History Trivia / OKComputer

** "Man of War" was demoed early in the album's development, and was worked on in 1998 as a potential song for the ''[[Film/TheAvengers1998 The Avengers]]'' soundtrack (as seen in ''Film/MeetingPeopleIsEasy''), but Thom Yorke's CreatorBreakdown meant that the sessions were abandoned. The band would revisit it again in the 2010s as the theme song to ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', only for it to be turned down on the grounds that it wasn't written specifically for the film and thus wouldn't be eligible for a "Best Original Song" Oscar (Radiohead's next submission, a TitleTrack for ''Spectre'', was also turned down for being too unfitting). "Man of War" would ultimately appear as one of the three previously unreleased songs on ''OKNOTOK'' instead.

** "Man of War" was demoed early in the album's development, and was worked on in 1998 as a potential song for the ''[[Film/TheAvengers1998 The Avengers]]'' soundtrack (as seen in ''Meeting People is Easy''), but the band were unhappy with it and the sessions were abandoned. The band would revisit it again in the 2010s as the theme song to ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', only for it to be turned down on the grounds that it wasn't written specifically for the film and thus wouldn't be eligible for a "Best Original Song" Oscar (Radiohead's next submission, a TitleTrack for ''Spectre'', was also turned down for being too unfitting). "Man of War" would ultimately appear as one of the three previously unreleased songs on ''OKNOTOK'' instead.

** "Man of War" was demoed early in the album's development, and was worked on in 1998 as a potential song for the ''[[Film/TheAvengers1998 The Avengers]]'' soundtrack (as seen in ''Meeting People is Easy''), but the band were unhappy with it and the sessions were abandoned. The band would revisit again in 2015 as the theme song to ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', only for it to be turned down on the grounds that it wasn't written specifically for the film and thus wouldn't be eligible for a "Best Original Song" Oscar (Radiohead's next submission, a TitleTrack for ''Spectre'', was also turned down for being too unfitting). "Man of War" would ultimately appear as one of the three previously unreleased songs on ''OKNOTOK'' instead.

** "Man of War" was demoed early in the album's development, and was worked on in 1998 as a potential song for the ''The Avengers'' soundtrack (as seen in ''Meeting People is Easy''), but the band were unhappy with it and the sessions were abandoned. The band would revisit again in 2015 as the theme song to ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', only for it to be turned down on the grounds that it wasn't written specifically for the film and thus wouldn't be eligible for a "Best Original Song" Oscar (Radiohead's next submission, a TitleTrack for ''Spectre'', was also turned down for being too unfitting). "Man of War" would ultimately appear as one of the three previously unreleased songs on ''OKNOTOK'' instead.

** "Man of War" was sent in as the theme song to ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', only for it to be turned down on the grounds that it wasn't written specifically for the film and thus wouldn't be eligible for a "Best Original Song" Oscar (Radiohead's next submission, a TitleTrack for ''Spectre'', was also turned down for being too unfitting). "Man of War" would ultimately appear as one of the three previously unreleased songs on ''OKNOTOK'' instead.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: An AnimatedMusicVideo for "Let Down" was created by Simon Hilton, only to be rejected by the band because they didn't like how it turned out. Hilton eventually made the video available on his website, but eventually took it down for unspecified reasons; despite this, fan reuploads can be found online.

* GenreTurningPoint: The album's immense success moved AlternativeRock out of {{Britpop}} and {{grunge}}, the latter of which was on life support by '97, and into a more melancholic and electronic direction. 1998 alone saw [[Music/{{REM}} three of]] [[Music/TheSmashingPumpkins alt-rock's]] [[Music/AlanisMorissette biggest acts]] shift to electronic rock, and much of the post-Britpop movement in the 2000's would take heavy influence from Radiohead thanks to ''OK Computer''.

** "Lift" was originally included within the earliest drafts of ''OK Computer'', and was planned to be the album's lead single. However, the pressure this position caused resulted in the band abandoning the track, feeling that their studio arrangement of it was unsatisfactory; they'd revisit again in multiple forms over the years before eventually including a studio version on ''OKNOTOK'', with earlier demos also appearing on ''[=MiniDiscs=] [Hacked]''. The band themselves speculate that had the song been released back in 1997, it would've been their "second 'Creep'" and blown their popularity up to a level they wouldn't have been able to handle.

