Radiohead Research

Radiohead

Burn The Witch - music video


Burn the Witch" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 3 May 2016 as the lead single from their ninth studio album A Moon Shaped Pool (2016). Radiohead developed the song for over a decade, first working on it during the sessions for their fourth album, Kid A (2000). It features a string section playing col legno battuto, producing a percussive sound, arranged by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.
"Burn the Witch" was accompanied by a stop-motion animated music video that pays homage to the 1960s British children's television programme Camberwick Green and the 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man. Some critics interpreted the lyrics and video as a warning against groupthink and authoritarianism. The song received positive reviews and
was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
Radiohead worked on "Burn the Witch" during the sessions for their albums Kid A (2000), Hail to the Thief (2003), and In Rainbows (2007), but were not satisfied with the results. The phrase "burn the witch" appears in the Hail to the Thief album artwork. Singer Thom Yorke mentioned the song in a 2005 blog entry on Radiohead's website and posted lyrics in 2007. Radiohead briefly "teased" the song in performances in 2006 and 2008, but never played it in full.^[3][4][5]
When asked in 2013 about the status of Radiohead's unreleased songs, including "Burn the Witch", Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich responded: "Everything will surface one day... it all exists... and so [they] will eventually get there, I'm sure."^[6] He cited the song "Nude", released on Radiohead's 2007 album In Rainbows but written 12 years prior, as an example of a song that took several years to complete.^[6]

Radiohead - The band

Radiohead were one of the most innovative and provocative bands of the 1990s and 2000s, five very serious Englishmen guys who developed their own sound and always tried really, really hard. The band, who were also the biggest art-rock act since Pink Floyd, began as purveyors of a swooning, from-the-gut sound that Alicia Silverstone aptly labeled as “complaint rock” in the film Clueless. But albums like 1997’s space-rock opera OK Computer and 2000’s slippery, is-this-even-rock? Kid A (which was Rolling Stone’s album of the decade for the 2000s) were game-changers—future-shock opuses that showed off shadowy, meticulously constructed electronic textures and inspired thousands of imitators, none of whom had Radiohead’s talents.

Born in 1968, singer Thom Yorke formed his first band at the age of 10 despite admittedly having few friends. An abnormality in his left eye made Yorke the victim of teasing in his childhood, with Yorke telling Rolling Stone in 1995 that he often got into fights with his peers. These youthful experiences no doubt contributed to Yorke's antisocial and confrontational lyrics.

In 1985, Yorke met two of his future bandmates at the boys-only Abingdon School and the seeds of Radiohead were planted: Guitarist Ed O' Brien (recruited because Yorke thought he looked like Morrissey) and bassist Colin Greenwood (recruited because he dressed weird and went to lots of parties, Yorke told RS.) Drummer Phil Selway joined soon after, and Greenwood's younger brother Jonny rounded out the lineup, first as harmonica player, then as keyboardist and finally, as guitarist. After parting ways to attend university, the group, then named On a Friday, reconvened to record a series of demo tapes including one called Manic Hedgehog, which caught the ear of EMI in 1991 during the wave of grunge fever. The label promptly signed the group to a six-album deal but requested they changed their moniker. Thus, in 1992, On a Friday became Radiohead, named after a Talking Heads song that appeared on that band's True Stories.

In just four years, Radiohead had gone from "Creep" to OK Computer's lead single "Paranoid Android," a six-and-a-half minute multi-part epic that drew comparisons to everything from Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" to the Beatles to prog-rock. Two more singles from the album got heavy airplay, "Karma Police" and "No Surprises," and the success of OK Computer both critically and commercially—the LP would hit Number One on the U.K. Album Charts—jettisoned Radiohead to global fame. The wears of the ensuing tour and Yorke's almost inability to adapt to this new popularity was documented in the film Meeting People is Easy.

