Independent Research Entry

For this blog entry, I want to talk about a man who has been very influential to the music industry and who has a had a very large impact on it. This mans name is Nigel Godrich. Nigel has worked on countless projects with over 52 albums under his belt acting as the engineer or producer. Nigel's production techniques have stood the test of time. He uses layers of dense sounds when engineering or producing. Godrich has worked with several different artists such as Paul McCartney, Beck, U2, and R.E.M. Probably the work Godrich is most famous for though, is that of Radiohead. He is sometimes informally credited as the "sixth member" of Radiohead due to his longtime collaboration with this band from Oxford, England. He has helped define Radiohead's distinct sound which has established them as one of the more celebrated bands of the 1990s and the 2000s. Godrich's first collaborations with Radiohead were on certain songs on the 1994 My Iron Lung EP, such as The Trickster and Permanent Daylight. He went on to engineer Radiohead's second record The Bends and co-produced Black Star from the same album. Later in 1995, after the band found they got along well with him, he produced Radiohead's single called Lucky, which later appeared on the album, OK computer. He also produced the tracks called Bishop's Robes and Talk Show Host which appeared in the 1996 film Romeo and Juliet starring Leonardo Dicaprio. Godrich has been co-credited with Radiohead as producer on every one of their albums since OK Computer, which helped him make his name. He also produced singer Thom Yorke's, lead singer of Radiohead, 2006 solo album, which was called The Eraser. Beginning new work in 2005, Radiohead initially tried collaborating with other producers for the first time in a decade, but they returned to the studio with Godrich late in 2006 to record their seventh album, In Rainbows that was released in 2007 and is personally my favorite album by Radiohead. There are many characteristics I could use to describe Nigel Godrich. One of them is that he is very diligent. He came into the music industry with nothing in hopes that he would make it somewhere. His first job in a studio was to bring people coffee and tea. Through diligence and perseverance he has made it to where he is today. Some of Nigel's influences include producers such as Linda Perry, will.i.am., and Rick Rubin. I have listened to Radiohead's work on numerous occasions and i think that without Nigel Godrich as their producer they wouldn't have the certain sound that I have enjoyed so much throughout my time listening to them. His influence on there music has had a lasting impact on me and I hope that he keeps producing their records. Before writing this blog, I had no idea who produced the wonderful work of Radiohead. Now, whenever i listen to them i will think of Neil Godrich and the impact he had on them.