On the surface, the initial release of Radiohead’s 7th album In Rainbows as a digital download where you the listener can determine the price is not only a slick marketing ploy, but revolutionary. Not so. According to guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the decision to make their new record available on compressed MP3 files was to avoid it from being leaked before its official release in early 2008. That explanation might sound simple but given the current state of the music business, the online release of In Rainbows is a brief commentary on the pathetic condition of the industry.
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Radiohead
|  Entertainment
 Art
"In Rainbows"
Released October 10, 2007
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Major labels are in freefall due to their inability to keep up with technology. To change the established model Radiohead has left it up to their fans to choose the asking price for their latest record. You can pay either 15 cents, 15 dollars or nothing at all. This clever move from the alt-rock band is a way to force the music industry to restructure itself before it reaches cataclysmic proportions.
Will this move signal the end for the major labels as we know it?
Not quite. Record labels can survive on a healthy diet of touring and merchandising sales. But the current trend of record sales is bad and will continue to remain on that course unless historic changes are made to the current system.
In their impressive catalog, In Rainbows is Radiohead’s 4th masterpiece and the best album they’ve recorded since 2000’s Kid A.
There’s no new ground being broken, but the emotional punch brought on by the music makes most of today’s homogenized pop sounds seem obsolete. The electronic ambience and dense construction can seem a bit overwhelming, especially for fans of their hard-rocking material but the sheer ease in which Radiohead develops these songs from their live incarnations is what makes the album special. At times, Jonny Greenwood’s guitar playing comes across as a delicate companion to Thom Yorke’s cat-got-your tongue vocals.
Unlike 2003’s Hail to the Thief, which addressed the fears and anxieties of the post 9-11 world, the stories of In Rainbows read like chilling love poems written by a man who’s had his heart broken more times than he could bear. I am a moth/who just wants to share your light/I’m just an insect/trying to get out of the night/I only stick with you/because there are no others Yorke sings on “All I Need.” Vocally, Yorke sheds the punk rage of the previous album and incorporates a much more erotic, R&B cadence to his vocals. The intimacy in his voice coupled with the music makes for a very direct sound but Radiohead isn’t playing at you, but rather playing for you.
Radiohead might not look at their decision to release their album online as revolutionary but it could be the start of something big and until the music industry starts to recognize that music can be reached on an unlimited scale I see doomsday on the horizon. But while we wax philosophically about how Radiohead changed the music business forever, the real story is that the most original group in the last 10 years has recorded one of the most poignant albums of the year and no matter how it came about on our doorstep we’re glad it’s here.
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i'm a fan
Written by Guest on 2007-10-24 12:19:13
radiohead is a marketing genious |
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