Radiohead 'Disappears' from Internet, Releases New Song

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The English rock band Radiohead once recorded a song called “How to Disappear Completely.”

Earlier this week, the band appeared to have done just that. On Sunday, Radiohead slowly started to disappear from the Internet. Its Facebook posts and tweets were erased. The band’s website went white.

​Radiohead fans quickly began discussing the possibility of a new album. It would be the band’s ninth studio album.

Then, on May 3, the band posted a 15-second video clip on its previously empty Instagram account.

The video showed an animated bird made of clay. Later that day, it posted another video on Instagram of several animated clay people wearing masks, circling around a woman tied to a tree.

And then, finally, came a music video for the band’s first new song in five years.

The song is called “Burn the Witch.” Scenes from the short Instagram videos appear in the music video. It has already been viewed more than 7 million times on YouTube.

The video begins with a man arriving in a new town. At first, the town seems scenic and friendly. But the man begins to see strange things going on.

The end of the animated video shows people gathered around a huge wooden structure shaped like a person. The man is told to climb a tall ladder and go inside of the wooden structure.

A woman then sets the whole thing on fire.

Fans immediately started trying to understand the meaning of the song and the music video.

Virpi Kettu helped create the band’s new music video. She recently spoke with Billboard magazine about “Burn the Witch.”

She told Billboard that she believes the band wanted the video to bring attention to Europe’s refugee crisis, especially the “blaming of different people...the blaming of Muslims and the negativity” in Europe.

Radiohead begins a world tour later this month.

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I'm Anna Matteo.

Ashley Thompson wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.