Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Tom Yorke (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments), Colin Greenwood (bass), Phil Selway (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Ed O’Brien (guitar, backing vocals). They have also worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. The band are seen as rather alternative and didn't follow the norm of modern pop culture. Their music is very deep though seems rather eerie at the same time and clearly is directed to maybe an older audience - with lyrics that have a deep and mature meaning. The band also have a big emphasis on creating very bizarre and seemingly strange music videos, though scratch under the skin of them and most times they reveal a very harsh and meaningful message. Looking at the promotional images of the band on Google Images, you are greeted with something different to what would usually be portrayed in order to entice people. You receive many similar images of just each band member lined up possessing very expressionless faces. These are also usually accompanied with a bland or black and white filter - unlike very eye catching and vivid images of other groups. This is almost highlight their vow to not follow the norm of pop and to be them with having the music matter most.
In 1992, Radiohead released their debut single named "creep". Soon after, it became a worldwide hit due the release of the band’s debut album, Pablo Honey in 1993. Their popularity and critical standing rose in the United Kingdom with the release of their second album, dubbed "The bends" in 1995. Following this, Radiohead’s third and arguably best album, OK Computer in 1997, propelled them to international fame; with an expansive sound and themes of modern alienation, it is often acclaimed as a landmark record of the 1990s and one of the best albums of all time. The group’s next album Kid A (2000) marked a dramatic evolution in Radiohead’s style, as they incorporated influences from experimental electronic music, 20th-century classical music, krautrock, and jazz. Despite initially dividing fans and critics, Kid A was later named the best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the Times.
Overall, Radiohead have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Their work places highly in both listener polls and critics lists of the best music of the 1990s and 2000s. In 2005, they were ranked 73rd in Rolling Stone’s list of “The Greatest Artists of All Time” though In 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the second best artist of the 2000s.
A moon shaped pool is Radiohead's most recent album, and adopts many strings and vocals in the songs. This album was released worldwide across many digital music services and to immense success. Radiohead recorded A Moon Shaped Pool in southern France with longtime producer Nigel Godrich. It includes several songs written some years earlier like "True love waits" dates to at least 1995, "Burn the Witch" to 2000 and "Present Tense" to 2008.A Moon Shaped Pool was acclaimed by critics and appeared in many publications' lists of the year's best albums. It was the fifth Radiohead album to be nominated for the Mercury Prize, and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song (for "Burn the Witch") at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. It also topped the charts in several countries, becoming Radiohead's sixth number-one album in the UK and a bestseller on vinyl. It was certified goldin the UK on 24 June 2016.
| "Burn the Witch" | 3:40 | |
| 2. | "Daydreaming" | 6:24 |
| 3. | "Decks Dark" | 4:41 |
| 4. | "Desert Island Disk" | 3:44 |
| 5. | "Ful Stop" | 6:07 |
| 6. | "Glass Eyes" | 2:52 |
| 7. | "Identikit" | 4:26 |
| 8. | "The Numbers" | 5:45 |
| 9. | "Present Tense" | 5:06 |
| 10. | "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief" | 5:03 |
| 11. | "True Love Waits" |
The song Burn the Witch and its accompanying video have a dark undertone to them, that is evident once watching said video."Burn the Witch" was released on 3 May 2016 as the lead single from their ninth studio album A moon shaped pool (2016). Radiohead developed the song for over a decade, first working on it during the sessions for their fourth album, Kid A (2000). It features a string selection playing col legno battuto, producing a percussive sound, arranged by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.
"Burn the Witch" was accompanied by a stop-motion animated music video that pays homage to the 1960s British children's television programme Camberwick Green and the 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man. Some critics interpreted the lyrics and video as a warning against groupthink and authoritarianism.The song received positive reviews and was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. In an interview with Billboard, the animator behind the video, Virpi Kettu, discussed the motives behind “Burn the Witch”. Interestingly, she believes the video was intended to be happier than the song. “They wanted the video to contrast with what they’re playing and to wake people up a bit,” Kettu explained. She also said that the band wanted the video to raise awareness about Europe’s refugee crisis and the “blaming of different people, the blaming of Muslims and the negativity” currently engulfing European politics.
Verse 1:
Stay in the shadows
Cheer at the gallows
This is a round-up
While “shadows” are often associated with unsavory activities, the authority figure that lends its voice to the song actually wishes its subjects to remain anonymous, to steer clear of any potentially revolutionary limelight. It also prefers them to be unenlightened, trapped in Plato's Cave and staring at shadows on walls instead of seeing the “light.“ Meanwhile, it urges the people to cheer on the punishment of disobedient peers who have been "rounded up,” thereby ensuring conformity.
Pre chorus
This is a low-flying panic attack
Sing the song on the jukebox that goes
This seems to be a reference to the popular saying: “Flying under the radar”, meaning “untraceable” or “invisible”. The people are severely panicking (so much that it is a “panic attack”) but they don’t even know it.
