Radiohead

When Kid A detonated in 2000, it wasn’t just an album—it was a Molotov cocktail thrown at the alt-rock establishment. Ditching guitars for glitchy synths and fractured beats, Radiohead’s fourth LP sounded like a transmission from a post-human future: Yorke’s voice, warped beyond recognition on "Everything in Its Right Place," whispered apocalyptic lullabies ("How to Disappear Completely") over skittering rhythms ("Idioteque"’s sampled chaos). The cryptic artwork and absence of singles only deepened its aura. Critics called it "career suicide"; fans treated it like scripture. Two decades later, its influence pulses through every artist who’s traded riffs for algorithms. A defiant reinvention that didn’t just predict 21st-century anxiety—it soundtracked the unraveling.