When one talks about "the most influential band of all time," the conversation usually begins and ends with the Beatles. Honestly, it's not even close, and from a strictly musical standpoint, it may never be. I couldn't even tell you how many bands and musicians I've interviewed who list the Fab Four as a primary influence, and circumstantially, I'm not so sure it could ever happen again.
But now, after years of being "our generation's Beatles," the band that could so skillfully balance critical adulation with popular success, Radiohead is making its coup.
In some ways, the Beatles are still a ways off. Radiohead has its own sound, undeniably, but aside from the fact the Beatles themselves helped mold them, Radiohead still hasn't reached nearly the same level of commercial success. Moreover, the lasting impact of Radiohead remains to be seen. Today, there are only a handful of bands who would list Radiohead as a primary influence. Will the bands of tomorrow say their music was inspired by Radiohead, or by Nirvana or Weezer, by U2 (God forbid), or maybe even still by the Beatles?
Innovative music, lyrics and production throughout Radiohead's catalogue close the gap a little bit more, but what the band has done with In Rainbows is wholly unprecedented and may change, by way of merging, the economic and artistic landscapes of contemporary music.
The Internet has grossly changed the marketplace in recent years, and music has been affected as much as anything. For years, though, instead of adjusting, record companies and the RIAA have simply complained and sued everyone they could. Maybe they're hoping that this whole "Internet" thing will be a passing fad.
Yet, amid all the subpoenas and cease-and-desists, people still download music. They aren't going to stop doing it. The current business model has been dead in the water since Napster, and it was only a matter of time before someone came along and tried to change things. Radiohead certainly isn't the first band to offer some sort of innovation, but no one else has done anything this subversive, and they certainly haven't done it on nearly the same level.
And it looks like other bands are already following suit. According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper, Oasis and Jamiroquai plan on offering free material over the Internet, and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, no stranger to pissing off record labels, has made some cryptic statements implying he'll do something similar in the near future. It took no time at all for Radiohead's influence to be felt, even though it'll be a while until anyone catches up with Radiohead musically.
That being said, all these bands are already working with a pretty big fan base, a lot of capital, and therefore, a pretty big safety net. It remains to be seen how this will impact bands much lower on the totem pole.
Adam Clair is a junior majoring in journalism and a senior music reporter for The Daily Collegian. His e-mail address is asc5014@psu.edu.
