History Trivia / Radiohead

** ''A Moon Shaped Pool'' was colored by Thom's divorce from Rachel Owen and the death of Nigel Godrich's father.

* PromotedFanboy: Just about all of the collaborators on ''TKOL RMX 1234567''.
** Jonny himself is a promoted fanboy for Music/KrzysztofPenderecki, with many of his classical compositions inspired by Penderecki and performing with the elderly composer at Sacrum Profanum 2011 and even collaborating together on an album (48 Responses to Polymorphia being Jonny's own addition).

** ''A Moon Shaped Pool'' is colored by Thom's divorce from Rachel Owen and the death of Nigel Godrich's father.

** The three blasts of "dead notes" at the end of the verses in "Creep" were Jonny Greenwood getting frustrated with the slow song and trying to "fuck it up."

** The B-side "Cuttooth," well-liked among the community, was very nearly included on ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}'', but held off at the last minute for reasons unknown.
** There were plans to release ''Music/KidA'' and ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}'' as a double album; the two were eventually split apart due to feeling that a double album would be too dense.

** "Lift" was an early fan-favorite song that missed out on ''OK Computer'', with it continuing to remain on the band's mind for so long that [[https://www.nme.com/news/music/radiohead-99-1226004 they even considered reworking it for]] ''A Moon Shaped Pool''. [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p051sx5y Ed O'Brien explained]] that they couldn't make it work for either album (eventually leading it to be released as one of three new tracks on ''OKNOTOK''), and even they ruminated on how different their careers would turn out if it were released early and had gotten big.

** Yorke and Stanley Donwood had originally conceived ''Kid A Mnesia Exhibition'' as a physical installation in London, constructed from shipping containers to look like "a Brutalist spacecraft had crash-landed into the classical architecture of the Victoria & Albert museum in Kensington" before touring the rest of the world. [[AwesomeButImpractical But the design was too big to fit in the V&A]], and the Westminster City Council refused to let it be built in the side of the Royal Albert Hall. The COVID-19 pandemic led to it being retooled into a VR game.

** Averted by the video for "Just": The final line that the man lying in the street says is not subtitled, and the cuts between odd camera angles make lip reading impossible. The band have refused to say what the line is. [[spoiler:Lip-readers making the attempt have said it seems to be [[UnReveal "I like banana yoghurt."]]]]

*** Radiohead grew to hate their first hit song, "Creep," because people would show up to their concerts exclusively to hear it, acted indignant until they played it, and left immediately afterwards. They continued to play it reluctantly, usually stating how they have no respect for the people that wanted to hear it right before. They eventually cut the song from their setlist for a long period of time, and wrote "My Iron Lung" as a reaction ("This / This is our new song / Just like the last one / A total waste of time / My iron lung.") They even asked every single band who were playing on the Pyramid Stage (which they headlined) at [[UsefulNotes/GlastonburyFestival Glastonbury 2003]] if they'd be so kind to perform it so they didn't have to (the duty was taken up by Music/{{Moby}} instead). Since 2009, however, the band has a much kinder stance towards "Creep" and now play it in concert often; It seems that they've warmed up to it now that they've long since escaped its shadow. They've played "Creep" several times in 2009, 10 times in 2016 and 5 times in 2017 (including their Coachella and Glastonbury sets), each time receiving a warm reception from the audience.

** Thom Yorke dislikes another early hit, "High and Dry," saying "It's not bad... it's very bad." Radiohead hasn't played it since 1998, and unlike "Creep" won't be returning to their set list any time soon.

* CreatorBreakdown: Thom Yorke's periods of depression largely inspire the bleak tone of much of his work. Most notably, his trouble coping with the attention that the band received after the success of ''Music/OKComputer'' (supposedly, at one point, he'd have panic attacks just by trying to play guitar) largely caused the much more challenging music in ''Music/KidA'' and ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}''.

