I started listening to Radiohead about 8 years ago because some cool kids on the internet were into it. I bought a big batch of used CDs at once, including the first four Radiohead albums having heard nothing of Radiohead other than "Creep" and "Karma Police". It took me more than a year to get past OK Computer to Kid A, and even longer to get through Amnesiac.
I am a total Radiohead fanboy. I believe they can do no wrong, even when they are obviously wrong, and I belive this is not a contradiction. I held Thom Yorke's gaze for 30 seconds at a concert once.
I got into Radiohead as a fashion, but stay with them because of how much I like their music. The album most substantively similar to the new Radiohead album is probably Flying Lotus's new album, which is good, but which did not interest me nearly as much as the new Radiohead album, because Thom Yorke's vocals add a whole lot to esoteric electronic music.
For anyone that wants a shot at premium Radiohead tickets for the probably upcoming tour without paying the scalper premium, keep your eyes on http://radiohead.com/tourdates/. The fan presale is the only way to get good tickets.
I just downloaded the latest Radiohead album, and I love it.
Thinking back, I started listening to Radiohead years ago when I found out that some of the cool kids in school were into it. With all the hype about the new album, the status/fashion processors in my brain going to ensure that I enjoy listening to it. I would probably fail a double-blind test with a bunch of imitation bands' fake "new Radiohead albums".
But I'm really enjoying listening to the album, and that doesn't seem like a bad or contradictory thing at all, even in light of the statements above. If, hypothetically, I was enjoying it for purely non-fashion reasons, then presumably that enjoyment could also be traced back though a causal chain to facts about brain development, evolutionary psychology, or whatever. But we would have no problem accepting that enjoyment as A Good Thing since explaining enjoyment does not diminish it. And so it seems in this case.