Radiohead Producer Godrich Plans to Save Music On Television

Producer extraordinaire Nigel Godrich (Beck, Radiohead) has turned his attention to TV. He's shooting a new series for British television called From the Basement, which will feature performances from an incredible lineup of musicians (and with no studio audience, albeit with some undisclosed visual accompaniment). The first episode, which has already been shot, features the White Stripes, Thom Yorke, and Four Tet. The second, currently in production, will feature Beck and British artist Jamie Lidell.

"I'm interested in the visual arts side of things, and somehow integrating that into what records have become," Godrich tells us, adding that From the Basement will be available as a video podcast in the coming weeks. "People don't buy albums so much because, as a medium, it's changing, so I'm just trying to figure out what it's changing into, and chasing after that."

As we previously reported, Beck and Godrich worked together to create a video for each song on The Information, to be bundled with downloaded tracks and freely available on YouTube.com. Godrich says MTV has failed the video format. "MTV destroyed the art of music television, ironically," he says. "It took it, held it somewhere, and then actually destroyed it. It turned it into this news magazine. It's very shallow and uninteresting."

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Song Stories

“Weird”

Hanson | 1997

Accomplished tunesmith Desmond Child co-wrote "Weird" with the three brothers that make up Hanson. Credited for dozens of cuts, including songs by Kiss, Cher, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, Child told Rolling Stone that "Weird" holds a special place in his heart, "because it's about being different--and I grew up poor, I grew up being Latin, I grew up being gay, and now I'm fat!" The song was included on Hanson's 1997 album Middle of Nowhere, which sold more than ten million units.

More Song Stories entries »

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