* DyeHard: Some fans can date Radiohead photoshoots by album era based off the cut and color of Thom's hair. The ''Pablo Honey'' era deserves particular mention for it being at a point where Radiohead were so determined to be the British Music/{{Nirvana}} that Thom went as far as replicating Music/KurtCobain's hairstyle (albeit with much bleached-blonde hair compared to Cobain's dirty blonde).

* TheWikiRule: [[http://radiohead.wikia.com/wiki/Radiohead_Wiki The Radiohead Wiki]].

** Radiohead grew to hate their first hit song, "Creep," because people would show up to their concerts exclusively to hear it, acted indignant until they played it, and left immediately afterwards. They continued to play it reluctantly, usually stating how they have no respect for the people that wanted to hear it right before. They eventually cut the song from their setlist for a long period of time, and wrote "My Iron Lung" as a reaction ("This / This is our new song / Just like the last one / A total waste of time / My iron lung.") They even asked every single band who were playing on the Pyramid Stage (which they headlined) at [[UsefulNotes/GlastonburyFestival Glastonbury 2003]] if they'd be so kind to perform it so they didn't have to (the duty was taken up by Music/{{Moby}} instead). Since 2009, however, the band has a much kinder stance towards "Creep" and now play it in concert often; It seems that they've warmed up to it now that they've long since escaped its shadow. They've played "Creep" several times in 2009, 10 times in 2016 and 5 times in 2017 (including their Coachella and Glastonbury sets), each time receiving a warm reception from the audience.
** The band as a whole aren't that fond of the early non-album single "[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Pop is Dead]]", to the point where it's the only officially-released song of theirs not available on streaming services.

* DenialOfDigitalDistribution: For a long while, the band openly refused to make their material officially available on any digital platform (barring ''Music/InRainbows'' and its "pay what you want" service), citing issues with the way they operated in regards to artist royalties. They eventually changed their opinion in 2016, with almost their entire backlog being made available on all digital download and streaming platforms as part of the Radiohead Public Library, a wider project that saw their backlog RereleasedForFree. The only song ''not'' put up was "Pop is Dead", a huge OldShame for the band.

** The band's 1993 non-album single "Pop is Dead" has not been officially available in any form since 2009, when it was included without their permission on a deluxe edition re-release of ''Pablo Honey'', due to it being an OldShame for the band. When Radiohead made their back-catalog available on streaming services in 2016, "Pop is Dead" was the only song not put up, leaving older releases and unofficial reuploads the only means of listening to it.

* OldShame: The ''Pablo Honey'' era in general. Songs from then are virtually never performed anymore, with the exception of "Creep" every dozen or so shows. It also had [[SoBadItsGood incredibly memorable]] performances such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXUBE_wiPtU this one]], in which Thom starts screaming and jumps into a pool.

* ScheduleSlip: From ''Pablo Honey'' to ''Hail to the Thief'': six albums in ten years. After ''Hail to the Thief'' to 2022: three more albums in 19 years.

* BeamMeUpScotty: In addition to the quote about "Street Spirit" under GodNeverSaidThat below, several other fake Thom quotes, primilarily from [[http://thomyorke.atspace.com/ this website]], have been spread around the Internet as if they were real, no matter how outrageous they are. Someone even wrote [[https://www.wmirwinsblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/quote-of-weekfrom-thom-yorke.html a blog post]] about one such quote, in which Thom allegedly suggests ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' is an allegory for capitalism!

* ChannelHop: The band first signed to Creator/ParlophoneRecords in the UK and Creator/CapitolRecords in the US. When they completed their contract with the labels with ''Music/HailToTheThief'', they decided to make ''Music/InRainbows'' a self-released album, rebuffing attempts by Creator/{{EMI}} to renew the band's old contract out of distaste towards their new owners, Terra Firma. Instead, Radiohead signed with Creator/XLRecordings for the physical release of ''In Rainbows'', releasing both that album and ''Music/TheKingOfLimbs'' under the one-off vanity imprints TBD and Ticker Tape, respectively, before releasing ''Music/AMoonShapedPool'' through XL alone. XL would also inherit the Parlophone/Capitol material after EMI dissolved in 2012.

