Britpop
Encyclopedia
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock
that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. The movement developed as a reaction against various musical and cultural trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the grunge
phenomenon from the United States. In the wake of the musical invasion into the United Kingdom of American grunge bands, new British groups such as Suede
and Blur
launched the movement by positioning themselves as opposing musical forces, referencing British guitar music of the past and writing about uniquely British topics and concerns. These bands were soon joined by others including Oasis
, Pulp
, Supergrass
, Sleeper
and Elastica
.
Britpop groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British cultural movement called Cool Britannia
. Although its more popular bands were able to spread their commercial success overseas, especially to the United States, the movement largely fell apart by the end of the decade.
, glam rock
, and punk rock
. Specific influences varied: Blur and Oasis drew from The Kinks
and The Beatles
, respectively, while Elastica had a fondness for arty punk rock. Regardless, all Britpop artists projected a sense of reverence for the sounds of the past.
Alternative rock acts from the 1980s and early 1990s indie scene were the direct ancestors of the Britpop movement. The influence of The Smiths
was common to the majority of Britpop artists. The Madchester
scene, fronted by The Stone Roses
, Happy Mondays
, and Inspiral Carpets
(for whom Oasis' Noel Gallagher
had worked as a roadie during the Madchester years), was the immediate root of Britpop since its emphasis on good times and catchy songs provided an alternative to shoegazing
.
Britpop groups were defined by being focused on bands rather than solo artists; having drums/bass/guitar/vocals (and sometimes keyboards) line-ups; writing original material and playing instruments themselves; singing in regional British accents; references to British places and culture in lyrics and image; and fashion consciousness. Stylistically, Britpop bands relied on catchy hooks and wrote lyrics that were meant to be relevant to British young people of their own generation. Britpop bands conversely denounced grunge as irrelevant and having nothing to say about their lives. Damon Albarn
of Blur summed up the attitude in 1993 when after being asked if Blur were an "anti-grunge band" he said, "Well, that's good. If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge." In spite of the professed disdain for the genres, some elements of both crept into the more enduring facets of Britpop. Noel Gallagher has since championed Ride
. Noel Gallagher stated in a 1996 interview that Nirvana's Kurt Cobain
was the only songwriter he had respect for in the last ten years, and that he felt their music was similar enough that Cobain could have written "Wonderwall
".
The imagery associated with Britpop was equally British and working class. Music critic Jon Savage
asserted that Britpop was "an outer-suburban, middle-class fantasy of central London streetlife, with exclusively metropolitan models." A rise in unabashed maleness, exemplified by Loaded
magazine and lad culture
in general, would be very much part of the Britpop era. The Union Flag
also became a prominent symbol of the movement, and its use as a symbol of pride and nationalism contrasted deeply with the controversy that erupted just a few short years before when former Smiths singer Morrissey
performed draped in it. The emphasis on British reference points made it difficult for the genre to achieve success in the US.
area of London. This scene was dubbed "The Scene That Celebrates Itself
" by Melody Maker
. Some members of this scene (Blur
, Lush
, Suede
) would go on to play a leading part in Britpop. Others such as Kingmaker
, Slowdive
, Spitfire
and Ride
would not. The dominant musical force of the period was the grunge invasion from the United States, which filled the void left in the indie scene by The Stone Roses' inactivity.
Journalist John Harris
has suggested that Britpop began when Blur's single "Popscene
" and Suede's "The Drowners
" were released around the same time in the spring of 1992. He stated, "[I]f Britpop started anywhere, it was the deluge of acclaim that greeted Suede's first records: all of them audacious, successful and very, very British". Suede were the first of the new crop of guitar-orientated bands to be embraced by the UK music media as Britain's answer to Seattle's grunge sound. Their debut album Suede
became the fastest-selling debut album in the history of the UK. In April 1993, Select magazine featured Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson
on the cover with a Union Flag in the background and the headline "Yanks go home!". The issue included features on Suede, The Auteurs
, Denim
, Saint Etienne
and Pulp
and helped foment the idea of an emerging movement.