2009 brought a pair of new Radiohead recordings, the charity single "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)" and a free download of an IR leftover "These Are My Twisted Words." Thom Yorke also released a 12'' single with two new tracks "The Hollow Earth" and "Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses" and also contributed the song "Hearing Damage" to the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. In early 2010, Radiohead began work on their follow-up to In Rainbows.

The Album - A moon shaped pool

A Moon Shaped Pool is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead released digitally on 8 May 2016. CD and LP releases followed in June 2016 through XL Recordings. Radiohead also sold a special edition from their website, containing two extra tracks and additional artwork.

Radiohead recorded A Moon Shaped Pool in southern France with longtime producer Nigel  Godrich. It includes several songs written some years earlier; "True Love Waits " dates to at least 1995, "Burn the Witch" to 2000 and "Present Tense" to 2008. The album features strings and choral vocals arranged by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. "Ful Stop" features additional drumming from Clive Deamer, who performed with Radiohead on their 2012 King of Limbs tour. The artwork was created by singer Thom Yorke with long-time Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood, who created abstract works by leaving the canvases outside and allowing the weather to affect the paint.

Radiohead promoted A Moon Shaped Pool a week before its release with the singles "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming", accompanied by music videos. The band also commissioned a series of video vignettes set to short clips from the album. A world tour began in May 2016 and resumed in March 2017, with headline performances at festivals including Glastonbury and Coachella.
A Moon Shaped Pool was acclaimed by critics and appeared in many publications' lists of the year's best albums. It was the fifth Radiohead album to be nominated for the Mercury Prize, and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song (for "Burn the Witch") at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. It topped the charts in several countries, becoming Radiohead's sixth number-one album in the UK and a bestseller on vinyl. It was certified gold in the UK on 24 June 2016.




Chris Hopewell - the video director

Chris Hopewell is an English music video director. He has directed videos for Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Scissor Sisters, Louis XIV, The Knife, The Offspring and several other bands. His video for Radiohead's "There There" received an award for art direction at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Wicker Man is a 1973 British film, combining thriller, horror and musical genres, directed by Robin Hardy and written by Anthony Shaffer. The film stars Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Britt Ekland. Paul Giovanni composed the soundtrack. The film is now considered a cult classic.

Inspired by the basic scenario of David Pinner's 1967 novel The Ritual, the story centres on the visit of Police Sergeant Neil Howie to the isolated island of Summerisle, in search of a missing girl the locals claim never existed. Howie is a devout Christian, and is appalled by a religion loosely inspired by Celtic paganism practised by the inhabitants of the island.

The Wicker Man is generally well regarded by critics and film enthusiasts. Film magazine Cinefantastique described it as "The Citizen Kane of Horror Movies", and during 2004 the magazine Total Film named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time. It also won the 1978 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. A scene from this film was #45 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

The Trumptonshire Trilogy (1966 - 1969)

The original Trumptonshire trilogy - Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley - was created using stop motion animation and actual 3D scaled down models. The entire trilogy consisted of 39 x 15-minute episodes. All 39 episodes were first broadcast on BBC1, airing before the midday news. The original footage had to be located – some footage was found in the family's attic and some deep in the archives of BBC Worldwide in Perivale. The restored DVD of Camberwick Green is available to buy through Amazon. Trumpton and Chigley will be released shortly. Camberwick Green was the first children's animated television show to be aired in colour on the BBC, in 1966. Each episode begins with a shot of a musical box which rotates while playing a tune accompanied by the following narration: "Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is in it today?" The lid of the box then opens and the puppet character that is central to the episode emerges. After a brief introduction, the background appears and the story begins.

Research Questions

 

1. How long have they been together?

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985.Therefore they have been together 32 years.  

2. How would you categorise their music?
I would Categorise their music as very unique and individual.  

 

3. How are they represented  in their promotional material (videos, photos etc)

Radiohead are more targeted at an older audience as their music would not be as appealing to a younger audience anymore.