The pop group Radiohead’s Thom Yorke called the “antichrist”
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has constantly fought against the mainstream throughout his career, somewhat hellbent on following his own script. Rather than adapting his art to cater to demands, Yorke adopts a love-it-or-loathe-it approach, which continues to reap rich rewards for his work.
Although many bands would have tried to follow a specific formula if they’d tasted success like Radiohead did with ‘Creep’, the group instead shunned the track. They didn’t want one song to define their career and reinvented themselves on their experimental next album, The Bends. With each project, the Oxfordshire band have pushed boundaries and consistently refused to bow down to expectations.
Naturally, Radiohead faced some consequences for its defiant actions, but undoubtedly, it has paid off in the long term. While OK Computer was lauded as a masterpiece, it commercially flopped in the United States, largely due to the lack of radio play of the singles. However, the band had already prepared for this inevitable conclusion before the album’s release.
At the time, the state of rock and the wider musical landscape was a source of discomfort for Yorke, who felt like an outlier. Radiohead never attempted to fit into a scene, with the singer telling Rolling Stone in 1997: “We don’t fit the format. Fucking obvious. No Doubt fit the format, and we don’t. That, to me, is a kind of bonus.”
Yorke also revealed why his band were committed to continuing doing things in their own unique way, adding: “We’ve done what we can. We’re going back to tour again. We’re just resigned to it. To me, the alternative rock stations . . . what’s going on? I just don’t get it. What are they playing? I’ve given up. I don’t listen to them anymore.”
In the same interview, Yorke was also asked for his thoughts on the biggest pop group in the world at that time, The Spice Girls. Unsurprisingly, he was less than receptive to their brand of music, which he felt had a detrimental impact on society.
When asked if he was a fan of the band, Yorke responded: “No. I agree with whoever said they’re soft porn. They’re the Antichrist. I don’t want any part of it, and if I had kids, I wouldn’t want them to have any part of it, either. I’d move to an island where you can’t get hold of any Spice Girls stuff.”
While The Spice Girls were targeted at the teenage girl audience rather than his demographic, in his eyes, they represented a problem with the music industry, which seemed more interested in creating a product for consumers rather than the art itself. They were the antithesis of Radiohead, who have successfully carved out an iconic career without ever playing by the rulebook of the masses.
