How George Orwell novel ‘1984’ inspired a classic Radiohead song
During the production of Radiohead‘s sixth studio album, Hail to the Thief, frontman Thom Yorke was heavily influenced by the political turmoil unfolding around the world, particularly the War on Terror that began to emerge after the election of George W. Bush and the September 11 attacks.
Yorke began writing politically charged lyrics as early as 1995’s The Bends; however, it wasn’t until OK Computer was released two years later that Radiohead truly began to centre politics within their music. Cuts such as ‘Electioneering’, ‘Fitter Happier’ and ‘Paranoid Android’ are prime examples of the band’s disillusionment with capitalism, consumerism, and neoliberalism.
Yet, Hail to the Theif is arguably the band’s most angry and political album, inspired by “the general sense of ignorance and intolerance and panic and stupidity” in the world. Yorke explained that while writing the album: “I was listening to a lot of political programs on BBC Radio 4. I found myself – during that mad caffeine rush in the morning, as I was in the kitchen giving my son his breakfast – writing down little nonsense phrases, those Orwellian euphemisms that [the British and American governments] are so fond of.”
One of these Orwellian phrases is used as the title of the album’s first track, ‘2+2=5’. George Orwell’s 1949 novel 1984 is one of the most influential novels ever written. Even if you’ve never read the book, you will most likely know that popular phrases such as ‘Big Brother’, ‘Room 101’, ‘the thought police’ and ‘war is peace’ originate from his dystopian fiction.
Protagonist Winston Smith discusses the phrase ‘2+2=5’, pondering whether false statements could be seen as the truth if the government convinced the public enough through propaganda, thus creating a consensus reality. In Radiohead’s song, Yorke uses the reference to express his dissatisfaction with ignorant members of society who let terrible things happen without trying to help.
In an interview, Yorke explained the process of writing the lyrics to ‘2+2=5’: “So much of what’s in this record is about trying to keep out of the mind control. It’s like Winston Smith in 1984 for so long is trying to cling on, to question where he is,” he said. “But after a while, it wears you out, you can’t keep on doing it. […] Anyway, the thing in Dante that I really love – in the translation I’ve read, I mean – is his word for the people who don’t give a fuck. He calls them ‘the lukewarm. Brilliant. For a while, I wanted that to be the title of the album. The lukewarm are on the edge of the Inferno, cruising around near the gates but they can’t actually get out. They’re like, ‘What are we doing here? We didn’t do anything at all’. And in Dante’s eyes, it’s, ‘That’s exactly why you’re here. You did fuck all. You just let it happen.'”
