10 Rock Music Albums No One Understood At First

For all the styles that rock music has gone through for the past quarter century, OK Computer still feels like it is the future of rock and roll. Much like Nirvana's Nevermind had done at the start of the '90s, Radiohead made a statement with this record about where we could go next as a genre, talking about the dangers of technology while also tapping into what makes most of us human and compassionate to one another at the end of every day. If you had asked their higher ups though, this was just teetering on career suicide most of the time.

Although the Bends help them steer clear of one hit wonder status with songs like High and Dry and Fake Plastic Trees, their label didn't really see the same kind of appeal on a record like this, and the idea of releasing a 6 minute epic like Paranoid Android as a single certainly didn't help matters. Almost to cushion the blow, the label anticipated that this record was going to bomb and figured they would lower their sales expectations to make sure that they earned their money back on this record once it inevitably tanked.

When fans got to hear that 6 minute epic though, it felt like listening to the '90s version of Bohemian Rhapsody, with fans coming out in droves to listen to the record. It may have been a tough lesson to learn, but the label got the message of what Radiohead were about that day. Nothing these guys put out on a record are written with the suits in mind, but the fans will always keep coming back if the band just follows their muse.