Today I listened, I mean, really listened to Radiohead’s OK Computer for the first time. Fine. Shut up. I’ve been busy. And snobby. And I even followed it up with Kid A and Liked that, if you can believe it. Maybe I’ve mellowed or perhaps it was that oatmeal with Vitamin MDMA I had for breakfast.
Anywhoo, it got me thinking.
In 1967 The Beatles released one of the most important and ifluential albums of all time. You know it. You love it. This was the 40th anniversary of it. Yes, I speak of Sgt. Pepper.
Ten years later, in the fall of 1977, The Sex Pistols unleashed Never Mind the Bollocks and a paradigm shift from “classic rock” (read:corporate) to stripped down three chord aggro rock changed how we thought about music and fashion.
Ten years after that, after New Wave and Disco and synth pop and new romanticism, U2 put out the era defining album The Joshua Tree. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years. And I can’t believe they are still making records. The Joshua Tree is still listenable today, as are most classic albums but it is definitely OF IT’S TIME.
Then, in 1997, Radiohead’s OK Computer came out. I can imagine this being the theme song to just about every rave. With its devotion to ProTools and Cubase and it’s slavish adoration of all things PRODUCED, the album seems to have held up really well. And, for me, it really helps to (here’s that word again) define the time. Artists seemed to be less interested in following the dictatorial pattern of record labels and due to this and the explosion of the single song download, the reemergence of the one hit wonders appeared. Or, rather, artists that, in a different time, one absent of publicists, trl and 40000 music rags calling themselves magazines, would have only had one hit and been gone. Can you hear me, Sisco?
So, I ask you this:
What is the era defining album this year? Has the pattern been broken? Did I miss something? I am so hard pressed to believe that Justin Timberlake’s Futurecrap/LoveDisco will be looked at 10 years from now as the seminal album of the decade. So, what is it?
Someone? Anyone?
And, if you are a blogger who reads this, could you ask your readers the same question? I’m dying to know.
OK Computer is a really good album, but I never quite understood why it was considered so much better than the string of Britpop albums by Blur, Oasis, and Pulp from about two or three years earlier: Modern Life Is Rubbish, Definitely Maybe, His n’ Hers, Parklife, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, Different Class, The Great Escape, etc. Radiohead always seemed more distant and cold, like Thom Yorke was deliberately holding something back because he was afraid he wouldn’t look cool or something. The other Britpop artists really seemed to be sharing more of themselves in their material, and as a result, I feel closer to their music. Also, OK Computer is less overtly “British,” so maybe it was much easier for American listeners to get into, I suppose.
I have been racking my brain for the past twenty minutes trying to pick out an album and I don’t know if we have a defining one for this decade yet – or maybe we do and I can’t think of it.
I am very happy to hear that you discovered Radiohead though who I consider possibly one of my favourite bands amongst company such as the Beatles and Nic Cave and the Badseeds.
It isn’t that it’s soooo good. Just after all the dust has settled, OK is the album that has come to be thought of as THE album of the 90’s. The one for the time capsule I mean.
But, there is none for this decade……
Keep thinking…..