Date of Award
2-23-2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Jeffrey Bennett - Chair
Second Advisor
Ted Friedman
Third Advisor
Kathryn Fuller-Seeley
Abstract
In 2007, Radiohead released a downloadable album, In Rainbows, allowing consumers to pay what they thought the album was worth. The band responded to a moment of change in the music industry. Since then, other bands, like Nine Inch Nails and Coldplay, have made similar moves. Radiohead's capability to release an album and let the fans decide its worth relied on the image they built, which foregrounded their commodification. The historic move redefined the boundaries between art and commodity, a well know tension in popular music studies. The thesis focuses on popular music as communication in the changing industry. Using Radiohead’s album as a case study, it looks at the changing boundaries in the tension between art and commodity. The thesis examines Radiohead's performance, its mediation by the press, and what the album’s distribution method meant to the fans.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1061313
Recommended Citation
Lawson, Selena Michelle, "Radiohead: The Guitar Weilding, Dancing, Singing Commodity." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2009.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1061313