Journal 4

The Instrument Effect of A Band: Radiohead

The role of instruments is undeniable about musician’s creating music. In order to state the place and importance of instruments about creating music, this subject is referred by addressing the band Radiohead.
The reason of constantly changing music style of Radiohead is that band members have different talents and musical pleasures. In the band, only the lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood gets classical music training . Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist who is able to play manual, ondes martenot, banjo, viola, harmonica, and any and all musical instruments besides guitar. In recent years, electronic and digital sound playing tools have got involved the instruments he is using. However, he uses a part of them only during concerts. Greenwood is also making the arrangement of stringed orchestras in Radiohead tracks such as “Climbing Up the Walls”, “How to Disappear Completely”, “Pyramid Song”, and “Faust Arp”. Thom Yorke also plays guitar and piano. Once upon a time, he was Dj in a techno band named as “Flickernoise” at Exeter University2. Yorke focusing on electronic music completely said that if he was forced to make a decision between making music with guitar and electronic music, he would choose the electronic music, on a radio program in 20033.
During the band’s shifting period about music style from guitar to electronic, band members had developed more flexibility about instrument usage. In this situation, all members can specify their positions according to instrumental requirements of a song. During the records of Kid A and Amnesiac, while Thom Yorke was playing manual and bass guitar, the lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood was playing ondes martenot rather than guitar; and bass guitarist Colin Greenwood was handling with modeling. While Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway were using guitar and drum as main instruments, they were also using drum machine and digital sound playing tools. There were other expansions in the records Hail to the Thief in 2003. Yorke expressed it as “My authority in the band was unbalanced and I could mess up the band’s order at all costs. Now the situation is healthier, more democratic than before.”
According to this examination, the most important instrument in the band Radiohead is guitar from my point of view. Guitar is indispensable whether other instruments take place or not. Guitar is still holding its own place by preserving its routine importance about producing music even if musicians head towards current and popular music, even if music is made in electronic environment.