Origin of Similarity: Why Muse Is Not Radiohead
Published on January 30th, 2009 in: Issues, Music, Over the Gadfly's Nest |
Photo © Christian Lipski
The coworker hadn’t even heard the CD, but passed on the word of mouth, perpetuating the rumor. With the enormous amount of music being released at any one time, it’s not possible to know what any new band sounds like. This was especially true in the days before online sound clips. The curious listener has to rely on the impression of someone who has heard them, or has at least talked with someone else who has. And once the information is passed on, no further proof is needed. The trouble with rumor is well-known and affects all new bands, but the idea has unfortunately taken root among the musical press:
“Some might hesitate to proclaim the British trio anything but Radiohead knock-offs, but there’s no denying they put on one incredibly Bombastic Rock Show.”
Spin.com, August 7, 2007
The above comment was made eight years and four albums into Muse’s career, and ten years after Dean Carlson claims that Thom Yorke stopped wanting to sound like Radiohead. The old wives’ tale is obviously starting to wear a little thin; should it perhaps be updated to “Muse is a knock-off of the way Radiohead sounded ten to 12 years ago?” Or does Muse’s current style continue to ape the sound that Radiohead has changed to? More probable is that someone in 1999 wanted to describe the sound of a young band, and chose to draw a comparison to a more well-known band with three albums. Both bands had styles that leaned toward the cinematic, and both have lead singers with voices that ranged into the falsetto, so the use of one as an example for the other is reasonable. What isn’t reasonable, however, is the further assumption that the similarity is by necessity derived from the influence of one upon the other.
Photo © Christian Lipski
Matt Bellamy, lead singer of Muse, has heard people remark on his similarity to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke in interviews since the first album: “It depends on what level they say it,” he says, “If people say it as a comparison, that’s fair enough, but if they think that I try to copy him, that’s the thing that is difficult to swallow.” Rather, he cites a common influence: “Bellamy claims he’s just influenced by many of the same singers that Yorke also cites: Nina Simone and Jeff Buckley. ‘I find it a compliment as long as people know that I haven’t tried to emulate what he does: it’s my own thing.'” (Spin.com, 1999). In addition to having the same vocal inspiration, both Radiohead’s The Bends and Muse’s debut Showbiz were produced by John Leckie.
Rather than perpetuating the myth that Muse co-opted Radiohead’s musical style, I would prefer that music journalists of every caliber actually listen to the bands’ output and appreciate the differences between the two groups. Both were, at one time, dramatic and emotional, with soaring and swooping vocals, but Dean Carlson does have at least one observation that makes sense: Muse started with the same seed that Radiohead did and built musical structures that tower over the landscape. Radiohead, in its day, was more modest in its scope, and soon took the emotionality of Jeff Buckley in a different direction. Two separate concepts may be born from shared influences, but this does not make one the creator of the other, but rather its brother.
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12 Responses to “Origin of Similarity: Why Muse Is Not Radiohead”
January 31st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Hear hear! It irks me a great deal when people claim that Muse are a Radiohead rip-off; I love both bands and concur with this article.
January 31st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Exactly – You can like both bands, or one or the other, and see that they’re different.
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Radiohead WISHES they could rock as hard & coherently as Muse.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
i couldnt help but compare the two bands. Though largely different, you can hear the influence. The Bends plays an influence. “Just” and the “The Bends” are excellent examples.
April 19th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
PJ is a STP ripoff? Get your facts straight. PJ came out with an album first. These two bands don’t sound alike anyways. Muse wouldn’t be a band if it wasn’t for Radiohead. (I don’t even like Radiohead, but I always hear Muse songs on the radio and am not sure which band it is.)
April 19th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Sigh. If you’d read objectively instead of reacting, you’d see that the common element in those statements at the beginning of the article is that they are all obviously ridiculous. Although your rational and measured argument has convinced me that Muse owes its popularity to Radiohead. I retract this whole article.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:04 am
A fantastic article. I have fairly recently developed a deep love for Radiohead, having been a fan of Muse for a lot longer. I obviously knew about Radiohead and had ‘The Bends’, which was my Dad’s. When you listen to the two bands in this order, you see that Muse have a different set of influences altogether. Since when have Radiohead done anything remotely as heavy as ‘Absolution’?
August 5th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
i’m not quite sure why, but i do find this debate (tiresome) and infuriating, and am so glad that SOMEONE is finnaly broadcasting sense! i love muse and radiohead, and when someone said omg they’re the same! i was like ummmm…no..i never even thought of that, and just because thom and matt both sing in the same vocal range does not make them the same, they’re lyrics are different and they also have different guitar styles! thumbs up x1000 to this article, glad to see that not everyone has lost their minds 🙂
August 5th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
pinkegobox: Thanks! I have lost my mind, but I think I can keep these two bands separate. 🙂
November 1st, 2009 at 11:19 pm
As “Me” says earlier… please don’t compare STP to PJ. PJ happened in the early nineties when grunge was in it’s infancy. STP is more of a post-grunge thing…STP’s first album came out in the shadow of PJ’s first and definitive album. With “Plush”, STP’s lead singer (Scott Wieland) kind of sounded like PJ’s Eddie Vedder and thus got a bad rap. With each successive album, STP created a distinct sound. Now classic.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
And as I replied to “Me” earlier… Sigh. If you’d read objectively instead of reacting, you’d see that the common element in those statements at the beginning of the article is that they are all obviously ridiculous. But apparently not obvious enough to some.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:24 am
[…] Happily, I was well mistaken here. The DVD is filled to the brim with clips from videos and live performances, behind-the-scenes photos, and interviews with music journalists and key participants in the band’s rise. It’s two hours of in-depth study which should make the band’s fans glow with satisfaction. Starting from the band’s assemblage as Gothic Plague and then Rocket Baby Doll, the documentary traces the decisions and obstacles along the way to the top. The band’s first manager Safta Jaffrey explains how he was introduced to the band and immediately noticed their potential. He is also the one who brings up the initial comparison to Radiohead, which was noted by “a couple” of reviewers and then adopted by many others in what he terms “lazy journalism.” (See my article about this comparison here.). […]
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