Low-flying attacks were historically carried out by bombers, flying low to avoid radar. This is a play on words; instead of a bombing attack it’s a a panic attack, one that the sufferer is not aware of until it’s upon him.
Could refer to use of drones by law enforcement, and/or technologies sometimes believed to induce panic in the subject without their being aware of the source, such as infrasound/ultrasound and microwave radiation, used for crowd control.
Chris Hopewell is an English Music Video director who has directed videos for Radiohead and several other bands. His video for Radiohead's "There There" received an award for art direction at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards. Also, he directed the Burn The Witch video which could be the reason to went on to become so popular. This was his return to directing with the spooky stop-motion folktale, and it took Hopwell and the rest of the team 14 days to animate it.
Both songs convey a very different message and have a very different theme. With Unfinished Sympathy, we see a seemingly traditional love song that is contrasted with an up tempo Trip-hop beat to accompany it - equating to a nice mix of the two. the song speaks about someone who has been hurt by love - possibly a breakup - and is singing their feelings. You can see his from the repeated line of 'Really hurt me baby, really hurt me baby' as well as 'I know that I've been mad in love before and how it could be with you'. From these lyrics, and the passion they are sung with, we see that the song is clearly about how a woman has had her heart broken and has been hurt by a man. On the other hand, once analysing the softly spoken lyric of Radioheads Burn the Witch, it states in one of the lines 'This is a low flying panic attack'. This seems to be a reference to the popular saying: “Flying under the radar”, meaning “untraceable” or “invisible”. The people are severely panicking (so much that it is a “panic attack”) but they don’t even know it. Low-flying attacks were historically carried out by bombers, flying low to avoid radar. This is a play on words; instead of a bombing attack it’s a a panic attack, one that the sufferer is not aware of until it’s upon him. This therefore, could refer to use of drones by law enforcement, and/or technologies sometimes believed to induce panic in the subject without their being aware of the source, such as infrasound/ultrasound and microwave radiation, used for crowd control. Though upon looking more loosely at the songs message as a whole, we see its repetition of 'Burn the witch' throughout, which accompanies the video that features a stop motion video in the form of the children tv programme Trumpton, though we see that the story of it follows the famous horror film 'The wicker man' in which a policeman visits a small island due to hearing about the death of a girl, though he is introduced to paganism there and eventually he is burnt in a giant wicker man. This strong juxtaposition creates an eerie feel, and the lyrics of 'Red crosses on wooden doors, and if you float you burn' emphasises this.
The lyrics used in both songs convey very different messages to the audience. Firstly, Unfinished Sympathy is almost a woman conveying to the audience how much your love for someone can be ripped apart when they hurt you, and just how devastating that feeling is. It goes on to show how powerful that is with stating 'Like a day without a night', which is showing how bad them being separated feels, it's as bad as day not having night. On the opposite end of the spectrum however, in Burn the witch we seem to get much more cryptic messages that act as almost a warning to the audience. We get a repetition of 'we know where you live' which to the audience seems rather scary, though looking in further and the previous analysis on what the government are doing to control us, the song could be referring to how the government are trying to put fear into us sswell as giving us threats.
Upon looking at the videos of each and how the artists are represented, we once again see a major difference in both. To begin with, in Unfinished Sympathy we see the main vocal artist Shara Nelson going about daily life, walking along the streets of New York. In the video she is represented as an everyday person and interestingly not as a celebrity or anyone special. She walks among everyone else though is not hassled for photos and such like it may be in a real life scenario, which could be showing us how the artists are normal people. An interesting point about this video though is that all 3 other band members appear throughout the video, simply walking in the background. We first see an out of focus image of Daddy G walking with his son behind Shara, which for those who don't know the band would look like normal person - possibly what they are trying to get across, that they don't care about fame. We then see Robert Del Naja come from a telephone box and start walking much the same though drops off, then finally 3D appears towards the end. Overall then, the artists in this video are all seen as so normal doing a normal everyday thing and wearing normal clothes - much like outlandish outfits worn by other celebrities in videos at the time. In contrast to this, Burn the witch doesn't feature any of their band members in the video, which for the band is rather different as we usually see the lead singer appearing in them all however bazar they my be. By doing this, it may be how they are tying to take the attention of themselves in order to let people understand the story, aswell as the seriousness of the message they are trying to get across. I believe the videos successfully represent the artists in the way they want to be, as with Unfinished Sympathy we see such a plain every day video which is what Massive Attack wanted, instead of the bold and stereotypical celebrity videos that we usually see. Also, with Burn the witch, by having no show of the artist we can very easily understand the story on its own and take the attention off who is making the music, and more to the message they are giving. Therefore, by not including the band members themselves, it relates to how the band are in themselves and how they don't focus on being noticed - only the music.
