

  • Clap.

  • Clap for Radiohead.

  • Ah, no!

  • - [Girl] : The title track was an immediate flop

  • because citizens of the '90s were not ready

  • for their brilliance,

  • and the lyrics were kind of a major downer.

  • - Radio hated it.

  • Record buyers weren't buying it,

  • and even the band, quote unquote, thought it was crap.

  • - [Girl] : They quickly moved on to promoting

  • their next two singles.

  • - [Girl] : Thom Yorke consistently complained

  • about the stress of being in the public eye,

  • and was openly disdainful to the mainstream

  • American audiences that made the band famous.

  • - [Boy] : In 1995, the band released a relatively

  • straightforward, sophomore album, The Bends -

  • one of the greatest sophomore efforts ever made.

  • - [Girl] : In 1997, Radiohead released,

  • unarguably, the greatest album of all time,

  • OK Computer, giving prog-rock a turn

  • of the millennium update.

  • - [Boy] : OK Computer came out just as

  • the internet was starting to enter everyday life.

  • - [Girl] : Newly launched fan sites offered devotees

  • forms to pick apart the album's puzzles

  • and share theories about what it all meant.

  • - [Boy] : As a result, they produced the greatest

  • album of all time, Kid A.

  • Signaling a shift to a more electronic based sound,

  • which was even more intelligent

  • and less pop-friendly than OK Computer.

  • - It solidified the band's reputation

  • as the most world's most aesthetically

  • challenging rock-stars.

  • - The greatest album of all time.

  • - By the time the group tackled the

  • messed up state of world politics on the

  • more guitar-heavy greatest thing of all time,

  • Hail to the Thief, the band had abandoned

  • the radical transparency and had embraced

  • an aggressively more cryptic approach.

  • - [Girl] : In 2007, after leaving their label E.M.I,

  • they let fans pay what they wanted for

  • the digital version of In Rainbows,

  • which would become one of their best reviewed albums.

  • Because it's basically the greatest album of all time.

  • - [Boy] : The more dedicated of us scoured the record

  • for hidden clues that connected it back to OK Computer

  • and used fan sites to exchange theories

  • and talk about how if Radiohead were an ice-cream flavor,

  • it would be every flavor mixed together.

  • - [Girl] : 4 years later they pulled

  • the greatest prank of all time

  • by releasing The King of Limbs digitally,

  • a day early before its scheduled release date.

  • - [Boy] : Breaking new creative ground by sampling

  • and looping their own recordings, the album

  • had a more noticeable emphasis on rhythm.

  • - 2016 saw a Radiohead shift into digital obscurity

  • by deleting their entire social media presence.

  • This led to the release of their

  • 9th greatest album of all time, A Moon Shaped Pool.

  • - This album represented a return of form,

  • with songs that dated back to as far as the mid-90's.

  • Just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary

  • of OK Computer with a new expanded reissue,

  • which we'll be selling in the hall after our presentation.

  • - Making increasingly difficult albums that seemed

  • almost intentionally designed to make them US popular,

  • whilst still filling arenas full of fans with

  • the intellect to recognize the music's importance.

  • (sniffing)

  • - And we think they're really, really, really, really,

  • really, really, really, really, really good.

  • The end.

  • (distant clapping)

  • - They're right! Radiohead is the greatest band of all time.

  • - Hello peachy, I'm Thom Yorke from Radiohead

  • and I would love for you to join our band.

  • - Cool, yeah!

  • (gasp and sigh)

  • (funky xylophonic music)

- Alright, I swear you guys are gonna love this, okay?

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it