“This is Music for Creativity's Sake”

A friend who was watching the 51st Grammy Awards commented to me that Radiohead had performed and that maybe I was right about them being a great band. I actually think they are genius and one of the greatest bands ever (please read posts I made on this blog for August 11, 19 & 21, 2008). Not having cable television I decided to go online to see if I couldn’t find a video of their performance. Not finding the video while searching I come across a couple articles and postings which I read that discussed the performance and one of them wrote the following:

“Radiohead performs 15 Step with the USC marching band. This is so utterly different than everything else we've seen tonight. This is music for creativity's sake -- and the album, In Rainbows, still sold more than a million of copies.” (http://blogs.courant.com/eric_danton_sound_check/2009/02/50th-grammy-awards-1.html)

I am a bit confused by this statement and I feel that there is an underlining tone of sarcasm with a derogatory attitude toward Radiohead. First, that fact that Radiohead performed with a marching band is amazing. No other performing act used a marching band during the awards ceremony making Radiohead unique, exceptional and able to exist beyond the mundane, or as the commentator above states, “so utterly different.” Second, I don’t quite know what the commentator was meaning when he states, “this is music for creativity's sake.” I am going to interpret creativity to mean beautiful, original, inspiring, visionary, and thought provoking. This is what I thought all music and art attempted to be. It would seem strange to me and even worthless for art or any effort not to attempt to be “creative.” Third, I am confused by the follow-up statement “-- and the album, In Rainbows, still sold more than a million of copies.” Was that stated as if in disbelief for a “creative” album to be so popular?

I could be interpreting the entire statement wrong, which if I am I will stand corrected if anyone cares to do so. In fact, this statement supports my sentiment that most music produced today is not “creative” and lacks any real depth. It also supports my argument that Radiohead is a “creative” music group about which the general public doesn’t know or care. It seems to be a common trend in society today for popular and public taste to not care about “creativity” and rather settle for that which is most pleasurable. I understand that Radiohead is not the only music group in the world and that there are other groups and types of music that people appreciate of which Radiohead doesn’t take part. This is fine. But I must state that I never tire from persuading people to know things of beauty nor do I tire being persuaded of the same.