The film making in the two respective videos are worlds apart, though very important and spectacular in themselves. With Unfinished Sympathy, the main focal point is not only the fact that the video is filmed along a busy new york street with this main singer walking past every day life, but also how this one video is filmed in a continuous shot. To film a video like this takes time and skill, and was not utilised by many other artists at the time, and so was very unique. By filming in a continuous shot, it allows the viewer to become more immersed in what they are watching and really understand what the video is about, as it is creating the impression of walking with Shara Nelson. I believe Massive Attack also used the style as a way to set themselves apart from the rest much like their music was at the time. Upon viewing Radioheads video we again see something so bizarre and fascinating, but completely different to Massive Attack. Burn the Witch features a stop-motion animation to act out the story of the wicker man. This horror film story line is acted out by the childish characters from Trumpton, which i believe was a purposeful contrast by Radiohead in order to keep up their repertoire of videos that are not the norm.
If we look closer as to why Trumpton and The wicker man are featured in Radioheads video, we can see that what he has firstly tried to do, is to create this creepy feel to the video which matches the odd lyrics in the song. By having childrens tv characters act out a horror a twisted horror film focusing on paganism, it unsettles the viewers though in a way can be rather intriguing.
The lyrics used in both songs convey very different messages to the audience. Firstly, Unfinished Sympathy is almost a woman conveying to the audience how much your love for someone can be ripped apart when they hurt you, and just how devastating that feeling is. It goes on to show how powerful that is with stating 'Like a day without a night', which is showing how bad them being separated feels, it's as bad as day not having night. On the opposite end of the spectrum however, in Burn the witch we seem to get much more cryptic messages that act as almost a warning to the audience. We get a repetition of 'we know where you live' which to the audience seems rather scary, though looking in further and the previous analysis on what the government are doing to control us, the song could be referring to how the government are trying to put fear into us sswell as giving us threats.
Upon looking at the videos of each and how the artists are represented, we once again see a major difference in both. To begin with, in Unfinished Sympathy we see the main vocal artist Shara Nelson going about daily life, walking along the streets of New York. In the video she is represented as an everyday person and interestingly not as a celebrity or anyone special. She walks among everyone else though is not hassled for photos and such like it may be in a real life scenario, which could be showing us how the artists are normal people. An interesting point about this video though is that all 3 other band members appear throughout the video, simply walking in the background. We first see an out of focus image of Daddy G walking with his son behind Shara, which for those who don't know the band would look like normal person - possibly what they are trying to get across, that they don't care about fame. We then see Robert Del Naja come from a telephone box and start walking much the same though drops off, then finally 3D appears towards the end. Overall then, the artists in this video are all seen as so normal doing a normal everyday thing and wearing normal clothes - much like outlandish outfits worn by other celebrities in videos at the time. In contrast to this, Burn the witch doesn't feature any of their band members in the video, which for the band is rather different as we usually see the lead singer appearing in them all however bazar they my be. By doing this, it may be how they are tying to take the attention of themselves in order to let people understand the story, aswell as the seriousness of the message they are trying to get across. I believe the videos successfully represent the artists in the way they want to be, as with Unfinished Sympathy we see such a plain every day video which is what Massive Attack wanted, instead of the bold and stereotypical celebrity videos that we usually see. Also, with Burn the witch, by having no show of the artist we can very easily understand the story on its own and take the attention off who is making the music, and more to the message they are giving. Therefore, by not including the band members themselves, it relates to how the band are in themselves and how they don't focus on being noticed - only the music.
The film making in the two respective videos are worlds apart, though very important and spectacular in themselves. With Unfinished Sympathy, the main focal point is not only the fact that the video is filmed along a busy new york street with this main singer walking past every day life, but also how this one video is filmed in a continuous shot. To film a video like this takes time and skill, and was not utilised by many other artists at the time, and so was very unique. By filming in a continuous shot, it allows the viewer to become more immersed in what they are watching and really understand what the video is about, as it is creating the impression of walking with Shara Nelson. I believe Massive Attack also used the style as a way to set themselves apart from the rest much like their music was at the time. Upon viewing Radioheads video we again see something so bizarre and fascinating, but completely different to Massive Attack. Burn the Witch features a stop-motion animation to act out the story of the wicker man. This horror film story line is acted out by the childish characters from Trumpton, which i believe was a purposeful contrast by Radiohead in order to keep up their repertoire of videos that are not the norm.
If we look closer as to why Trumpton and The wicker man are featured in Radioheads video, we can see that what he has firstly tried to do, is to create this creepy feel to the video which matches the odd lyrics in the song. By having childrens tv characters act out a horror a twisted horror film focusing on paganism, it unsettles the viewers though in a way can be rather intriguing.
