Compare / Contrast Assignment on Radiohead and Guh

Again, I had a hard time deciding between these two albums, so I assigned my students to listen to them both and write a compare/contrast essay. I chose the best essay among them, figuring the best writer should get to decide. Here it is, along with my comments on the bottom:

Many things share similarities, but also there are many things that are different. Some of these things include art, fruit, cars, and even music. In music, every album is different, but also shares some similarities. For example, Radiohead’s album “OK Computer” and Guh’s album “We are Sunburning” share some of the same things like they are both music. But these are also very different records because one has lyrics and one doesn’t, one is very creative but one is just the same thing over and over, and lastly one album is popular and one is not popular. Therefore, OK Computer deserves to move on in the tournament.

Since the dawn of time, man has wrestled with technology. Sometimes technology is helpful, but oftentimes it can be bad. On “OK Computer” lead singer Tom Yorke writes lyrics about how technology can be bad. According to Wikipedia, it says “its lyrics and visual artwork emphasise common themes such as consumerism, social disconnection, political stagnation, and modern malaise.” Therefore, this album as you can see is pretty deep. On the other hand, Guh’s album “We are Sunburning” has no lyrics except for the song Whitey on the Moon, which according to Wikipedia “is a song written and recorded by Gil Scott-Heron in 1970. Combining jazz and funk, the song was illustrative of prison-style recreational poetry and played a significant role in the development of rap music and hip hop. The song is a cultural commentary depicting socio-economic and racial inequity of the late 1960s in the United States, inspired by the Moon Landing of 1969. The lyrics criticize the US government for spending billions on the space program while ignoring the condition of its poorest citizens.” So, in some ways the lyrics of both albums share some characteristics because both deal with society, but mostly they are different because for the most part, Guh does not have lyrics as mentioned above.

Speaking of differences, OK Computer is very creative. Each song has neat things in it like drum machines and guitars and synthesizers. Some of it sounds like rock music while some of it sounds like trip-hop. In their song Paranoid Android there are many parts to it. It is 6 and a half minutes! And it sounds like many different songs put together. On the other side of things, Guh is a jazz band, and therefore each of their songs sounds like jazz. Mostly they just use trumpets and saxophones and bagpipes. Some people might think there songs are creative but anyone who knows about music would know that all there songs sound the same. Except for Bug Night which sounds like kind of like jazz but actually mostly sounds like crazy insects. Who would want to listen to this?!!!!

Also, if we compare the two group’s popularity we will see that Radiohead is actually very popular while Guh is not popular at all. This is not just my opinion either. Wikipedia states that “Upon its release, OK Computer received almost unanimously positive reviews. Consensus among critics was that the album was a landmark of its time and would have far-reaching impact and importance.” You might ask yourself how could an album get so many “positive reviews” if it wasn’t popular. In contrast, Guh does not even have a Wikipedia page. However, here is a quote I found on a webpage: “In the summer of 1994, Henry, Blake, Brian, and Jason went to Europe. They slept outdoors, ate bread and cheese in the park, rested in the Cathedrals, washed in Art Gallery washrooms, and drank beer. In Germany, people said they would be big in Prague. In Prague, they also knew how to drink. Four months later, GUH returned to Canada, recordings what would be released as a tipple CD package by Unmanageable, an independent record company run by Craig Barnes. The CD's were self titled GUH. With the help of the Ontario Arts Council, they released recordings of their new compositions and called it FLOG…In the summer of 1999, GUH toured the coast of British Columbia, Canada, promoting their latest release We Are Sunburning.” You can see that these guys are so unpopular that they needed help from the government to even record a CD!

In conclusion, Radiohead and Guh have some similarities like they both write and play music, they are mostly very different and Radiohead are mostly different in that they are much better because of their lyrics, creativity and popularity. And because of this, OK Computer should win in the tournament.

Nice work, Madison. You have a well structured compare/contrast essay with clear categories/criteria. You also have very few spelling errors. At the same time, there are a few things you could continue to work on. For example, you state that Radiohead is criticizing technology, but are you sure they’re not simply exploring the ambiguity of it? And if they are, does that necessarily make them deep? You need to show me this using actual lyrics from the album. You do make a nice connection though between the societal critique of "Whitey on the Moon" and OK Computer. In the section on creativity, you might want to actually define what creativity is, and again use actual details to support your points. You attempt to do this when you discuss the song “Paranoid Android” but you might want to consider that just because a song is long and has many different parts, it doesn’t necessarily make it creative. Some might actually consider the song a bad rip-off of a bad genre of music called prog-rock (before your time). Regarding your reference to trip-hop, I’ll have to check with Uncle Eric. You might also consider that just because you think all jazz sounds the same, it doesn’t mean everyone does. Some people might point out that “The Barnes Exhibit” is absolutely funky with its amazing drum fills while “Patron Bentley” is quite beautiful and moving. And I would note that while the marriage of bag-pipes, jazz, and middle-eastern melodies might be difficult to take over the course of a debut three-disc set, We Are Sunburning distills the best of what Guh does on one amazingly solid disc. You are right that Radiohead is, in fact, the more popular band. Some actual statistics might have been nice here, but really, isn’t this claim rather evident? In any case, your overall thesis is pretty clear, and I daresay correct. Therefore OK Computer will advance, and you will receive a very generous C-.