Radiohead's subterranean jazz structuralism: the music of Louis Armstrong, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus in ten compositions by Radiohead

Carney, Peter

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/90547 Copy

Description

Title

Radiohead's subterranean jazz structuralism: the music of Louis Armstrong, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus in ten compositions by Radiohead

Author(s)

Carney, Peter

Issue Date

2016-04-21

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

McNeill, Charles

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

McNeill, Charles

Committee Member(s)

• Magee, Gayle
• Gray, Lawrence
• Pugh, James

Department of Study

Music

Discipline

Music

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

A.Mus.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• radiohead
• rock
• jazz
• miles davis
• louis armstrong
• coltrane
• alice coltrane
• them yorke
• jonny greenwood
• colin greenwood
• ed o'brien
• phil seaway
• music history
• ok computer
• kid a
• mehldau
• music
• structuralism
• music theory
• amnesiac
• creep
• bloom
• subterranean homesick alien
• music composition
• charles mingus
• mingus
• satchmo
• technology
• computer
• spiritual
• african-american
• african
• black
• everything in its right place
• ole
• kind of blue
• bitches brew
• pyramid song
• spanish key
• wonderful world
• beatles
• rock history
• american music
• grunge
• rolling stone
• king of limbs
• pink floyd
• swing
• blues
• afrocentric
• black music
• teo macro
• sampling
• musical
• fusion
• avant garde
• big band
• national anthem
• roots
• Jazz
• prog rock
• 70's
• millennial
• creativity
• innovation
• band

Abstract

"The objective of this dissertation is to define the undocumented jazz lineage of Radiohead's musical evolution that has been overlooked in the current academic discourse. Drawing on ten examples from Radiohead albums OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac and The King of Limbs, I hope to show their jazz structural modeling in three episodes of experimentation, advanced interactions, and synthesis. Across these three phases in its evolution, Radiohead's method remains constant in specific mirroring techniques of melody, harmony, form, texture, and lyrics. Inside the group's structural process, Radiohead composed two-part counterpoint melodies to their jazz models, adopted harmony with modal jazz progressions, designed parallel macro structures, duplicated textures, and responded directly to the lyrics of their jazz models. A side-by-side comparison of Radiohead compositions and their jazz models point to a detailed design guided by Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Alice Coltrane, and Charles Mingus. Above this transition through modeling, critics and journalists responded positively, as their reputation changed from being a ""Nirvana-lite"" grunge band to ""Re-Inventors of rock,"" as described by Time Magazine in 2000. Starting in 1996, Radiohead confused the industry by modeling Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew in their album OK Computer. After winning a Grammy award, their jazz inspired exodus continued deeper into jazz, and deeper into a new musical value system. This paper constructs a new profile of Radiohead's unidentified jazz emulations since 1996 by connecting comparative transcriptions, jazz references from interviews, and two new interviews conducted for this paper with Radiohead musicians from the albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). Without quoting jazz clichés or playing jazz fragments, Radiohead used a consistent practice of detailed imitation that I've coined as ""jazz structuralism"" to break out of their perceived limitations in the rock genre."

Graduation Semester

2016-05

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90547

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 Peter Carney

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