Firstly, i believe that representations of the artists in the videos can portray to the viewer and listener a whole different perspective on the song as a whole, aswell as the band/artist. Many different genres of music will represent the people in entirely different ways in videos, possibly to appeal to different target audiences and promote a side that that audience will appeal to. For example, with an artist such as Justin Bieber - who is very trendy and modern - in his videos we may see him appearing with girls and being intimate with them whilst showing the camera many topless shots. This therefore, would promote him in a good way as teenage girls are attracted to him and like seeing him being overtly sexual towards a woman. Another point, is that representations in music videos work well to reinforce the character that many may here simply from the words. When accompanied with a video you can work with what the artist sings/speaks about and so that promotes the type of musician that they are. The video also can help to truly describe the passion that many artists sing about and so add to the emotion that the person watching and listening will feel about the song and so in terms of representation, it can really allow the person watching to understand what the song is about.
Upon looking at the videos of each and how the artists are represented, we once again see a major difference in both. To begin with, in Unfinished Sympathy we see the main vocal artist Shara Nelson going about daily life, walking along the streets of New York. In the video she is represented as an everyday person and interestingly not as a celebrity or anyone special. She walks among everyone else though is not hassled for photos and such like it may be in a real life scenario, which could be showing us how the artists are normal people, or want to be seen as 'normal people'.un An interesting point about this video though is that all 3 other band members appear throughout the video, simply walking in the background. We first see an out of focus image of Daddy G walking with his son behind Shara, which for those who don't know the band would look like normal person - possibly what they are trying to get across, that they don't care about fame. We then see Robert Del Naja come from a telephone box and start walking much the same though drops off, then finally 3D appears towards the end. Overall then, the artists in this video are all seen as so normal doing a normal everyday thing and wearing normal clothes - much unlike outlandish outfits worn by other celebrities in videos at the time. Another point, is the representation of street life in the video, as we see all forms of it ranging from bikers to the vibrant clothing of black females at the time. This representation highlights how the artist is centered around the street and so promotes what they believe in, and possibly where they came from. In contrast to this, Burn the witch doesn't feature any of their band members in the video, which for the band is rather different as we usually see the lead singer appearing in them all however bazar they my be. By doing this, it may be how they are tying to take the attention of themselves in order to let people understand the story, aswell as the seriousness of the message they are trying to get across. I believe the videos successfully represent the artists in the way they want to be, as with Unfinished Sympathy we see such a plain every day video which is what Massive Attack wanted, instead of the bold and stereotypical celebrity videos that we usually see. Also, with Burn the witch, by having no show of the artist we can very easily understand the story on its own and take the attention off who is making the music, and more to the message they are giving. Therefore, by not including the band members themselves, it relates to how the band are in themselves and how they don't focus on being noticed - only the music. How this is used could promote the artist as for the viewers they seem more down the earth, compared to many other musicians who are focused on fame and money.
Upon looking at the videos of each and how the artists are represented, we once again see a major difference in both. To begin with, in Unfinished Sympathy we see the main vocal artist Shara Nelson going about daily life, walking along the streets of New York. In the video she is represented as an everyday person and interestingly not as a celebrity or anyone special. She walks among everyone else though is not hassled for photos and such like it may be in a real life scenario, which could be showing us how the artists are normal people, or want to be seen as 'normal people'.un An interesting point about this video though is that all 3 other band members appear throughout the video, simply walking in the background. We first see an out of focus image of Daddy G walking with his son behind Shara, which for those who don't know the band would look like normal person - possibly what they are trying to get across, that they don't care about fame. We then see Robert Del Naja come from a telephone box and start walking much the same though drops off, then finally 3D appears towards the end. Overall then, the artists in this video are all seen as so normal doing a normal everyday thing and wearing normal clothes - much unlike outlandish outfits worn by other celebrities in videos at the time. Another point, is the representation of street life in the video, as we see all forms of it ranging from bikers to the vibrant clothing of black females at the time. This representation highlights how the artist is centered around the street and so promotes what they believe in, and possibly where they came from. In contrast to this, Burn the witch doesn't feature any of their band members in the video, which for the band is rather different as we usually see the lead singer appearing in them all however bazar they my be. By doing this, it may be how they are tying to take the attention of themselves in order to let people understand the story, aswell as the seriousness of the message they are trying to get across. I believe the videos successfully represent the artists in the way they want to be, as with Unfinished Sympathy we see such a plain every day video which is what Massive Attack wanted, instead of the bold and stereotypical celebrity videos that we usually see. Also, with Burn the witch, by having no show of the artist we can very easily understand the story on its own and take the attention off who is making the music, and more to the message they are giving. Therefore, by not including the band members themselves, it relates to how the band are in themselves and how they don't focus on being noticed - only the music. How this is used could promote the artist as for the viewers they seem more down the earth, compared to many other musicians who are focused on fame and money.
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