-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Billet / The Revolution Will Be Digitized / Nov 05 Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 23:51:01 -0800 (PST) From: ZNet Commentaries <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sustainers PLEASE note: --> You can change your email address or cc data or temporarily turn off mail delivery via: https://www.zmag.org/sustainers/members --> If you pass this comment along to others -- periodically but not repeatedly -- please explain that Commentaries are a premium sent to Sustainer Donors of Z/ZNet and that to learn more folks can consult ZNet at http://www.zmag.org --> Sustainer Forums Login: https://www.zmag.org/sustainers/forums Today's commentary: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-11/03billet.cfm ================================== ZNet Commentary The Revolution Will Be Digitized November 05, 2007 By Alexander Billet On October 10th, Radiohead released their seventh record, In Rainbows. It is an album highly anticipated, their first since 2003's Hail to the Thief. It was released without a record label. Fans can download it through a website run by the band. The price? As much as you feel like. That's right. Fans have access to new music by one of the world's biggest and most popular bands, for as much or as little money as they desire, including nothing. A discbox including CD and vinyl versions as well a bonus album will be released in December, but in the meantime there are no parasitic record labels involved, no exorbitant CD prices. Just a direct channel between artist and listener. Ever since 1997's OK Computer, the group has been well known for breaking the musical mold. While the stale, amorphous concept of "post-grunge" seemed to be the direction most rock music was going in, OK Computer dared to mix spacey electronica, abstract avant-garde and more traditional rock instruments into an artistic range that went well beyond the confines of the mainstream. After their contract with mega-label EMI expired, they opted to record their album without re-signing. Their disdain for the traditional music industry was made humorously obvious by singer Thom Yorke: "What we would really like is the old EMI back again, the nice genteel arms manufacturers who treated music [as] a nice side project who weren't too concerned with the shareholders. Ah well, not much chance of that." If Radiohead have always sought to shatter convention, perhaps that's because they find convention so incredibly repressive. Their expansive sound has always had a surreal menace to it, senses of both despair and abject panic that push back against each other with teeth-grinding harshness. Their lyrics extract as much from Naomi Klein's No Logo (which they have cited as a political influence) as they do from dystopian science fiction (they are fans of New Wave sci-fi writer JG Ballard). When these influences spring forth, the result is a feeling of absolute foreboding, the idea that dystopia could be right here, right now. In Rainbows continues this in this fashion, while also defying expectations of how it was "supposed" to sound. The album is, in Yorke's own words "embarrassingly minimalistic," while still employing most of the elements of their past albums, chiefly their experimentation with dissonance and electronica. The frantic "Bodysnatchers" builds toward a desperate ending as Yorke's disturbing yet beautiful voice tries to escape something-everything-in total futility: "Have the lights gone out for you / 'Cause the light's gone out for me / This is the 21st Century You can fight it like a dog / And they brought me to my knees All the lies run around my face / And for anyone else to see." "House of Cards" is a deceptively lovely track. On the surface it is a love song, until we hear references to infrastructure collapsing and voltage spikes. Beneath the surface of this pristine world, there is something very sinister and frightening. In Rainbows is an attempt to break free from that world. Its model has proven popular. Within two days, the album went platinum (the average purchase price was eight dollars). Successful groups like Oasis and Jamiroquai have already announced they will release future records in similar fashion. These groups can most certainly afford it, but the precedent still stands. In short, Radiohead, long known for breaking boundaries, have opened a floodgate with this album. If it's opened wide enough, who knows what might be there when the waters settle? **** Alexander Billet is a music journalist and activist living in Washington, DC. He is a frequent contributor to Dissident Voice and Znet, and has also appeared in CounterPunch, Socialist Worker and MRZine. He is currently working on his first book Sounds of Liberation: Music and Social Change in the 21st Century. His blog, Rebel Frequencies, can be viewed at http://rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com, and he may be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ FRIENDS mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sffreaks.org/mailman/listinfo/friends
