Proving the latest batch of NARAS nominees is less a momentary fluke of good taste and more a concerted effort to Matter In 2009, the Grammys are blowing out this year’s show with the most self-consciously hip advertising campaign to date. What that means, alongside subway posters of Lil Wayne and Chris Martin, is a TV ad in which Thom Yorke of critically acclaimed rock band The Radioheads talks about David Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes” video being weird as fuck while a portrait of his visage is created out of dope song titles, Jay-Z typographic illustration style. No alarms, maybe a little surprising:
Here’s a static version:
Click on your favorite song name to make it bigger. Unfortunately no Radiohead performance at the show, although Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, and Katy Perry are confirmed for the telecast. The Grammys air on February 8th, live from the Staples Center in LA.
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that’s funny b/c radiohead usually skip the grammyys. doubtful they’ll even show up. i think they went once and that’s it.
I think he may have been advised to keep the song titles semi-recognizable. I mean REM, Elvis Costello, and the Verve are all really great, but I am pretty sure he has some larger influences that aren’t as popular as those listed. Still, pretty fucking sweet for the Grammys.
“the wrong coat for you mt. heart attack” and “meat grinder” both made their way onto the portrait, so it’s definitely not all mainstream stuff.
He’s got some weird stuff in there. I imagine the advertisers just latched onto whatever recognizable stuff he happened to include.
A+ on Vose In. As close as Autechre will ever get to the Grammys, and as close as I will ever get to caring.
Even though he probably didn’t, Im going to believe that Thom Yorke designed that poster, and decided to make Unravel as big as he did, so he could pay respect to the genius of Bjork.
Not that I’d need another reason to love him, though.
Agreed!!! Apparently it is his most favourite (euro spelling) song ever: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unravel
re: the first comment
i know thom yorke has mentioned REM (and michael stipe in particular) as one of his biggest influences.
The bands name is RADIOHEAD, not “the radioheads”. get it right!
clik our pic!!
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you dipshit…
The minute I saw that joke in the article, I knew something like this was gonna happen.
fuck your band
well done, but still awful bizarre to me.
I’m not sure that that commercial really does what its mean to do, it definitely didnt make me want to watch the grammys, maybe the ashes to ashes video though.
weirdly had the same effect on me! haha
What the hell is Kill Bill Vol. 4???
“Kill Bill Vol. 4″ is a song by the Berlin-based electronic music duo Modeselektor.
Something missing here? I find it strange that they don’t mention that it’s THOM YORKE OF RADIOHEAD at the beginning (or Thom Yorke of Radiohead, You Know That Band Who Had The Song Creep in the 90s?). I mean how many CBS/Grammys watchers even know who Radiohead is, much less Thom Yorke, much less can identify him by simply his voice and face?
And if the reason for that is to appeal to a different audience, won’t the inevitable “LIVE PERFORMANCES FROM KENNY CHESNEY AND THE JONAS BROTHERS” commercials counteract any goodwill this thing creates? Is the answer as simple as: The Grammys think we are all idiots?
The reason I don’t give a shit about the Grammys and probably never will is that they seem to care much more about getting viewers than they do about music. The minute they start to show that they actually give a fuck about music — any kind of music — maybe I’ll pay attention. As it is, winning a Grammy doesn’t mean shit in terms of prestige or credibility. And it’s going to take a whole lot more than transparent marketting to change that.
The Radioheads? is that a joke?
I like how Unravel is the biggest, probably because it’s his favourite song.
Love Thom Yorke grammy or no grammy, kinda surprised that he did this along with Rihanna and Lil Wayne, but it’s still cool to open up the newspaper and see a picture of Thom Yorke.
“Thom Yorke of critically acclaimed rock band The Radioheads”
I agree with B, idiots