"One of the interesting things here is that the people who should be shaping the future are politicians. But the political framework itself is so dead and closed that people look to other sources, like artists, because art and music allow people a certain freedom"
About this Quote
What makes the quote work is the pivot from institutional authority to cultural authority. Yorke isn’t romanticizing artists as saviors; he’s explaining why audiences draft them into the job. When legislatures feel like reruns, people go hunting for any space that still permits risk, ambiguity, and emotional truth. “Freedom” here isn’t a slogan. It’s the specific freedom of art to be incomplete, to contradict itself, to tell you how a world feels before it tells you what to do about it. Politics demands legibility and loyalty; art can survive discomfort.
The context matters: Yorke comes from a generation shaped by post-Thatcher Britain, Iraq-era disillusionment, and a media landscape where cynicism is often the only bipartisan product. Radiohead’s own catalog has long treated technology, surveillance, and corporate power as atmospheric facts, not conspiracy theories. In that world, musicians become unofficial civic infrastructure: not lawmakers, but sense-makers, offering a temporary exit from dead language - and, sometimes, a way back in.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Yorke, Thom. (2026, January 17). One of the interesting things here is that the people who should be shaping the future are politicians. But the political framework itself is so dead and closed that people look to other sources, like artists, because art and music allow people a certain freedom. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-interesting-things-here-is-that-the-26008/
Chicago Style
Yorke, Thom. "One of the interesting things here is that the people who should be shaping the future are politicians. But the political framework itself is so dead and closed that people look to other sources, like artists, because art and music allow people a certain freedom." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-interesting-things-here-is-that-the-26008/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"One of the interesting things here is that the people who should be shaping the future are politicians. But the political framework itself is so dead and closed that people look to other sources, like artists, because art and music allow people a certain freedom." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-interesting-things-here-is-that-the-26008/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
