Radiohead Is The Greatest Band Ever

[Oblivian]

I don't think any list that I've ever seen has had Radiohead in the top 10. Beatles is almost undoubtedly going to be top 3 in any list.

 

[Joseph Budden]

Maiden are one of the original NWOBHM bands, not a "rock band". Radiohead are closer to Rock than Maiden ever were.

And Maiden's lyrics ARE deep dude, you clearly havnt looked that close if you think all they talk about is monstrous wizardry shit. *Shakes head*

You can't say their instrumentation is objectively better, that's again, just your opinion. Imo, Maiden's instrumentation is way more interesting, fun to play and to listen too.

Heavy metal, rock, cmon. Lets not play the game of 'specific genre'. At the end of the day, its a drummer, guitarist and bassist. Radiohead has masterfully used every instrument under the sun, and has a ton of different sounds. Maiden construct great songs, i'm not trying to deny their greatness, but its no different than any other heavy metal band. Its just better.

Dude, this lyric argument just seems like fandom from what i've listened to from Maiden. Have you ever read any of Yorke's lyrics? Unless Maiden's music has undergone some sort of existential change in the 00's, their lyrics are so damn simple.

Sure its my opinion, but if someone wanted to have an objective conversation about instrumentation, what argument can you give for Maiden? Like I said, they use the same tools as every other metal band in existence, and their sound isn't even very diverse. Have you ever listened to Kid A?

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

If I had to pick a semi-mainstream band as my "greatest band ever," it would be Tool.

 

[Joseph Budden]

If I had to pick a semi-mainstream band as my "greatest band ever," it would be Tool.

Technically a very proficient band, but for me thats the best you can say about them. A Perfect Circle >>>>

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

A Perfect Circle >>>>

 

[ookii]

They are quite a bit overated but Ok Computer literally is one of the greatest albums of the 90s

 

[Crimson Glory]

Heavy metal, rock, cmon. Lets not play the game of 'specific genre'. At the end of the day, its a drummer, guitarist and bassist. Radiohead has masterfully used every instrument under the sun, and has a ton of different sounds. Maiden construct great songs, i'm not trying to deny their greatness, but its no different than any other heavy metal band. Its just better.

Metal and Rock are not the same anymore dude, havnt been since the late 70's. Just calling Maiden a "Rock" band is a disservice to describing their sound or any other Metal band. There's quite a clear difference between the two, just cuz you can't hear it doesn't mean its not there.

Just a singer, guitarist, basist and drummer? By that definition Blues is just Rock, Jazz is just rock, Country music is just rock, you can go on, having those core elements doesn't mean you're automatically just a rock and roll band.

Dude, this lyric argument just seems like fandom from what i've listened to from Maiden. Have you ever read any of Yorke's lyrics? Unless Maiden's music has undergone some sort of existential change in the 00's, their lyrics are so damn simple.

I get the impression that you've only heard the popular songs by Maiden and havnt actually listened deeply too their lyrics, at all. They write very poetic and beautiful lyrics, you describing it as "wizardry monster" or whatever just shows you never paid any attention.

Sure its my opinion, but if someone wanted to have an objective conversation about instrumentation, what argument can you give for Maiden? Like I said, they use the same tools as every other metal band in existence, and their sound isn't even very diverse. Have you ever listened to Kid A?

Even if Maiden doesn't have as much diverse instrumentation, they write better melodies, they're better at playing their instruments and Dickinson is 10x the vocalist Yorke is. Yorke in terms of what I've heard from him is JUST a rock and roll singer, Dickinson is a virtuoso.

It's pretty clear, you're a fanboy of Radiohead I'm a fanboy of Maiden, this argument is going nowhere really haha.

 

[Joseph Budden]

Metal and Rock are not the same anymore dude, havnt been since the late 70's. Just calling Maiden a "Rock" band is a disservice to describing their sound or any other Metal band. There's quite a clear difference between the two, just cuz you can't hear it doesn't mean its not there.

Just a singer, guitarist, basist and drummer? By that definition Blues is just Rock, Jazz is just rock, Country music is just rock, you can go on, having those core elements doesn't mean you're automatically just a rock and roll band.



I get the impression that you've only heard the popular songs by Maiden and havnt actually listened deeply too their lyrics, at all. They write very poetic and beautiful lyrics, you describing it as "wizardry monster" or whatever just shows you never paid any attention.



