This Isn't Happening: Radiohead's "Kid A" and the Beginning of the 21st Century Hardcover – September 29, 2020

I had written a review about this book before but retracted it as I felt I was unfair in my assessment and I will explain. I initially gave it 3 stars. I had been disgruntled because I had taken the time to email the author a Dissertation that was written on Kid A several years ago. I sent it to him and asked if he would tell me if he enjoyed it once he read it, a pretty benign request in my opinion. I never heard any feedback which I found to be a little uncourteous. After reading my review, the author replied to my email and was not very professional, downright rude, and even insulted me. I genuinely thought he would enjoy the document, it was a sincere gesture. I took the high road and did not engage in insults or rudeness, just simply explained my reasons and apologized for not being fairer, only to be insulted again. I completely understood why he would be upset, I judged unfairly but the reaction was over the top. So here I am writing a new review and as you can see I upped it to 4 stars not holding a grudge over his rude emails. There are much harsher reviews on here than what I wrote, hopefully, they did not get berated by the author as well. Anyway, about the book, I think it is a good book for the beginner Radiohead fan. It pulls together info from interviews, articles, and the author's own opinions and inferences. The most enjoyable thing for me about this book as a huge fan of Radiohead was the nice stroll down memory lane as far as the references to the interviews and articles but there is nothing revelatory for the true fan. He does an ok job of placing the album against the backdrop of the time period of its release that I found interesting. He does everything in pretty broad strokes, sometimes going off on tangents that are barely relevant but it is an easy and pleasant read. You can connect with the author when he talks about his own listening experience but it's only a small part of the book. There is no deep dive into the lyrics or music, if you want that, I recommend Brad Osborne's book Everything in its Right Place. If you are a Radiohead fan that consumes everything Radiohead, you won't be blown away but if you are new to the band, it's a decent read. I increased it to 4 (not quite) stars because I had to remember that not all fans are equal and for a casual fan, this may be revelatory. Personally, I would never buy anything written by this author again due to his very rude emails but I needed to rectify my mistake of not being fair in my prior review. This is a book you check out of the library or buy at a used book store if you have to have everything Radiohead related.

October. Autumn. Kid A. College dorm. If those four things make you feel some kind of way, or make warm feelings bubble in your guttyworks, this is very much your book. I read this book in one day, couldn't put it down. It took me back there to that place John Prine calls "the valley of the unconcerned." I hung on the words the way I hung on a LimeWire download of Treefingers at 1% via Ethernet cable. We were those kind of kids who had a college radio show with the All Radiohead Special on release day, complete with demo versions of Motion Picture Soundtrack from Napster; who intensely watched the stream of Kid A on MTV (a single fixed camera on a black and white turntable, on a loop) in a dark dorm room; who sent those free, glossy postcards with the Kid A Bear on them to ourselves from the Radiohead website just to hang them in our spaces; who ordered the weird cardboard kid's book with CD by "Stanley and Tchock" no matter how high priced. I thrashed early and often to The National Anthem in a room where no one could see me, like a wild self-exorcism. To re-live that very, very specific slice of lived history was a gift right now in the middle of an ice age coming. So thank you, Steven Hyden!

Partway toward the middle of the book, to paraphrase, there's a line to the extent of "you're reading a book about Kid A, so you probably already know this." There are no alarms and no surprises here, to throw out a Radiohead pun, which the author himself does several times throughout the book (these range from slightly cringey to a good chuckle, depending on the context).It's a good look at the history of Radiohead, the historical context of the world and the band, before during and after the creation of the album. To that extent, the book really shines. The least interesting moments are when the author explores and makes parallels with other artists and their careers. There's also a record store clerk-esque wank in which the author explores, at length, his own bastard child playlist offspring of a combined Kid A and Amnesiac... which feels almost Patrick Bateman explaining the history of Genesis level jarring.But overall, it's good. If you're the type of person that would be interested in this book, you're probably going to like it, but you probably already knew that.

I admittedly have never read a book that was singularly focused on just one album before. Seeing as Kid A is an all-time favorite album of mine, one that became a central talking and bonding moment between my high school friends, this book seemed like an obvious pick. Released in late 2000, I was a sophomore in high school and in the prime of truly discovering my musical tastes. The influence of Radiohead upon those tastes cannot be understated.So it is with that nostalgia and love for this album that I gleefully embraced this book. I can actually claim to know the author from being able to work with him many years ago in Milwaukee and seeing his rise to highly respected and acclaimed music critic has been a joy to watch. Steven Hyden has taken another chance at cross-culture writing like his previous books, but this time using that ability to better understand the history of Kid A, how it was made and its legacy.If you like Radiohead, if you like learning about pop culture, music, rock, movies, or want to reflect on this now 20-year-old album, do yourself a favor and pick this up.

Completamente disfrutable; Lectura básica y complemento para conocer más sobre ese especial periodo de la banda hasta el día de hoy; más aún hacerlo para reeescuchar toda la discografía del grupo y sus proyectos en solitario, incluyendo sus EPs.

a decent summary. much of the info you can glean from wikipedia. if there’s value added, it’s the author’s tangents into the context surrounding radiohead’s music. how you feel about the book will depend on how interesting you find these tangents.

Si eres fan de RH es un libro imperdible de que debes tener en tu acervo.

If you like music journalism then you will like this. It's a fun and engaging read, and I think the author is self-aware enough to realise he's over-thinking it in places. I like the idea of focusing on a single piece of work though, rather than the usual timeline biographies.

All information related to Radiohead is great. All comparisons to other bands is laughable. I mean, comparison to linkin park?General discussion about the state of the planet then and now is generally good.