[QUOTE="cousin_eddy"] One could say that Radioheads experimentation is their trait though. When you take albums like The Bends, Kid A, OK Comptuer etc what you have are three differant albums. OKC mixed acoustic guitars with spacey keyboards, whereas the bends was an alternative rock album and Kid A wwas avant-garde. But you know it is radiohead because even if the albums sound compeltely differant, Radioheads key song-writing is still int act and thom yorkes vocals and writing is still in tact. The albums sound differant but even if someone who only knew one radiohead song listened to in rainbows, they'd know it was radiohead. Look at a group like Mr. Bungle who experimented left and right. All of their albums were differant from one another but fans knew it was them. Granted Radiohead do not stick to a definate sound but it is good to have differant eras. Bowie never stuck to one key sound either, nor did Beck but fans always knew it was them and the same applies for Radiohead.freek666
Firstly, I would hardly call anything Radiohead have done avante-garde. Its all in the eye of the beholder, but still.I should've worded the core sound thing better. I didnt mean the sound in a literal sense, but how you mentioned the song writing and all that, its still the same. Its same old Radiohead song writing whatever. And some would say that the song writing is similar to that of alternative. I will say that they are experimental, no doubt about it, but they are still, at heart, an alternative band. I just cant fathom the possibility that they are anything more than that. It's like with Metallica, they commercialised their music, but its still Heavy Metal, no? They might do an album slightly more progressive, like Justice, but that doesnt make them a prog metal band now does it? Of course not, and the same applies to Radiohead.
Kid A when you break it down is VERY avant-garde. It is through my views an electronic album that does things not really seen in normal music, let alone normal electronic music. Avant-garde in essence is doing something musically not normally done like Sleepytime gorilla museum making their own instruments, Frank Zappa bringing classical music to rock, etc. Radiohead aren't avant-garde to the sense they have weird timing and exotic chords but the way they experimented atleast on that album to me says they dipped into that world. Alternative music as a whole is taking past experiences and love for certaint ypes of music and incorporating it into rock. The Stone roses played alternative music but mixed dance and 60's guitar pop intot he mix, Blur experiemnted to. Radiohead are definately an alternative band because they experiment to no end but keep their key songwriting in tact. Radiohead would never be an electronic group or a pop group because of their past. Pablo honey was a pop album regardless to what people say but from the Bends and on, Radiohead knew that they were an alternative band and since then have stuck to that and their fanbase love them for that. I agree metallica will alwyas be a flat out heavy metal band no matter what they do. Just like Opeth, Helloween, Celtic frost and any other band who morphed their sound in a great way. 
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