Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The group consists of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway. The five musicians first played together under the name On a Friday while attending Abingdon School. After spending several years away at university, they reunited in 1991 and began performing regularly. They later changed their name to Radiohead, borrowing it from a song by Talking Heads.
Radiohead signed with EMI and released their debut album, Pablo Honey, in 1993. Its single "Creep" became an international hit, reaching the Top 10 in the United Kingdom and establishing the band in the United States. Although the song's distorted guitars and alienated lyrics gave Radiohead a place within the alternative-rock boom, the band resisted being defined by its first success. Their second album, The Bends (1995), revealed a more expansive and emotionally detailed group. Songs such as "Fake Plastic Trees," "Just" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" combined dramatic guitar arrangements with a growing sense of atmosphere.
Radiohead's breakthrough as an important album band came with OK Computer (1997). Blending guitar rock with electronic textures, orchestral color and studio experimentation, the record addressed technological anxiety, political unease and modern disconnection without abandoning strong melodies. It reached number one in the United Kingdom and became one of the defining albums of the 1990s. The accompanying videos reinforced the band's visual identity: the animated "Paranoid Android" presented a surreal world of grotesque characters, while Jonathan Glazer's videos for "Street Spirit" and "Karma Police" used stark, cinematic imagery.
Rather than repeat the formula of OK Computer, Radiohead moved toward abstraction. Kid A (2000) emphasized synthesizers, sampling, processed vocals and unconventional song structures, yet it became the band's first album to top the US Billboard 200. Material from the same period also appeared on Amnesiac (2001). Together, the albums established Radiohead as a band willing to place experimentation ahead of conventional expectations. Hail to the Thief (2003) brought guitars and sharper political themes back into focus, while retaining the electronic and textural elements that had become central to their sound.
In 2007, Radiohead released In Rainbows independently through a pioneering pay-what-you-want digital model before issuing physical editions through XL Recordings. The album balanced electronic production with some of the band's most direct and warmly performed songs, including "Nude," "Reckoner" and "Jigsaw Falling into Place." The King of Limbs (2011) explored looping rhythms and densely layered electronic patterns. Their ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool (2016), combined piano, strings, electronic detail and Yorke's uneasy vocals in a more elegiac style. Its songs included "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming," the latter accompanied by a video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
The members have also pursued substantial work outside Radiohead. Yorke has released solo albums and performed with Atoms for Peace, while Jonny Greenwood has become a prominent film composer, particularly through his collaborations with Anderson. O'Brien, Selway and Colin Greenwood have likewise undertaken solo, soundtrack and collaborative projects.
Radiohead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. After several years devoted mainly to side projects, the five members returned to the stage for a limited European series in 2025, their first Radiohead concerts since 2018. No tenth studio album has been confirmed, but the band's influence remains evident in alternative rock, electronic music, production and the artistic possibilities of the music video.