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Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments), Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums, percussion, backing vocals). They have worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994.

Radiohead have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Their work places highly in both listener polls and critics' lists of the best music of the 1990s and 2000s. In 2005, they were ranked 73rd in Rolling Stone's list of "The Greatest Artists of All Time"; Jonny Greenwood (48th) and O'Brien were both included in Rolling Stone's list of greatest guitarists, and Yorke (66th) in their list of greatest singers. In 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the second-best artist of the 2000s.

Style and songwriting

Among Radiohead members' earliest influences were Queen, Pink Floyd and Elvis Costello, post-punk acts such as Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Magazine, and significantly 1980s alternative rock bands such as U2, R.E.M., Pixies, the Smiths and Sonic Youth. By the mid-1990s, Radiohead began to adopt some recording methods from hip hop, inspired by the sampling work of DJ Shadow, and became interested in using computers to generate sounds. Other influences on the group include the jazz music of Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus and Alice Coltrane, the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, 1960s rock groups such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and Phil Spector's "wall of sound" production technique.

The electronic music of Kid A and Amnesiac was inspired by Yorke's admiration for glitch, ambient techno and IDM as exemplified by Warp Records artists such as Autechre and Aphex Twin; in 2013, Yorke named Aphex Twin as biggest influence. The album also samples early computer music. The jazz of Charles Mingus, Alice Coltrane and Miles Davis, and 1970s krautrock bands such as Can and Neu!, were other major influences during this period. Jonny Greenwood's interest in 20th century classical music also had a role, as the influence of composers Krzysztof Penderecki and Olivier Messiaen was apparent; for several songs on Kid A and later albums, Greenwood has played the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument popularised by Messiaen.

Recording In Rainbows, Radiohead members mentioned a variety of rock, electronic, hip hop and experimental musicians as influences, including Björk, M.I.A, Liars, Modeselektor and Spank Rock. In 2011, Yorke denied that Radiohead had ever set out deliberately to change musical styles or to make "experimental music", saying the band was "constantly absorbing music" and that a variety of musicians are always influencing their work. Drummer Clive Deamer, who has recorded and performed with Radiohead since 2011, said that Radiohead did not see themselves as a rock band and felt their methodology had closer parallels with jazz: “they deliberately try to avoid cliché and standard forms for the sake of the song ... Rock bands don’t do that. It’s far more like a jazz mentality."

Since their formation, Radiohead have been lyrically and musically spearheaded by Yorke. Although Yorke is responsible for writing nearly all the lyrics, songwriting is a collaborative effort, with all the band members having roles in the process; all the band's songs are officially credited to "Radiohead". Radiohead songs usually begin with a sketch by Yorke, which is harmonically developed by Jonny Greenwood before the other members develop their own parts. The Kid A and Amnesiac sessions brought about a change in Radiohead's musical style and working method. Since their shift from conventional rock music instrumentation toward an emphasis on electronic sound, the members have gained flexibility and now regularly switch instruments depending on the particular song requirements. On Kid A and Amnesiac, Yorke played keyboard and bass, while Jonny Greenwood often played ondes Martenot rather than guitar, bassist Colin Greenwood worked on sampling, and O'Brien and Selway branched out to drum machines and digital manipulations, also finding ways to incorporate their primary instruments, guitar and percussion, respectively, into the new sound. The relaxed 2003 recording sessions for Hail to the Thief led to a different dynamic in Radiohead, with Yorke admitting in interviews that his power in the band had been "absolutely unbalanced" and that he would "subvert everybody else's power at all costs. But ... it's actually a lot more healthy now, democracy-wise, than it used to be."

Collaborators

Radiohead have maintained a close relationship with a number of frequent collaborators. Producer Nigel Godrich made his name with Radiohead, working with the band as an audio engineer on The Bends and as their producer on every studio album afterwards. He has been dubbed the "sixth member" of the band, in an allusion to George Martin being called the "Fifth Beatle". In 2016, Godrich said of the collaboration: "I can only ever have one band like Radiohead who I've worked with for this many years. That's a very deep and profound relationship. The Beatles could only have ever had one George Martin; they couldn't have switched producers halfway through their career. All that work, trust, and knowledge of each other would have been thrown out of the window and they'd have to start again."

Graphic artist Stanley Donwood met Yorke when both were art students, and with Yorke has produced all of Radiohead's album covers and visual artwork since 1994. Donwood works in the studio with the band as they record, allowing the music to influence the artwork. He and Yorke won a Grammy in 2002 for the special edition of Amnesiac packaged as a library book.

Dilly Gent has been responsible for commissioning all Radiohead music videos since OK Computer, working with the band to find a director suitable for each project. Since Radiohead's inception, Andi Watson has been their lighting and stage director, designing the visuals of live concerts, such as the carbon-neutral "LED forest" of the In Rainbows tour. Radiohead's chief live technician, Peter "Plank" Clements, has worked with the band since before The Bends, overseeing the setup of their instruments for studio recordings and live performances. Drummer Clive Deamer has performed and recorded with Radiohead since 2011.