Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood adds to a long line of controversial political admissions from the band
In a cultural landscape of arrested royals, sex offenders and rightwing musicians, celebrities are rightfully under a microscope like never before.
With that, the question has arisen as to whether or not you can separate the art from the artist.
In a turn that surprised no-one, Jonny Greenwood thinks it’s vital that we do. In an interview with the British Times, the Radiohead guitarist said ‘music should be above political concerns.’
Try telling that to the 4 billion global viewers who watched Bad Bunny’s recent performance at the Superbowl.
His comments add to a line of fraught political history surrounding the band.
They came under fire in 2016 when they ignored calls to boycott Israel and performed in Tel Aviv amidst the ongoing Gaza crisis.
Greenwood himself is married to an Israeli artist, whose nephew fought in the IDF.
His bandmate, Thom Yorke has since spoken out against the Israeli government.
He told the British Sunday Times in October last year he ‘wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the Netanyahu regime.’
It seems that Greenwood hasn’t undergone the same PR training, telling the Times ‘I made an album involving Israeli, Iraqi, Egyptian, and Syrian musicians? If I’m supposed to stop working with musicians because I dislike their governments, then I wouldn’t work with any of them.’
Interestingly, Greenwood’s music was used as the soundtrack to Melania, which, to be frank, was a complete flop, scoring only 11% on Rotten Tomatoes and making just $32,399 across Australia in its opening weekend.
The lead guitarist has since said that he didn’t intend for his music to be used in the film, though the film’s producer declared this a ‘blatant lie.’
You would think there would be more measures in place to ensure slip ups like this don’t happen – especially for someone so staunchly against music and politics mixing. Funny.
