OK Computer Analysis: An Audio Corpus Study of Radiohead
Abstract
The application of music information retrieval techniques in popular music studies has great promise. In the present work, a corpus of Radiohead songs across their career from 1992 to 2017 are subjected to automated audio analysis. We examine findings from a number of granularities and perspectives, including within song and between song examination of both timbral-rhythmic and harmonic features. Chronological changes include possible career spanning effects for a band's releases such as slowing tempi and reduced brightness, and the timbral markers of Radiohead's expanding approach to instrumental resources most identified with the Kid A and Amnesiac era. We conclude with a discussion highlighting some challenges for this approach, and the potential for a field of audio file based career analysis.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- November 2022
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2211.15834
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2211.15834
- Bibcode:
- 2022arXiv221115834C
- Keywords:
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- Computer Science - Sound;
- Computer Science - Information Retrieval;
- Electrical Engineering and Systems Science - Audio and Speech Processing