Radiohead's 'OK Computer' At 20: The Footprints of a Masterpiece

Twenty years ago, Radiohead put out the seminal ‘OK Computer’. The record is being reissued to mark the occasion, alongside assorted b-sides and rarities, while the band will soon headline Glastonbury, something they also did in the immediate aftermath of its arrival back in 1997.

Plenty has been written about the album’s cultural impact, thanks to its combination of dystopian imagery, millennial anxiety and anthemic art rock shaping much of the social fabric of the ensuing decade, but what about the individual technical aspects of ‘OK Computer’? Here, Jacob Brookman shines a light on five ways in which the album has influenced major artists.

There's...its drum production.

The crunchy, choppy percussion that has subsequently become vital to Radiohead’s sonic identity is probably at its most distinctive on this album’s opener, Airbag. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood has gone on record to describe how DJ Shadow’s cut ‘n’ paste drum loops influenced the production, but in the following decades the gentle distortion and subtle reverb switches have reappeared in various guises.

Initially, the sound could be found on records by dance producers like the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, but it was Dizzee Rascal’s breakout hit, Fix Up Look Sharp, in 2003 that used the sound most effectively with its treatment of a sample from The Big Beat. Probably the most influential British hip hop track ever produced, it has shared lineage with Jay-Z’s 99 Problems and thus a host of other rap tracks in the following decade.

...its guitar style.

As fellow pioneers of millennial art rock, Muse are a clear example of a band whose sound was shaped by 'OK Computer'. Their own prog anthem, Knights of Cydonia, shares structural traits with Paranoid Android, while the thrashy strumming and demonic riffs have been taken on by bands like Slaves and the Arctic Monkeys.

Additionally, a guitarist whose playing style almost certainly takes from Greenwood and Ed O’Brien is Omar Rodríguez-López of At the Drive-In, who released their first album in 17 years last month. The chaos of the fretwork - on Electioneering in particular - lends itself well to post-hardcore's intensity, alongside an approach to solos that frequently favours high tech, atonal chaos.

...its vocals.

Alongside the spooky panned doubling on tracks like Let Down and Climbing Up the Walls, one of the most interesting aspects of the vocal arrangements on ‘OK Computer’ is Thom Yorke’s confusing pronunciation of his own lyrics.

It might be a stretch to credit Yorke with the mumbling mayhem of trap artists like Young Thug and Lil Yachty, but an approach to singing that imposes obfuscation is there to be seen in the work of Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver and the majestic, elfin pronunciation of Norwegian superstar Susanne Sundfør.

Additionally, Adele is another singer who deploys idiosyncratic phonemics - particularly in backing vocals. Listen to the softened ‘r’ sounds on tracks like Rolling in the Deep and Rumour Has It and the effect is strangely compelling. Like Yorke, Adele's voice can sound faintly ridiculous at first, but by the end of a song it feels ubiquitous.

...the use of soundscapes.

The songs on ‘OK Computer’ are broken up by Fitter Happier, a freeform soundscape that utilises the Stephen Hawking-esque ACAT system to deliver a poem about postmodern anxiety.

While this might take a degree of influence from more abstract practitioners like Steve Reich or Cabaret Voltaire, it is now striking to see how Oasis trod similar ground on 'Be Here Now', released later in 1997.

Though riding high on the eye watering success of their own magnum opus, ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory’, critical opinion has often suggested an intellectual gulf between the Mancunian band and their rivals down south. In 2017, Oasis are a bit of a cautionary tale - a story of missed opportunities and internal division - but the extraordinarily unorthodox opening to D’you Know What I Mean says a lot about the creative confidence of the band at the time.

...its overall lack of copycats.

Finally, one of the striking conceptual elements about ‘OK Computer’ is the fact that, 20 years on, nobody has managed - or really tried - to repeat the formula (Radiodread by Easy Star All Stars notwithstanding). Perhaps bands fear the intensity of the vitriol should such a plan be rumbled.

Indie albums of similar ambition have been attempted by Coldplay (‘Viva La Vida’), Arcade Fire (‘Neon Bible’) and Muse (‘Black Holes and Revelations’), but it's difficult to argue that any of these have had a similar effect on popular music.

The influence of ‘OK Computer’ stems from the fact that it didn’t really sound like anything else. As such, it is difficult to identify albums of similar commercial appeal that have been so rigorously bold. Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ might be contenders. Maybe Frank Ocean's 'channel ORANGE' at a push.   

Perhaps most telling about this is a quote from Capitol president Gary Gersh, who ran Radiohead’s record label at the time. It says everything about the confidence in the project and a lot about how fearful labels have become in an era that has seen indie music drop off, and the albums-as-art approach become less important. "Our job is just to take them as a left-of-centre band and bring the centre to them," Gersh told Mojo. "That's our focus, and we won't let up until they're the biggest band in the world."

‘OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997-2017’ is out on June 23.

Radiohead Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Tue June 20 2017 - DUBLIN 3Arena
Tue July 04 2017 - MANCHESTER Old Trafford
Fri July 07 2017 - GLASGOW Green

Click here to compare & buy Radiohead Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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