Thom Yorke pulled Kid A lines out of a top hat

In a Rolling Stone Short from his conversation with Harry Styles, Yorke says he would rather hear old folk, film scores and electronic music than singer-songwriters.

Channel: Rolling Stone Story of October 13, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 111,822 views a day, 27 times a normal first day on this channel (4,148).

Radiohead's Thom Yorke Says He Doesn't Listen to Many Singer-Songwriters

"I don't listen to a lot of singer-songwriters," Thom Yorke tells Harry Styles. It is a striking admission from the singer of the band Styles calls his favorite ever, and Rolling Stone made it the title of a Short that drew around 110,000 views in its first day.

What Yorke plays instead, in his words, is "a lot of mad old folk music," film music or electronic music. The guitar songs of The Bends belong to an earlier stretch of his career. By the time of Kid A, he says, "I just was excited about what else you could do with your voice, really."

Then comes the story that has viewers replaying the clip. Jonny Greenwood and producer Nigel Godrich set up a track, Greenwood on the ondes Martenot, the early electronic instrument he played across the album. Yorke stood there picking random lines out of a top hat. "And that became the vocal."

The top hat is what the comments keep coming back to. Some viewers say it finally explains Kid A for them, and others connect it to the cut-up method William Burroughs made famous. Several remark on how relaxed and open Yorke seems. One gently suggests he is missing out on Elliott Smith. The comment section filled far faster than a Rolling Stone Short usually does on its first day.

The clip comes from the pair's London conversation for the magazine's eighth annual Musicians on Musicians series, which Rolling Stone has cut into a run of Shorts: Yorke on working alone versus with Radiohead and the Smile, on awards, on whether either of them cooks. This one has pulled well ahead of the rest. The next busiest is Styles's side of the admiration, "Harry Styles on the Brilliance of Thom Yorke & Radiohead." The series' other new pairing, Zara Larsson and Robyn talking pop and Madonna in Stockholm, is off to an unusually busy start as well.

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The numbers

One Short from the Yorke-Styles conversation ran far ahead of the magazine's usual start for its short clips.

the video's first day

usual first day here

4,148

this video

111,822

subscribers

1,160,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

427,549,024

views per day

220,043

typical day: 626,790

the video

views

111,514

likes

1,302

comments

89

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

VibesOnly

1,380,000

hollywoodrecords

1,360,000

Tholo Music

1,360,000

CharlieSloth

1,290,000

BBC Asian Network

1,200,000

Rolling Stone

1,160,000

As of October 13, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.