The Meaning Behind “Karma Police” by Radiohead

When Radiohead released OK Computer in 1997, they changed from being the band that wrote “Creep” to becoming the next Beatles or Pink Floyd. The Oxford band probably bristled at such comparisons, but it’s how the press reacted to an album redefining rock ’n’ roll. 

Guitarist Jonny Greenwood pointed out that technology has always existed. The piano, for example, is a type of technology similar to the computer or synthesizer. Greenwood said he uses all the tools to compose music, and Radiohead embraced old and new technologies to compose an album of dystopian themes about the machinery taking control.

And Justice for All

Belief in karma eases the mind of the powerless. It’s the idea that we can bring justice even to the untouchable creeps someday. Karma is a kind of salve for people living outside existing power structures of class and politics. Western democracies have justice systems if you can afford the bill, and karma is the consolation prize when the courts get it wrong. 

Thom Yorke dedicated “Karma Police” to “everyone who works for a big firm. It’s a song against the bosses.” It’s for the bullies who use leverage to drive down wages while increasing production—the philosophical cops for millions who feel miserably stuck in jobs they hate.

Karma police
Arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you’ll get
This is what you’ll get
This is what you’ll get
When you mess with us

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The Groundbreaking Video

In the video for “Karma Police,” Yorke sits in the back seat of a Chrysler New Yorker as the unseen driver follows a disheveled man down a dark road. The running man then kindles a book of matches and ignites a gasoline trail, setting the car on fire. 

Director Jonathan Glazer initially wrote the treatment for Marilyn Manson. The David Lynch film Lost Highway inspired Glazer, particularly where the opening scene shows a car driving on a deserted road from the driver’s perspective. Manson rejected the concept, and Radiohead used it instead. 

For a minute, there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute, there
I lost myself, I lost myself

Karma’s resolution brings peace to a world that is often unfair. Humans search for order, and it’s distressing and unimaginable to most to think the universe is unconcerned with justice. For decades, politicians and civil rights leaders have echoed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote about the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice. However, most leaders borrowing the quote remind the public that action is necessary because the arc won’t bend on its own, refuting the concept of karma while keeping its sentiment intact. 

Friendly Fire

Guitarist Ed O’Brien said the band members would threaten one another with the Karma Police if they acted like jerks. It was a way to keep each other in check, as tension and ego are two things most rock bands are famous for. O’Brien told Dutch magazine HUMO, “I suppose it’s all rubbish that your destiny depends on your deeds in a previous life, but you have to trust something.”

Karma originates in Hinduism and Buddhism, dealing with ethical consequences determining the nature of a person’s future existence. It’s not dissimilar from Christianity’s threat of Hell for the sinful. Karma and Hell are the supernatural consequences of humans’ evil actions. 

Like with other aspects of religion, humans have taken karma out of religion and changed its meaning entirely. People imagine karma catching up with someone in this life. Knowing that one’s enemy will face some kind of penalty or revenge is pleasing. Revenge is what it amounts to, but you’re leaving it to fate or nature to handle the retaliation. Scapegoating is also a common theme in religion and probably predates monotheism, and karma’s fated revenge is just another version of scapegoating’s shirking responsibility. 

OK Computer

Radiohead’s third album changed what was expected of a rock album. It follows the evolution of experimental British pop albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The band’s producer, Nigel Godrich, said he and Yorke created the feedback overtaking the second half of the song using loops and samples. It foreshadowed how the band would work on their next album, Kid A. More than a sonic evolution, Yorke didn’t think each band member needed to be present on every Radiohead song. It was a way for him to break from the limitations of rock music and the boundaries of his band. And karma is humanity’s mental break from unrestricted power. 

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