Even if Maiden doesn't have as much diverse instrumentation, they write better melodies, they're better at playing their instruments and Dickinson is 10x the vocalist Yorke is. Yorke in terms of what I've heard from him is JUST a rock and roll singer, Dickinson is a virtuoso.

It's pretty clear, you're a fanboy of Radiohead I'm a fanboy of Maiden, this argument is going nowhere really haha.

Are we really gonna get into this horrible argument over the semantics of genre? You know what I meant. And if you want to be really technical, heavy metal is a form of rock which is the giant umbrella of all those sub genres. Moving on......

Blues is just rock? No, blues are blues. They use different instruments. I think you are too entwined with categorization through genre. Genres are ridiculous to me, so I'll never be able to follow that. Can you name me one band that doesn't fall under the spectrum of some form of metal music that uses only a bass, drummer, and guitarist? They execute better than others that fall within the genre, I won't ever take that away from them, but the depth of instrumentation was never anything knew, even when they came on the scene.

I haven't heard any album they've released in the 00s (at least not enough to remember) but i've heard all of their classic albums. Thus why I said unless they've changed, i'm not impressed. You want to link me to what you consider one of the finer lyrical pieces of a song of theirs? Cause I don't remember them ever being anything more than quite simple.

Depends what you mean by "better". I'm sure those guys are more proficient with their instruments, but a lot of metal fans have this ridiculous outlook that proficiency equates to superiority. Iron Maiden has never come close to articulating instrumentation in the manner Radiohead have. Radiohead are not just experimenting, but have classic songs with basically every instrument you can name. They have songs that are a unique orchestration of a multitude of instruments, rather than just the structure of a genre that Maiden follow. Have Maiden ever in all their time used anything but guitar, bass, and drums? And further, have they ever broke the structure of their genre? Cause in all of their classic albums, from what I remember, it follows the same patterns as most other metal bands.

I'm a fanboy sure, but it doesn't mean I can't be objective. Its one thing to just sonically enjoy one band more than another, but as far as deconstructing music, there are very few artists with the instrumentation level of Radiohead or lyrical depth of Yorke. I can easily argue those points all day. Literally all you have to do is listen to Kid A (or their new album) which blends instruments in an incredibly seemless manner which barely any bands had done before that.

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

Post the best Maiden song and the best Radiohead song. I will decide the winner.

 

[Crimson Glory]

Are we really gonna get into this horrible argument over the semantics of genre? You know what I meant. And if you want to be really technical, heavy metal is a form of rock which is the giant umbrella of all those sub genres. Moving on......

See clearly you just don't understand the difference, guess you don't listen too much of it. Heavy Metal is it's own genre, just like Jazz is seperate from Blues, even though they all come from the same root of Blues, they're all distinct man. Don't argue about it if you don't want to, but don't tell me ALL Metal is just a form of rock music, bollocks, like Abysmal Dawn can be classified as Rock Music? Get outta here with that shit.

Blues is just rock? No, blues are blues. They use different instruments. I think you are too entwined with categorization through genre. Genres are ridiculous to me, so I'll never be able to follow that. Can you name me one band that doesn't fall under the spectrum of some form of metal music that uses only a bass, drummer, and guitarist? They execute better than others that fall within the genre, I won't ever take that away from them, but the depth of instrumentation was never anything knew, even when they came on the scene.

I can name blues acts that are JUST: Guitar, drums, bass, vocals, so by your definition they're basically just a rock band, right? I mean, according to you, if you just have these three instruments and vocals, it's impossible to be anything OTHER than a rock band.

I haven't heard any album they've released in the 00s (at least not enough to remember) but i've heard all of their classic albums. Thus why I said unless they've changed, i'm not impressed. You want to link me to what you consider one of the finer lyrical pieces of a song of theirs? Cause I don't remember them ever being anything more than quite simple.

Give me an example of complex lyrics?

I'd say Wasted Years and Rime of the Ancient Mariner are quality lyrics, not simple, the first has a great deal of meaning and the second is poetry.

Brave New World is again, very poetic and Ghost of the Navigator is too.

Depends what you mean by "better". I'm sure those guys are more proficient with their instruments, but a lot of metal fans have this ridiculous outlook that proficiency equates to superiority. Iron Maiden has never come close to articulating instrumentation in the manner Radiohead have. Radiohead are not just experimenting, but have classic songs with basically every instrument you can name. They have songs that are a unique orchestration of a multitude of instruments, rather than just the structure of a genre that Maiden follow. Have Maiden ever in all their time used anything but guitar, bass, and drums? And further, have they ever broke the structure of their genre? Cause in all of their classic albums, from what I remember, it follows the same patterns as most other metal bands.

