{"id":3410,"date":"2022-02-28T01:41:38","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T01:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2022-02-28T01:41:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T01:41:38","slug":"the-influence-of-science-fiction-on-radioheads-ok-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/themes\/climate\/the-influence-of-science-fiction-on-radioheads-ok-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Influence of Science-Fiction on Radiohead\u2019s Ok Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To preface this blog, Radiohead has been a huge influence on one genre of music I listened to growing up. They led me to discover Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Queen, and David Bowie among other great musicians. Their 1997 album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ok Computer <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is widely considered one of the best albums of all time, 5x platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. Foremost, the title \u201cOk computer\u201d was inspired by the BBC TV version of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in which the character of Zaphod Beeblebrox says the line &#8220;Ok Computer\u201d. There are no explicit mentions of computers on the album. In a similar way that \u201cscience\u201d is emphasized in \u201cscience-fiction\u201d, \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">OK Computer\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is ultimately less about technology than submission- The pursuit of happiness has become less of a goal and more of a process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3411\" src=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2022\/02\/Radioheadokcomputer-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2022\/02\/Radioheadokcomputer-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2022\/02\/Radioheadokcomputer-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2022\/02\/Radioheadokcomputer.png 316w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thematically, the album depicts a world in which consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation, and political malaise are all on the rise. On a larger scale, the band was world-building the idea that technology and society were moving too fast for their own good. Radiohead used unconventional production techniques at the time including \u201cnatural reverberation through recording on a staircase and no audio separation.\u201d Much like some of the literary works in science fiction, the album&#8217;s vision of the future didn&#8217;t feel like some far-off imagined apocalyptic dystopia, but \u200crather a natural extension of the present from which it arises.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here are the first three songs that have science-fiction elements!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Airbag<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIn an interstellar burst, I am back to save the universe\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Airbag\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jNY_wLukVW0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This song deals with topics of world war, fear-mongering, reincarnation, and space explosions. However, in a more literal sense, the song is about awareness of the precociousness of life following a moment of avoiding an accident. An airbag is a technology that saves lives, and the song is about a feeling of rebirth and being happy to just be alive. The first song in the album sets a precedence for the science-fiction delivery of serious topics in the rest of the album!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2. Paranoid Android<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cFrom all the unborn chicken, Voices in my head, What&#8217;s that?, (I may be paranoid, but not an android)\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paranoid Android\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YTH8cxXBGBo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much like the title of the album, this song is a direct reference to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The song references Marvin the Paranoid Android, a robot who is always depressed because the infinite possibilities within his mind are wasted on repetitive, trivial activities. The line, in particular, illustrates that one true escape is in one\u2019s own mind, while at the same time the song deals with the distancing of humans from technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">3. Subterranean Homesick Alien<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cUp above aliens hover, Making home movies for the folks back home\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Subterranean Homesick Alien\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_fTWmUlTEqE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this song, the singer has seen the future, and that future was aliens creating drone porn for their civilization back home. Personally, I&#8217;ve always thought this song was more or less a metaphor for feeling a bit alienated with one\u2019s own life, own society, and place in the world. This person wishes they could view the world from a different, fresh perspective (alien). This song made me think of the alien scene in H.G Well\u2019s \u201cThe Star\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To preface this blog, Radiohead has been a huge influence on one genre of music I listened to growing up. They led me to discover Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Queen, and David Bowie among other great musicians. Their 1997 album Ok Computer is widely considered one of the best albums of all time, 5x platinum [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,105,84,146,86,99,143,107,102,126,118,145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-i","category-alien-encounters","category-climate","category-drugs","category-dystopia","category-media","category-music","category-politics","category-religion","category-social-sf","category-technology","category-urbanization-themes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/world-science-fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}