Blur, a group that formerly mixed elements of shoegazing
and baggy
, took on an Anglocentric aesthetic with their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish
(1993). Blur's new approach was inspired by their tour of the United States in the spring of 1992. During the tour, frontman Damon Albarn
began to resent American culture and found the need to comment on that culture's influence seeping into Britain. Justine Frischmann
, formerly of Suede and leader of Elastica
(and at the time in a relationship with Damon Albarn) explained, "Damon and I felt like we were in the thick of it at that point [. . .] it occurred to us that Nirvana were out there, and people were very interested in American music, and there should be some sort of manifesto for the return of Britishness." John Harris wrote in an NME article just prior to the release of Modern Life is Rubbish, "[Blur's] timing has been fortuitously perfect. Why? Because, as with baggies and shoegazers, loud, long-haired Americans have just found themselves condemned to the ignominious corner labeled 'yesterday's thing'". The music press also fixated on what the NME
had dubbed the New Wave of New Wave
, a term applied to the more punk-derivative acts such as Elastica, S*M*A*S*H and These Animal Men
.
While Modern Life is Rubbish was a moderate success, it was Blur's third album Parklife
that made them arguably the most popular band in the UK in 1994. Parklife continued the fiercely British nature of its predecessor, and coupled with the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in April of that year it seemed that British alternative rock had finally turned back the tide of grunge dominance. That same year Oasis released their debut album Definitely Maybe
, which broke Suede's record for fastest-selling debut album.
The movement was soon dubbed Britpop. The term "Britpop" had been used in the late 1980s (in Sounds magazine by journalist, Goldblade
frontman and TV pundit John Robb referring to bands such as The La's
, The Stone Roses
, Inspiral Carpets
and The Bridewell Taxis
). "Britpop" arose around the same time as the term "Britart" (which referred to the work of British modern artists such as Damien Hirst
). However, it would not be until 1994 when the term entered the popular consciousness, being used extensively by the music press and radio DJs. A rash of bands emerged aligned with the new movement. At the start of 1995 Britpop bands including Sleeper
, Supergrass
, and Menswear scored pop hits. Elastica released their debut album Elastica
that March; its first week sales surpassed the record set by Definitely Maybe the previous year. The music press viewed the scene around Camden Town as a musical centre; frequented by Britpop groups like Blur, Elastica, and Menswear, Melody Maker declared "Camden is to 1995 what Seattle was to 1992, what Manchester
was to 1989, and what Mr Blobby was to 1993."
A chart battle between Blur and Oasis dubbed "The Battle of Britpop" brought Britpop to the forefront of the British press in 1995. The bands had initially praised each other but over the course of the year antagonisms between the two increased. Spurred on by the media, the groups became engaged in what the NME dubbed on the cover of its 12 August issue the "British Heavyweight Championship" with the pending release of Oasis' single "Roll With It", and Blur's "Country House" on the same day. The battle pitted the two bands against each other, with the conflict as much about British class and regional divisions as it was about music. Oasis were taken as representing the North of England, while Blur represented the South. The event caught the public's imagination and gained mass media attention in national newspapers, tabloids, and even the BBC News. The NME wrote about the phenomeon, "Yes, in a week where news leaked that Saddam Hussein
was preparing nuclear weapons, everyday folks were still getting slaughtered in Bosnia
and Mike Tyson
was making his comeback, tabloids and broadsheet
s alike went Britpop crazy." Blur won the battle of the bands, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 - the songs charting at number one and number two respectively. However, in the long-run Oasis became more commercially successful than Blur. Unlike Blur, Oasis were able to achieve sustained sales in the United States thanks to the singles "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova". Oasis's second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
(1995) eventually sold over four million copies in the UK, becoming the third best-selling album in British history.
By the summer of 1996 Oasis's prominence was such that NME termed a number of Britpop bands (including The Boo Radleys
, Ocean Colour Scene
and Cast
) as "Noelrock", citing Gallagher's influence on their success. John Harris typified this wave of Britpop bands, and Gallagher, of sharing "a dewy-eyed love of the 1960s, a spurning of much beyond rock's most basic ingredients, and a belief in the supremacy of 'real music'". Starting on 10 August 1996, Oasis played a two-night set at Knebworth to a combined audience of 250,000 people. The demand for these gigs was and still is the largest ever for a concert on British soil; over 2.6 million people had applied for tickets.
During this time the new electioneering saw the emergence of the young leader of the Labour Party
- Tony Blair
. Blair represented the new face of the dreams and wishes of the British counterculture
and many acts like Oasis admired him. Noel Gallagher also appeared on several official meetings — even being invited to Downing Street on one occasion, along with Alan McGee
from Creation Records
- and expressed his support for Blair.
influences, particularly that of Pavement
. Albarn explained to the NME in January 1997 that "We created a movement: as far as the lineage of British bands goes, there'll always be a place for us", but added, "We genuinely started to see that world in a slightly different way."