Proficiency with your instrument is atleast truly objective though, something you keep throwing around. Like it's objective to say that either three of their guitarists could play circles around the emo kid from Radiohead or that Bruce Dickinson could sing circles around Thom Yorke. They have more skill, that's not a ridiculous statement, they ARE an objectively better band in that category, no denying that.

In terms of influence and impact on the musical world Maiden have made greater waves as well. And I don't like to bring up record sales, but it's another objective piece, but Maiden have sold 3 times the amount of records, now they've been around longer and atleast 10 years of those record sales happened before file sharing, but alot of those record sales were after their revival at the turn of the century.

 

[Gutter Chris]

This is not true at all. Radiohead bores me into a coma. Ol dudes voice is irritating and I find them to have some of the most pretentious fans of any band that has ever existed.

TLDR Fuck Radiohead

 

[Oblivian]

Blues is just rock? No, blues are blues. They use different instruments. I think you are too entwined with categorization through genre..

Care to explain what in the world you mean by this?

 

[Joseph Budden]

See clearly you just don't understand the difference, guess you don't listen too much of it. Heavy Metal is it's own genre, just like Jazz is seperate from Blues, even though they all come from the same root of Blues, they're all distinct man. Don't argue about it if you don't want to, but don't tell me ALL Metal is just a form of rock music, bollocks, like Abysmal Dawn can be classified as Rock Music? Get outta here with that shit.



I can name blues acts that are JUST: Guitar, drums, bass, vocals, so by your definition they're basically just a rock band, right? I mean, according to you, if you just have these three instruments and vocals, it's impossible to be anything OTHER than a rock band.



Give me an example of complex lyrics?

I'd say Wasted Years and Rime of the Ancient Mariner are quality lyrics, not simple, the first has a great deal of meaning and the second is poetry.

Brave New World is again, very poetic and Ghost of the Navigator is too.



Proficiency with your instrument is atleast truly objective though, something you keep throwing around. Like it's objective to say that either three of their guitarists could play circles around the emo kid from Radiohead or that Bruce Dickinson could sing circles around Thom Yorke.

I don't understand the difference cause I don't care to. I genuinely think people who get into genres are people who only like specific genres. I love all music and listen to lots of different things. Why would I concern myself with this ridiculous argument of classification when i'm a fan who will listen to anything as long as I enjoy it?

They're distinct, i'm not arguing that, but they're still able to be classified. And for someone who is so concerned with genres, i'm not sure why you're so upset with calling it rock music, when IT IS. Heavy metal is one of the probably thousands of sub genres of the gigantic umbrella that is Rock.

No, they're just a blues act. You really need to get away from this ridiculous genre argument. Call it whatever the fuck you want. Iron Maiden doesn't do anything outside of guitar, bass and drums period.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/radiohead/letdown.html

^^^ now compare those lyrics with Maiden. Reading that, and than reading 'Rime of Ancient Mariner, its very easy to see the difference. Maiden is much more simplistic in structure, thought, and theme. And lord knows as awesome as Let Down is there are a handful of songs written much more poetically.

Profiency isn't objective. If a guitarist can play a more complex solo than another guitarist, by definition he is more proficient with his instrument. That doesn't make him superior, it just makes him more proficient. Its the application of those skills that truly make a musician special, at least for me, which is why whenever a metal head thinks a complex guitat solo = superiority in music I just laugh.

 

[Joseph Budden]

Care to explain what in the world you mean by this?

^^^^

 

[Oblivian]

I'm more curious what you mean by "they use other instruments". There have been tons of blues bands with just guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.

 

[Joseph Budden]

I'm more curious what you mean by "they use other instruments". There have been tons of blues bands with just guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.

When talking about Radiohead? Just that. You name an instrument, Radiohead likely has a song that puts it to great use. Their sound is incredibly diverse when you've listened to all their music. I will always favor the artist who makes creative use of a wider range of instruments over a band who has album after album using the same weapons in the discussion of greater instrumentation.

 

[Crimson Glory]

I don't understand the difference cause I don't care to. I genuinely think people who get into genres are people who only like specific genres. I love all music and listen to lots of different things. Why would I concern myself with this ridiculous argument of classification when i'm a fan who will listen to anything as long as I enjoy it?

