As posted here last week, Sydney Morning Herald asked to vote for your best albums and singles. The results are in. Herald readers have voted overwhelmingly for Radiohead’s OK Computer, from 1997, as the “greatest” popular music album ever. And the first single from that album, Paranoid Android, was voted the best song.

So what did the Herald survey of great rock albums and singles reveal? Well, for starters, it revealed the fragility of surveys. Do our readers really have an enduring love affair with Radiohead?

SMH states: Our survey seemed to be fair and accurate. While it attracted a healthy number of participants (4438 total voters) the word clearly got out to Radiohead fans. To try to bring the survey back to a more balanced accuracy, a total of 519 votes – most coming from a very enthusiastic Spanish chapter of the Radiohead fan club – were deleted, leaving 3919 valid voters.

While it was true that most under 18s picked Nirvana and Radiohead (that old fan club again!) they were also happy to vote, in large numbers, for Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Guns N’Roses and AC/DC. In contrast, the over-55s were totally locked into their age group with only single votes for Radiohead and U2.

No one should be surprised to learn that the majority of the votes for Radiohead’s excellent OK Computer (widely regarded as the best album of the past decade) came from the 18-35 age group and the largest vote for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon came from the 36-55 age group.

Surveys are modern parlour games. They are more fun than serious analysis. However, from the vantage point of 2004, and recognising that each new generation finds its own heroes, the results seem to be fair and representative. Radiohead rules. Perhaps the greatest irony is that the lead singer, Thom Yorke, and the rest of the band, who still wander the streets of Oxford totally unaffected by their success, would be bewildered by the adulation heaped upon them by a generation who, it must be said, have remarkably good taste.

Radiohead news on this day..

• Create a Vector Cassette Tape Illustration – 2011
• A nice and usefull list of web design related apps – 2011
• Nice and Well Designed Slideshows in Web Design – 2011
• Awesome todo applications to get some things done – 2011
• Radiohead surveys fans on gig travels – 2008
• The Clock live video + mp3 + Target download – 2006
• Chris Martin on Radiohead again – 2005
• Radiohead in Florence – 2003
• MusiquePlus & WinAmp Clips Online – 2003
• Radiohead tribute in Montreal – 2003