** The original plan for the album's promotional cycle was to create music videos for every track on the record. However, according to Grant Gee (who directed the "No Surprises" video), the idea was scrapped after the "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police" went over-budget.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: An AnimatedMusicVideo for "Let Down" was created by Simon Hilton, only to be rejected by the band because they didn't like how it turned out. The video eventually leaked however, and fan reuploads can be found online.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: An AnimatedMusicVideo for "Let Down" was created by Simon Hilton, only to be rejected by the band because they didn't like how it turned down. The video eventually leaked however, and fan reuploads can be found online.

** The original plan for the album's promotional cycle was to create music videos for every track on the album. However, according to Grant Gee (who directed the "No Surprises" video), the idea was scrapped after the "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police" went over-budget.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: "Lift" was originally included within the earliest drafts of ''OK Computer'', and was planned to be the album's lead single. However, the pressure this position caused resulted in the band abandoning the track, feeling that their studio arrangement of it was unsatisfactory; they'd revisit again in multiple forms over the years before eventually including a studio version on ''OKNOTOK'', with earlier demos also appearing on ''[=MiniDiscs=] [Hacked]''. The band themselves speculate that had the song been released back in 1997, it would've been their "second 'Creep'" and blown their popularity up to a level they wouldn't have been able to handle.

* RefittedForSequel: "Lucky" was originally recorded for the 1995 charity album ''The Help Album'', designed to raise money for those affected by the Bosnian war. It was later revisited as the starting point for ''OK Computer'', with the original recording being included on this album.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: "Lift" was originally included within the earliest drafts of ''OK Computer'', and was planned to be the album's lead single. However, the pressure this position caused resulted in the band abandoning the track, feeling that their studio arrangement of it was unsatisfactory; they would later revisit it live in 2002 with a considerably slower and more restrained arrangement. The band themselves speculate that had the song been released back in 1997, it would've been their "second 'Creep'" and blown their popularity up to a level they wouldn't have been able to handle. After two decades of the song having only been officially heard in live performances and cultivating a "lost legend" status among fans, the studio version of "Lift" would eventually make its way onto the 2017 ''OKNOTOK'' expanded reissue of ''OK Computer'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBGaO89cBMI receiving its own music video]] to promote the release. Multiple different drafts of "Lift" would be included in the ''[=MiniDiscs [Hacked]=]'' compilation in 2019, taken from a series of recordings from the ''OK Computer'' sessions that were previously leaked online and held for ransom, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDGdGdtD7To the most well-known of these drafts]] being more or less a direct translation of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ripYh8-49Ek 1996 Pinkpop performance]] that had previously been widely circulated as a bootleg.

* BigNameFan: Music/StevenWilson, who credited the album with re-legitimizing ambitious and experimental music in the public eye after the fall of classic ProgressiveRock during the late 70's and early 80's.

* BreakthroughHit: This was the album that made Radiohead a household name.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: "Lift" was originally included within the earliest drafts of ''OK Computer'', and was planned to be the album's lead single. However, the pressure this position caused resulted in the band abandoning the track, feeling that their studio arrangement of it was unsatisfactory; they would later revisit it live in 2002 with a considerably slower and more restrained arrangement. The band themselves speculate that had the song been released back in 1997, it would've been their "second 'Creep'" and blown their popularity up to a level they wouldn't have been able to handle. The studio version of "Lift" would eventually make its way onto the 2017 ''OKNOTOK'' expanded reissue of ''OK Computer'', and would receive its own music video to promote the release. Multiple different drafts of "Lift" would be included in the ''[=MiniDiscs [Hacked]=]'' compilation in 2019, taken from a series of recordings from the ''OK Computer'' sessions that were previously leaked online and held for ransom.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: "Lift" was originally included within the earliest drafts of ''OK Computer'', and was planned to be the album's lead single. However, the pressure this position caused resulted in the band abandoning the track, feeling that their studio arrangement of it was unsatisfactory; they would later revisit it live in 2002 with a considerably slower and more restrained arrangement. The studio version of "Lift" would eventually make its way onto the 2017 ''OKNOTOK'' expanded reissue of ''OK Computer'', and would receive its own music video to promote the release. Multiple different drafts of "Lift" would be included in the ''[=MiniDiscs [Hacked]=]'' compilation in 2019, taken from a series of recordings from the ''OK Computer'' sessions that were previously leaked online and held for ransom.

* BigNameFan: Steven Wilson of Music/PorcupineTree, who credited the album with re-legitimizing ambitious and experimental music in the public eye after the fall of classic ProgressiveRock during the late 70's and early 80's.