They're distinct, i'm not arguing that, but they're still able to be classified. And for someone who is so concerned with genres, i'm not sure why you're so upset with calling it rock music, when IT IS. Heavy metal is one of the probably thousands of sub genres of the gigantic umbrella that is Rock.

No, they're just a blues act. You really need to get away from this ridiculous genre argument. Call it whatever the fuck you want. Iron Maiden doesn't do anything outside of guitar, bass and drums period.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/radiohead/letdown.html

^^^ now compare those lyrics with Maiden. Reading that, and than reading 'Rime of Ancient Mariner, its very easy to see the difference. Maiden is much more simplistic in structure, thought, and theme. And lord knows as awesome as Let Down is there are a handful of songs written much more poetically.

Profiency isn't objective. If a guitarist can play a more complex solo than another guitarist, by definition he is more proficient with his instrument. That doesn't make him superior, it just makes him more proficient. Its the application of those skills that truly make a musician special, at least for me, which is why whenever a metal head thinks a complex guitat solo = superiority in music I just laugh.

Those lyrics just seem a bit pretentious to be honest. How does that make it objectively better, or in anyway more poetic? It didn't come across more poetic too me at all man. Again, this is something that's YOUR opinion, not a fact.

When people say ALL Metal is just Rock, I laugh, because it's complete load of shite. It's diversified and seperated itself past Rock music, again, call Abysmal Dawn Rock music and you'll get laughed at.

Proficiency is indeed one of the one or two objective things that's been brought up here. When someone can play a song like Far Bayond The Sun by Yngwie, they're objectively more skilled with the guitar than someone who can only play some simple radiohead song.

Does that make them better musicians as a whole? No, but it does make them more skilled with that particular instrument: Fact.

They're just a blues act, yet you were the one going on about "If you just have guitar, drums, bass and vocals, you're just a rock band" paraphrasing, but that's basically the point you were making.

 

[Oblivian]

When talking about Radiohead? Just that. You name an instrument, Radiohead likely has a song that puts it to great use. Their sound is incredibly diverse when you've listened to all their music. I will always favor the artist who makes creative use of a wider range of instruments over a band who has album after album using the same weapons in the discussion of greater instrumentation.

You said Iron Maiden is just rock music and described rock music as a guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. He retorted that would be silly as not separately classifying blues. You then said "blues are blues" as "they use different instruments". No idea how you came up with that.

 

[Joseph Budden]

Those lyrics just seem a bit pretentious to be honest. How does that make it objectively better, or in anyway more poetic? It didn't come across more poetic too me at all man. Again, this is something that's YOUR opinion, not a fact.

When people say ALL Metal is just Rock, I laugh, because it's complete load of shite. It's diversified and seperated itself past Rock music, again, call Abysmal Dawn Rock music and you'll get laughed at.

Proficiency is indeed one of the one or two objective things that's been brought here. When someone can play a song like Far Bayond The Sun by Yngwie, they're objectively more skilled with the guitar than someone who can only play some simple radiohead song.

Does that make them better musicians as a whole? No, but it does make them more skilled with that particular instrument: Fact.

They're just a blues act, yet you were the one going on about "If you just have guitar, drums, bass and vocals, you're just a rock band" paraphrasing, but that's basically the point you were making.

Honestly that was a horrible example lol Let Down's lyrics are much more poetic when backed by the music, but it still makes my point. How is it pretentious? Calling something pretentious is the laziest critique anyone can ever make about anything.

I'd argue its objectively better because, as I said, the writing structure is more creative, the thematics are articulated in a much more original way, and Yorke finds way to capture themes without being overly straight forward. Iron Maiden lyrics follow a stanza structure that you learn in your first study of poetry in English class. I'll concede this argument, cause its too easy to call this objective, but Yorke's writing abilities can't be denied. I think whats more objective is just the music. I listen to plenty of rap I would never argue is objectively lyrically superior to a fuck ton of music.

I think you are just repeating what i'm saying as far as proficiency lol we're in the same boat of proficiency not equating to superiority in music making.

 

[Joseph Budden]

You said Iron Maiden is just rock music and described rock music as a guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. He retorted that would be silly as not separately classifying blues. You then said "blues are blues" as "they use different instruments". No idea how you came up with that.

Which is precisely why I wanted to avoid this run around of genre discussion. Its just a waste of time of semantics. As I said earlier, we're just wasting time talking about this part cause I admittedly don't know or care to know of specific genre classifications. Maiden uses three instruments, as most bands who fall under the gigantic bubble of Rock music do, and have never added to it.