-->''"Street Spirit" is our purest song, but I didn’t write it. It wrote itself. We were just its messengers; its biological catalysts. Its core is a complete mystery to me, and, you know, I wouldn’t ever try to write something that hopeless. All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve. Street Spirit has no resolve. It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. It represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that melody is its only definition. We all have a way of dealing with that song. It’s called detachment. Especially me; I detach my emotional radar from that song, or I couldn’t play it. I’d crack. I’d break down on stage. That’s why its lyrics are just a bunch of mini-stories or visual images as opposed to a cohesive explanation of its meaning. I used images set to the music that I thought would convey the emotional entirety of the lyric and music working together. That’s what’s meant by ‘all these things you’ll one day swallow whole’. I meant the emotional entirety, because I didn’t have it in me to articulate the emotion. I’d crack… Our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them, or maybe they don’t realise what they’re listening to. They don’t realise that Street Spirit is about staring the fucking devil right in the eyes, and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he’ll get the last laugh. And it’s real, and true. The devil really will get the last laugh in all cases without exception, and if I let myself think about that too long, I’d crack. I can’t believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song. That’s why I’m convinced that they don’t know what it’s about. It’s why we play it towards the end of our sets. It drains me, and it shakes me, and hurts like hell every time I play it, looking out at thousands of people cheering and smiling, oblivious to the tragedy of its meaning, like when you’re going to have your dog put down and it’s wagging its tail on the way there. That’s what they all look like, and it breaks my heart. I wish that song hadn’t picked us as its catalysts, and so I don’t claim it. It asks too much. I didn’t write that song."''

** After regaining the rights to their catalog, Radiohead withdrew the non-album single "Pop Is Dead" -- which they openly regretted making -- from circulation. It was last seen on the 2009 collector's edition of ''Music/PabloHoney'', which, like the other collector's editions of their first six albums, was put out by Creator/ParlophoneRecords without the band's consent, and currently stands as their only officially-released song not available on digital platforms.

* ReferencedBy: In ''Film/DearEvanHansen'', Evan has a poster for Radiohead in his room.

* FanNickname: "Genchildren" for the untitled hidden track to ''Kid A''. The first widespread digital leak of the album put the word "Genchildren" in front of all the song titles, which was the screenname of the person who leaked it; since the leak had the piece ripped as its own track and it didn't have an official title, it was simply labeled "Genchildren" - some fans who downloaded the leak deleted the "genchildren" tag from the tags and file names to make it easier to organize their music files, but left it on the last track since it had no other text, making it less apparent to people who downloaded it secondhand that it was never intended as a song title. It's still occasionally called "Genchildren" by fans, if only because there's not really any other shorthand way to refer to the piece on its own.

* BuryYourArt: After regaining the rights to their catalog, Radiohead withdrew the non-album single "Pop Is Dead" -- which they openly regretted making -- from circulation. It was last seen on the 2009 collector's edition of ''Music/PabloHoney'', which, like the other collector's editions of their first six albums, was put out by Creator/ParlophoneRecords without the band's consent, and currently stands as their only officially-released song not available on digital platforms.

** A music video for "Let Down" was in the works but not publicly released. Thom Yorke felt it was "shite".

* BuryYourArt: After regaining the rights to their catalog, Radiohead withdrew the non-album single "Pop Is Dead" -- which they openly regretted making -- from circulation. It was last seen on the 2009 collector's edition of ''Music/PabloHoney'', which was put out by Creator/ParlophoneRecords without the band's consent, and currently stands as their only officially-released song not available on digital platforms.

* FanNickname: "Genchildren" for the untitled hidden track to ''Kid A''. The first widespread digital leak of the album put the word "Genchildren" in front of all the song titles, which was the screenname of the person who leaked it; since the leak had the hidden track ripped as its own track and it didn't have an official title, it was simply labeled "Genchildren", leading to some confusion at first. It's still occasionally called "Genchildren" by fans, if only because there's not really any other shorthand way to refer to the piece on its own.