As the movement began to slow down, many acts began to falter and broke up. The popularity of the pop group the Spice Girls
has been seen as having "snatched the spirit of the age from those responsible for Britpop." While established acts struggled, attention began to turn to the likes of Radiohead
and The Verve
, who had been previously overlooked by the British media. These two bands—in particular Radiohead—showed considerably more esoteric influences from the 1960s and 1970s, influences that were uncommon among earlier Britpop acts. In 1997, Radiohead and The Verve released their respective efforts OK Computer
and Urban Hymns
, both of which were widely acclaimed. Post-Britpop
bands like Travis
, Stereophonics
and Coldplay
, influenced by Britpop acts, particularly Oasis, with more introspective lyrics, were some of the most successful rock acts of the late late 1990s and early 2000s.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. The movement developed as a reaction against various musical and cultural trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
phenomenon from the United States. In the wake of the musical invasion into the United Kingdom of American grunge bands, new British groups such as Suede
Suede (band)
Suede are an English alternative rock band from London, formed in 1989. The group's most prominent early line-up featured singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Bernard Butler, bass player Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert. By 1992, Suede were hailed as "The Best New Band in Britain", and attracted...
and Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
launched the movement by positioning themselves as opposing musical forces, referencing British guitar music of the past and writing about uniquely British topics and concerns. These bands were soon joined by others including Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
, Pulp
Pulp (band)
Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
, Supergrass
Supergrass
Supergrass was an English alternative rock band from Oxford. The band consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes , Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey ....
, Sleeper
Sleeper (band)
Sleeper were a British Britpop band in the 1990s fronted by Louise Wener. The band had eight UK Top 40 hit singles and three UK Top 10 albums. Their music was also featured in the soundtrack of Trainspotting.-Career:...
and Elastica
Elastica
Elastica were an English alternative rock band that played punk rock-influenced music. They were best known for their 1995 album Elastica, which produced singles that charted in the US and the UK.-History:...
.
Britpop groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British cultural movement called Cool Britannia
Cool Britannia
Cool Britannia is a media term that was used during the late 20th century to describe the contemporary culture of the United Kingdom. The term was prevalent during the 1990s and later became closely associated with the early years of "New Labour" under Tony Blair...
. Although its more popular bands were able to spread their commercial success overseas, especially to the United States, the movement largely fell apart by the end of the decade.
Style, roots and influences
Britpop bands were influenced by British guitar music of the past, particularly movements and genres such as the British InvasionBritish Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
, glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
, and punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
. Specific influences varied: Blur and Oasis drew from The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, respectively, while Elastica had a fondness for arty punk rock. Regardless, all Britpop artists projected a sense of reverence for the sounds of the past.
Alternative rock acts from the 1980s and early 1990s indie scene were the direct ancestors of the Britpop movement. The influence of The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
was common to the majority of Britpop artists. The Madchester
Madchester
Madchester was a music scene that developed in Manchester, England, towards the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The music that emerged from the scene mixed alternative rock, psychedelic rock and dance music...
scene, fronted by The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
, Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays are an English alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan...
, and Inspiral Carpets
Inspiral Carpets
Inspiral Carpets are an alternative rock band from Oldham in Greater Manchester, England formed by Graham Lambert and Stephen Holt in 1983. The band is named after a clothing shop on their Oldham estate...
(for whom Oasis' Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
had worked as a roadie during the Madchester years), was the immediate root of Britpop since its emphasis on good times and catchy songs provided an alternative to shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
.
Britpop groups were defined by being focused on bands rather than solo artists; having drums/bass/guitar/vocals (and sometimes keyboards) line-ups; writing original material and playing instruments themselves; singing in regional British accents; references to British places and culture in lyrics and image; and fashion consciousness. Stylistically, Britpop bands relied on catchy hooks and wrote lyrics that were meant to be relevant to British young people of their own generation. Britpop bands conversely denounced grunge as irrelevant and having nothing to say about their lives. Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...
of Blur summed up the attitude in 1993 when after being asked if Blur were an "anti-grunge band" he said, "Well, that's good. If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge." In spite of the professed disdain for the genres, some elements of both crept into the more enduring facets of Britpop. Noel Gallagher has since championed Ride
Ride (band)
Ride were a British alternative rock band that formed in 1988 in Oxford, England, consisting of Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Laurence "Loz" Colbert, and Steve Queralt. The band were initially part of the "shoegazing" scene. Following the break-up of the band in 1996, members moved on to various other...
