This Isn't Happening

Radiohead's "Kid A" and the Beginning of the 21st Century

By: Steven Hyden

Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

The making and meaning of Radiohead's groundbreaking, controversial, epoch-defining album, Kid A.

In 1999, as the end of an old century loomed, five musicians entered a recording studio in Paris without a deadline. Their band was widely recognized as the best and most forward-thinking in rock, a rarefied status granting them the time, money, and space to make a masterpiece. But Radiohead didn't want to make another rock record. Instead, they set out to create the future.

For more than a year, they battled writer's block, inter-band disagreements, and crippling self-doubt. In the end, however, they produced an album that was not only a complete departure from their prior guitar-based rock sound, it was the sound of a new era, and embodied widespread changes catalyzed by emerging technologies just beginning to take hold of the culture.

What they created was Kid A. At the time, Radiohead's fourth album divided critics. Some called it an instant classic; others, including the U.K. music magazine Melody Maker, deemed it "Tubby, ostentatious, self-congratulatory...whiny old rubbish". But two decades later, Kid A sounds like nothing less than an overture for the chaos and confusion of the 21st century.

Acclaimed rock critic Steven Hyden digs deep into the songs, history, legacy, and mystique of Kid A, outlining the album's pervasive influence and impact on culture, in time for its 20th anniversary. Deploying a mix of criticism, journalism, and personal memoir, Hyden skillfully revisits this enigmatic, alluring LP and investigates the many ways in which Kid A shaped and foreshadowed our world.

©2020 Steven Hyden (P)2020 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

"Hyden provides a thorough primer on the sound of Kid A...But Hyden truly excels at illuminating the context of Kid A, from the prerelease expectations to the oft-rapturous reviews to the music's ultimate legacy." (The Ringer)

"This Isn't Happening is beyond a mere analysis of Kid A. It is a vast and contextual examination of the world, both inside and outside of Radiohead, leading up to and flowing away from the creation of Kid A and its impact on both the band and culture as a whole. Connecting the record to film, politics, current events, and the cultural morass that comprised the final moments of the '90s, Steven Hyden gleefully and with meticulous absurdity dissects, deconstructs, and decodes the first great artistic enigma of the new millennium." (Alex Ross Perry, writer/director of Her Smell, Listen Up Philip and The Color Wheel)

"This Isn't Happening not only is an excellent way to revisit Kid A but also a springboard for thinking about the shifting fortunes of rock music, the Internet, and the uneasy century we've been living in for the past 20 years." (Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend)

Interesting Listen

Overall I enjoyed it. It's true that he meanders a bit but afterall it is called "Kid A AND The Beginning of the 21st Century" so it's not supposed to just be about Kid A. It also helps to set the mood of the time period. Those of us of a certain age remember the "Hipster v. Nu Metal" Wars of the early 2000's so bringing it up enhances the experience. Sure 9/11's effect on media is overdone but it's overdone precisely because it had a huge impact.

My main criticism is that the author often comes off as overly cynical of the present, (especially the present internet), but maybe that's because I'm a couple of years younger than he is so it was there a little earlier in my life and I acclimated to it quicker. Still, overall I thought it was worth the listen as a big fan of this album.

Entertaining journey into an all-time album

I love Hyden's writing style. He mixes well-researched factual information with a wonderful narrative that ties it all together.

Even diehard Radiohead fans will learn a lot from this book.

Can't recommend it enough!

I Love Radiohead, but geesh

I thought the author went a little too far out in the deep end about this record. Injecting way too much politics and BS into a rock bands recording and relevance to social issues. I bought this because I love talking about music, and Radiohead is a great band, But all the political Rants made this a very irritating listen.

Amazing read but…

My goosebumps had goosebumps getting immersed in this book. The adrenaline rushes that the author created by tapping into my memories of the absolutely mind-blowing shows I saw with my friends in the early 00’s brought me to the verge of tears on multiple occasions. But to find out basically at the end of the book that the author never saw a single show during these years and only finally got around to seeing Radiohead once their live performances had taken a dramatic tumble downhill cheapened the entire read for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought the author did a top notch job tapping into everything we the listeners were feeling at the time. But to have never seen it first person? And to wait until the very end of the book to tell the reader? Left a bad taste in my mouth.

True Love Reads

50% really good graduate level research paper/50%?decent opinion piece by a fan of the band. If you are a long-time Radiohead fan, you probably won’t learn anything new of any real import. It was worth listening to, I suppose.

Fantastic Read

This was a great view into the creation of Kid A! I loved the humor, stories and pre and post Kid A history provided!

Sucking a Lemon

I’m not sure what I was expecting. I love Radiohead. I’ve got Radiohead tattoos. I’m of the limited view that Kid A isn’t even a top 3 Radiohead record (that’d be Ok, Rainbows and Amnesiac. With enough drinks in me I could argue HTTT and Bends are better records also).

I was hoping that something here would change my mind. If anything I left more entrenched. It is perfectly serviceable nostalgia for those of us of a certain vintage, however. In that spirit it’s on point.

Decent for new Radiohead fans, nostalgists

Even as a much younger Radiohead fan than Hyden, forums like Reddit have filled me in on more about the band as I’ve followed them over the last decade or so. This book patched together some gaps for me, and provided a few interesting perspectives when couching Radiohead amongst other parts of the music scene in the 90s and early aughts, but it ended up feeling like a long fan forum post that got padded out to justify a full book release alongside a major Radiohead anniversary.

Fantastic

Loved the book. The narration is great. Lots of great Radiohead info and stories of other bands and stuff from around the release of Kid a in 2000.

It’s interesting history and perspectice

I really enjoy the author’s story and perspective through from the 80s to the 2010s and how the internet affected the world politically, sometimes the author gets a little preachy and sluggish with his opinions of the internet, especially in the middle. I enjoyed the book especially the beginning and the end was so cozy on how Radiohead and the rock genre changed overtime. its a good book and has soul in it