
This Isn't Happening

Social media transformed the web into a hall of mirrors in which your own opinions and preferences are distorted and reflected back at you, to the point where any other reality is pitched outside the frame and therefore rendered nonexistent, as long as you have curated your feed correctly. It is like living inside your own head for every hour of th
... See moreSteven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
One of the arguments presented in AZL’s “The Garden of Forking Memes”.
Years before Wikipedia or most other online resources, these sites were among the first places where Radiohead fans could go to learn basic information about the band, like a history of their EPs and single releases. It was also a clearinghouse for news items about whatever Radiohead happened to be doing in the studio or on the road.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
Pre-consolidated internet of the 90’s and 00’s enabled P2P, distributed information sharing. Radiohead’s entire story was narrativized by fans and validated via the band’s own narrative building when they launched their website and linked to fan sites.
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon. With any luck, I will wake up sucking a lemon tomorrow too.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
We get through the most unsavory segment of contemporary history - the 2000’s - with Kid A. If anything, it stands as a symbol that we can get through whatever is next. With or without Radiohead.
In either case, what was “real” was in fact extremely fictional. That was just how it was in the early ’00s. And you… accepted it.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
On the Iraq war, 9/11, and Bush presidency
You could read a song like “Idioteque” as a song about the evils of consumerism. (“Here I’m alive / everything all of the time.”) Or you could experience it as the primal manifestation of a collective subconscious that just happened to come out of Thom Yorke’s mouth when he was in a recording studio. I suspect he would prefer the latter.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
Is Thom an existentialist?
“To me, it’s about forces that aren’t necessarily human, forces that are creating this climate of fear. While making this record, I became obsessed with how certain people are able to inflict incredible pain on others while believing they’re doing the right thing. They’re taking people’s souls from them before they’re even dead.”
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
Thom on the name of “Hail to the Thief”
Being a successful musician means playacting all of your past traumas, and retaining your old identities like a collection of ratty sock puppets.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
You know the phrase “fuck-you money”? Radiohead will one day have “fuck-you” credibility.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
The past is at once familiar and weirdly unfamiliar. If you delve deep enough, you might find that you don’t really know who you ever really were. You’ll also discover the ways in which you’ve never changed, even from the time you were a child, your very own Kid A.
Steven Hyden • This Isn't Happening
I’m simultaneously looking forward and looking backward, trying to understand where I’m going and how I’ve gotten here. I do feel essentially the same though - unsure of what I stand for.
Kid A didn’t register as a warning about the dangers of the online world back then. It was an invitation to a place that seemed better than the one you were in. We argued with strangers for fun. We laughed until our heads came off. And we swallowed till we burst.