I've been following the band since 1994, they had just released their debut album and were relatively unknown. Being just 16, I wasn't a progger yet, I was a Beatles and Queen fan, only starting to dip my feet into Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
Fast forward 20+ years, I consider myself a devoted progressive music fan, not perhaps as deep as some people in this forum, but still...
So, back to the subject. Radiohead was never the favourite band, but I loved "OK Computer" the first minute I listened to it and I was blown away by their "Hail to the thief". These and "the Bends" are probably my most favourite albums. I never appreciated their electronic stuff and I didn't think much of the last year's album either. Having lived in Russia up until three years ago, I never had a chance to watch them live - so I was really excited to attend the Rock Werchter festival in Belgium last weekend, as they were Friday's headliners.
...The concert left a profound impression in me. Having observed them play this music, I think I started digging their "Kid A" and "Amnesiac". I re-listened couple of times "Moon shaped pool" and it started growing on me as well.
All of it leads me to my question. There was a huge crowd (80-100 thousands) listening to the performance. Absolute majority came there to see this band. They sang along most of the songs.
To me, Radiohead is definitely prog. They are even "more prog" (if I may say so) than, for one, Marillion, because Radiohead are not afraid to experiment. After mega-successful "Ok computer" they took a decision to radically change the musical direction, and repeatedly did it ever since. They don't have long songs but the music is definitely complex enough in comparison to the other canon prog bands.
So, the question - why do you think Radiohead is so massively popular despite their progressive nature which should have put them probably as known as King Crimson but not as what they are known now, with millions sales figures and sold-out festival venues?
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