This Isn't Happening
by Steven Hyden
2020-12-29 21:29:55
ARolling Stone-KirkusBest Music Book of 2020<BR <BR In 1999, as the end of an old century loomed, five musicians entered a recording studio in Paris without a deadline. Their band was widely recognized as the best and most forward-thinking in r...
Read more
ARolling Stone-KirkusBest Music Book of 2020"In this brilliant book, Steven Hyden goes deep into whyKid Amatters—it''s the fascinating saga of how the music turned into the symbol of a new cultural era." —Rolling StoneTHE MAKING AND MEANING OF RADIOHEAD''S GROUNDBREAKING, CONTROVERSIAL, EPOCHDEFINING ALBUM, <I>KID A</I>.</STRONG><BR <BR In 1999, as the end of an old century loomed, five musicians entered a recording studio in Paris without a deadline. Their band was widely recognized as the best and most forward-thinking in rock, a rarefied status granting them the time, money, and space to make a masterpiece. But Radiohead didn''t want to make another rock record. Instead, they set out to create the future.<BR <BR For more than a year, they battled writer''s block, intra-band disagreements, and crippling self-doubt. In the end, however, they produced an album that was not only a complete departure from their prior guitar-based rock sound, it was the sound of a new era-and it embodied widespread changes catalyzed by emerging technologies just beginning to take hold of the culture. What they created wasKid A.Melody Maker, deemed it "tubby, ostentatious, self-congratulatory... whiny old rubbish." But two decades later, <I>Kid A</I>sounds like nothing less than an overture for the chaos and confusion of the twenty-first century.Kid A</I>, outlining the album''s pervasive influence and impact on culture in time for its twentieth anniversary in 2020. Deploying a mix of criticism, journalism, and personal memoir, Hyden skillfully revisits this enigmatic, alluring LP and investigates the many ways in whichKid Ashaped and foreshadowed our world.
Less
