In the history of rock, Radiohead will have a pretty substantial chapter. Oasis will be a paragraph and a footnote or two. Oasis want to be rockstars, Radiohead want to be artists. Both have succeeded, IMO.
I agree with a previous post that Radiohead has made my tastes more open to different music.
Good point. Although in a roundabout way you are proving what I MEANT to say.
The people I meant (NOT necessarily you Tanbarkie) listen to Radiohead, move on to music like them, and shun the “popular” stuff once it comes out, because they are so caught up in their different sounding “sonic palette”.
If you like the first two Oasis albums and then grew tired of all the drama then forget Oasis and go get all the Stereophonics albums you can get your hands on.
Radiohead. Even Pablo Honey is a perfectly serviceable Britpop album. It doesn’t measure up to what came later but even the weakest link in the chain is still fun.
Oasis practically wore their Beatles inspiration on their sleeves. But ironically, as mentioned in this thread, Radiohead practically became the Beatles of my generation because of their vision, talent and artistic ambitions.
Radiohead is simply more intellectually engaging, on several levels. Even though I think they have been more uneven in their later efforts, they still release songs that on the level as anything they’ve released prior. They evolve and challenge themselves.
In any case, if I were in a “Brit-pop” mood, I would choose Blur over Oasis anyhow.
Like many others in this thread, I love Oasis, but would pick Radiohead over them any day of the week. It has nothing to do with being fashionable, and everything to do with being a more talented and interesting band. (I still hold that WtSMG is one of the most perfect rock albums ever produced, however)
I’d choose Muse over them all. But that may just be my man-crush on Matt Bellamy speaking.
I would put Radiohead on my list of ten favourite artists but then, when I really think about it I realize it’s Oasis I keep selecting from the CD rack.
They aren’t two bands that I would ever put in the same category. For me, Radiohead has a bunch of really cool unique stand out songs spread out amongst otherwise mediocre or at best atmospheric albums. Oasis has a generally more consistent and listener friendly sound, concentrated mostly in one awesome album, with declining quality in subsequent albums.
I’ve been amazed by Radiohead since Pablo Honey. Saw them on the Bends tour, then on the OK Computer one, then Amnesiac, then Hail to the Thief.
Two of the gigs (1 and 3 above) were the best live music I’ve ever experienced (the other two sucked).
Whereas Oasis - one album of passable anthemic pub rock in my opinion, with almost none of the musical depth of the other band. I don’t find them comparable.
I’m a big Radiohead fan and I never saw the appeal of Oasis. Even their most popular songs struck me as soggy and mediocre. When Oasis was new on the scene, the music press liked to compare them to the Beatles, but the Beatles never whined that much. Not even close.
All the ones I heard on the radio during the 1990s. And on top of that was the bitching the Gallagher brothers were always doing in the press: if they weren’t insulting each other, they were trashing other bands.
A few additions. The first CD from Doves is sublime (and better than anything Oasis ever did or will do, IMO. The Stone Roses, Massive Attack, Elastica.
Radiohead, being so truly experimental and musically serious bring to mind other kinds of bands: The Chameleons, the Smiths, the Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, even Depeche Mode.
Oasis could maybe cobble together a decent album in the entirety of their career, and almost all the songs would be from the first two albums + a B-side or two.
I’m not sure I’m such a huge Radiohead fan either, although they are many orders above Oasis, and they at least experiment. I like Kid A and Amnesiac a lot.
Anyway, here’s two cover versions from Radiohead playing around that are fucking great:
I was brainwashed some time ago into liking Oasis so I’ll have to go with them. Radiohead just…eh, not my thing, but there is aboslutely nothing sensical about what I like and what I don’t. (Frex: NAS “I Can”? Good. NAS “anything other than ‘I Can’?” Bad.)