Synopsis

Radiohead stage a macabre funeral for pop music in the English countryside. Thom Yorke appears as a pale, theatrical figure dressed in formal clothes and enclosed in a glass coffin, while the band members gather around him in mismatched outfits. The group carries the coffin through the ancient landscape of Wayland's Smithy, creating an intentionally melodramatic spectacle. The video's gothic imagery, exaggerated performances, and low-budget surrealism turn the song's attack on commercial pop into a darkly comic visual epitaph.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed at Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic long barrow in Oxfordshire.

• Thom Yorke's character was presented as a "dandified vampire" representing Pop, with the glass coffin serving as the video's central image.

• Yorke supplied the video's treatment. Members of Radiohead's fan club helped carry the coffin during filming.

• EMI provided a stylist and money for the band's clothing. The musicians chose sharply different looks, leaving them appearing, in Colin Greenwood's later description, as though they belonged to four separate bands.

• The video was made for "Pop Is Dead," Radiohead's non-album single released on May 10, 1993. The single reached number 42 on the UK Singles Chart.

• The band later distanced itself from both the song and video. Ed O'Brien called the release a "hideous mistake," while Philip Selway said he regretted putting it out.

• "Pop Is Dead" was omitted from the band's later online archive and is not generally available through mainstream streaming services, adding to the video's reputation as an early artifact Radiohead would rather leave behind.