I don’t have a very exciting story about how I became a Radiohead fan. I began listening to Radiohead music without having a broken heart or a life-altering event that was taking place. At that time, I did not give much thought to Radiohead music, but I have noticed that the band’s name was appearing more and more in playlists. What was special about Radiohead is that instead of stirring new emotions within me, their songs let me learn to recognize again a type of melancholy that exists within its most basic, elemental form—the raw form of humanity—and is normally overlooked or repressed.
Hearing them began to be like being understood without having to be questioned, as if their songs were aware of this hidden unease within me but did not expect an answer to or resolution of that unease. This is when there were a few tracks that particularly stood out. The first one that struck me was Street Spirit.
The thing is that its lyrics don’t relate a story in the classic way; they comment on a state of affairs. There is no liberation, no liberation moment—simply endurance. It is the sensation of pressing onward while knowing there is no definitive endpoint in sight. Street Spirit is about more than hope; it is about truth, and in that truth is a peculiar solace—knowing that fatigue is not an isolated experience either.
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes All these things into position All these things we’ll swallow whole
Tracks such as "No Surprises" and "Lucky" express two contradictory attitudes towards this world. "No Surprises" is very gently undermined, verging on the childlike in its melody but profoundly grim in its content. The vocals talk of tiredness, as opposed to rebellion, and the desire is not to escape, but to be left alone. "No Surprises" is a song of emotional submission, of a life that’s become too burdensome to challenge. "Lucky," on the other hand, is a track of provisional hope. It is a track that does neither celebrate nor assume anything, but is relieved to be alive. Thus, "No Surprises" and "Lucky," taken together, show how Radiohead rejects the binarity of human emotion, selecting instead the difficult terrain in-between.
With time, Radiohead not only influenced my listening routines but also influenced my perception of art in general. I no longer looked forward to being comforted by music and having an opportunity to release any emotions that I needed to release. I began to embrace the pain and confusion that music could evoke. 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' by Radiohead, from the album “In Rainbows” (2008), encompasses all this confusion beautifully. There is an underpinning tension in the song that symbolizes the emotional breakdown that occurs in the song—half-attempts at talking, halfway moments that never actually occur. The song symbolizes being stuck in your own head as the rest of the world keeps on turning. Radiohead is not music for everyone, nor does it ever try. Their music never lends itself to easy access or immediate reward. It is not passive listening music, refusing to meet halfway. Rather, it demands waiting, listening, and endurance to tolerate discontent. In society where immediacy and simplicity are cherished, such uncompromising music from Radiohead can prove to be alienating. It never tries to breach that distance to let in everyone, but filters the listeners to accommodate only those who want to participate, not consume.
This realization struck me in December of 2025 in Berlin. I attended the final show of their 2025 tour. Being in the audience, I cried for almost two and a half hours straight. Being greeted with the live version of "Karma Police" resonated on an incredibly personal level with me, as if the song I’d been quietly harboring in my heart all these years was finally reflected back at me in a magnified and irreducible form. That evening stood out as one of the most significant concerts of my life after Coldplay and Green Day concerts—and not due to the show being flawless but due to the sincerity it emitted. Closing the show with "Karma Police" simply could not have been any other way. It was an amazing setlist and there could have been no other final song for me.