The band Radiohead features heavily on the soundtrack for Westworld, and their original lyrics reveal the core message of the HBO show. For example, in the Westworld season 2 finale, Radiohead’s song “Codex” played over the final scene of Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) ascending the stairs into the real world, ready to become the author of his own story. Thom Yorke’s lyrics reflect Bernard’s journey, talking of being cleansed of some past misdeed – “The water’s clear, and innocent“. In the context of Westworld, this refers to Bernard being cleansed of the sins of Arnold Weber, the scientist in whose image he was created, finally free to shape his own identity.
“Codex” is the only time that a Radiohead song features with Thom Yorke’s original lyrics included. The other Radiohead songs featured in Westworld take the form of piano covers, conceived by composer Ramin Djawadi to sound like the music often heard in Wild West saloons in old movies. However, despite the instrumental nature of the reworked Radiohead songs, their meaning is key to understanding Westworld‘s biggest themes of artificiality, and the existential questions of what is “real”. This is why Djawadi and showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan selected so many Radiohead songs for Westworld.
Westworld’s Message Is Always The Same
The central theme of Westworld has always been the conflict between what is real and what is artificial. When the show was at its best, Westworld was both a corporate satire and an existential drama about what it means to be human. As the hosts of the park, characters like Westworld‘s Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) are treated as expendable machines, designed to withstand the guests’ most brutal demands. The machine learning that leads to the uprising at the end of Westworld season 1 is a horrific satirical statement about the harsh realities of the artificial worlds sold to consumers. It’s therefore unsurprising that a song like Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” is included on the soundtrack, given its anti-consumerist stance.
Westworld regularly takes place within artificial realities like the sprawling Delos park, or simulated realities such as the holographic simulation in which Dolores lives as Christina during Westworld season 4. In each of these artificial worlds, Dolores is able to wake herself up to the reality of her situation, and attempt to escape at the end of Westworld season 4 and season 1. Again, Radiohead is the perfect band to soundtrack these awakenings. Fittingly, Ramin Djawadi reworks the band’s “Exit Music (For a Film)” – which opens with the lyric “Wake, from your sleep” and closes with the refrain of “We hope that you choke” – for the scenes leading up to the violent Host uprising at the end of Westworld season 1.
Westworld’s Musical Covers Were The Show’s Most Innovative Trick
There’s an uncanny nature to the Delos parks in Westworld, as they transport their visitors to a working recreation of the past that can never be fully immersive. Ramin Djawadi’s score was central to evoking this feeling, and his use of well-known songs heightened the uncanny nature of the parks. There’s an incongruity to hearing modern songs reinterpreted for Delos’ Westworld or The Golden Age parks.
Each of the songs featured across Westworld‘s four seasons highlight the show’s clash of the old with the new. However, no musicians seem better suited for the central concerns of Westworld than Thom Yorke and Radiohead, who have a staggering seven of their songs featured. It’s a testament to timeless the existential questions posed by the show and the songs of Radiohead truly are.
