[R-G] The Revolution Will Be Digitized

[Anthony Fenton]

ZNet Commentary
The Revolution Will Be Digitized November 05, 2007
By Alexander Billet

On October 10th, Radiohead released their seventh record, In  
Rainbows.  It is an album highly anticipated, their first since  
2003's Hail to the Thief.  It was released without a record label.   
Fans can download it through a website run by the band.  The price?   
As much as you feel like.

That's right.  Fans have access to new music by one of the world's  
biggest and most popular bands, for as much or as little money as  
they desire, including nothing. A discbox including CD and vinyl  
versions as well a bonus album will be released in December, but in  
the meantime there are no parasitic record labels involved, no  
exorbitant CD prices.  Just a direct channel between artist and  
listener.

Ever since 1997's OK Computer, the group has been well known for  
breaking the musical mold.  While the stale, amorphous concept of  
"post-grunge" seemed to be the direction most rock music was going  
in, OK Computer dared to mix spacey electronica, abstract avant-garde  
and more traditional rock instruments into an artistic range that  
went well beyond the confines of the mainstream.

After their contract with mega-label EMI expired, they opted to  
record their album without re-signing.  Their disdain for the  
traditional music industry was made humorously obvious by singer Thom  
Yorke:  "What we would really like is the old EMI back again, the  
nice genteel arms manufacturers who treated music [as] a nice side  
project who weren't too concerned with the shareholders.  Ah well,  
not much chance of that."

If Radiohead have always sought to shatter convention, perhaps that's  
because they find convention so incredibly repressive.  Their  
expansive sound has always had a surreal menace to it, senses of both  
despair and abject panic that push back against each other with teeth- 
grinding harshness.  Their lyrics extract as much from Naomi Klein's  
No Logo (which they have cited as a political influence) as they do  
from dystopian science fiction (they are fans of New Wave sci-fi  
writer JG Ballard).  When these influences spring forth, the result  
is a feeling of absolute foreboding, the idea that dystopia could be  
right here, right now.   In Rainbows continues this in this fashion,  
while also defying expectations of how it was "supposed" to sound.   
The album is, in Yorke's own words "embarrassingly minimalistic,"  
while still employing most of the elements of their past albums,  
chiefly their experimentation with dissonance and electronica.  The  
frantic "Bodysnatchers" builds toward a desperate ending as Yorke's  
disturbing yet beautiful voice tries to escape something-everything- 
in total futility:  "Have the lights gone out for you / 'Cause the  
light's gone out for me / This is the 21st Century
  You can fight it like a dog / And they brought me to my knees
  All the lies run around my face / And for anyone else to see."

"House of Cards" is a deceptively lovely track.  On the surface it is  
a love song, until we hear references to infrastructure collapsing  
and voltage spikes.  Beneath the surface of this pristine world,  
there is something very sinister and frightening.

In Rainbows is an attempt to break free from that world.  Its model  
has proven popular.  Within two days, the album went platinum (the  
average purchase price was eight dollars).  Successful groups like  
Oasis and Jamiroquai have already announced they will release future  
records in similar fashion.  These groups can most certainly afford  
it, but the precedent still stands.  In short, Radiohead, long known  
for breaking boundaries, have opened a floodgate with this album.  If  
it's opened wide enough, who knows what might be there when the  
waters settle?

****  Alexander Billet is a music journalist and activist living in  
Washington, DC.  He is a frequent contributor to Dissident Voice and  
Znet, and has also appeared in CounterPunch, Socialist Worker and  
MRZine.  He is currently working on his first book Sounds of  
Liberation: Music and Social Change in the 21st Century.

His blog, Rebel Frequencies, can be viewed at http:// 
rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com, and he may be reached at  
alexbillet at hotmail.com