MTV Buzz Clip puts Radiohead's The Bends on the American chart

The Bends has made the Billboard 200 in America at last, and Capitol gives the credit to MTV. The album came out on 4 April, three weeks after its British release), and spent all of April off the chart. Radiohead already had a gold album in America with Pablo Honey, the record with “Creep” on it.

Then MTV made the video for “Fake Plastic Trees” a Buzz Clip. Capitol had picked the song as the album's first American single. The New York Daily News grants that modern rock radio has played the band too, but Phil Costello, the label's senior vice-president of promotion, told the paper that the video did what radio alone could not, because if you only heard Radiohead's song, it wouldn't necessarily grab you⁵.

The paper explains that MTV picks three or four Buzz Clips a month for extra plays. It counts more than three quarters of the 40 since January 1994 on albums that have since gone gold or platinum.

The Bends went in at the very bottom, number 200, in mid-May, and jumped to 168 the week after. “Fake Plastic Trees” is climbing at the same time, from 16 to 13 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks.

The Bends on the Billboard 200, first weeks