. Noel Gallagher stated in a 1996 interview that Nirvana's Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
was the only songwriter he had respect for in the last ten years, and that he felt their music was similar enough that Cobain could have written "Wonderwall
Wonderwall (song)
"Wonderwall" is a song by English rock band Oasis, written by the band's guitarist and main songwriter Noel Gallagher. The song was produced by Owen Morris and Gallagher for their second album, Morning Glory?...
".
The imagery associated with Britpop was equally British and working class. Music critic Jon Savage
Jon Savage
Jon Savage , real name Jonathon Sage, is a Cambridge-educated writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his award winning history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, England's Dreaming, published in 1991.-Career:...
asserted that Britpop was "an outer-suburban, middle-class fantasy of central London streetlife, with exclusively metropolitan models." A rise in unabashed maleness, exemplified by Loaded
Loaded (magazine)
Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...
magazine and lad culture
Lad culture
Lad culture is a subculture commonly associated with Britpop music of the 1990s."The image of the 'lad' or 'new lad' arose in the early 1990s as a generally middle-class figure espousing attitudes conventionally attributed to the working classes"...
in general, would be very much part of the Britpop era. The Union Flag
Union Flag
The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...
also became a prominent symbol of the movement, and its use as a symbol of pride and nationalism contrasted deeply with the controversy that erupted just a few short years before when former Smiths singer Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
performed draped in it. The emphasis on British reference points made it difficult for the genre to achieve success in the US.
Origins and first years
The origins of Britpop lie primarily in the indie scene of the early 1990s, and in particular around a group of bands involved in a vibrant social scene focused in the Camden TownCamden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
area of London. This scene was dubbed "The Scene That Celebrates Itself
The Scene That Celebrates Itself
The Scene That Celebrates Itself was a term used to describe a social and musical scene in the early 1990s within London and the Thames Valley area.The term was invented by the Melody Makers Steve Sutherland in 1990 in a near-contemptuous gesture...
" by Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
. Some members of this scene (Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
, Lush
Lush (band)
Lush were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1987 and disbanded in 1998. They were one of the first bands to attract the "shoegazing" label...
, Suede
Suede (band)
Suede are an English alternative rock band from London, formed in 1989. The group's most prominent early line-up featured singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Bernard Butler, bass player Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert. By 1992, Suede were hailed as "The Best New Band in Britain", and attracted...
) would go on to play a leading part in Britpop. Others such as Kingmaker
Kingmaker (band)
Kingmaker were a British indie rock group, founded in Kingston upon Hull in 1990.-Formation:Teenage schoolmates Loz Hardy and Myles Howell formed the group during their year off after school. They placed an advertisement for a drummer, and eventually recruited the significantly older John Andrew...
, Slowdive
Slowdive
Slowdive were an English shoegaze band that formed in 1989. The band formed in Reading, Berkshire and primarily consisted of Nick Chaplin , Rachel Goswell , Neil Halstead , and Christian Savill...
, Spitfire
Spitfire (UK band)
Spitfire are a British band from Crawley, West Sussex, England whose ever-changing line up revolved around brothers Nick and Jeff Pitcher. Other members included Steve White, Justin Welch, Steven Walker , Matt Wise and Scott Kenny.Two early EPs on Eve Recordings saw the band linked to the...
and Ride
Ride (band)
Ride were a British alternative rock band that formed in 1988 in Oxford, England, consisting of Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Laurence "Loz" Colbert, and Steve Queralt. The band were initially part of the "shoegazing" scene. Following the break-up of the band in 1996, members moved on to various other...
would not. The dominant musical force of the period was the grunge invasion from the United States, which filled the void left in the indie scene by The Stone Roses' inactivity.
Journalist John Harris
John Harris (critic)
John Rhys Harris is a British journalist, writer, and critic.-Early life:Harris was raised in Wilmslow in north Cheshire by a university lecturer and a teacher, daughter of a nuclear research chemist...
has suggested that Britpop began when Blur's single "Popscene
Popscene
"Popscene" is a song by English alternative rock band Blur. It was released 30 March 1992 as a single. The low chart placing came as a confidence blow for the band, who were struggling financially at the time...
" and Suede's "The Drowners
The Drowners
"The Drowners" is the debut single by Suede, released on 11 May 1992 on Nude Records. It charted at number 49 on the UK singles chart. Though not a hit at first, it amassed airplay over time and has become one of the band's definitive singles. It garnered much acclaim from New Musical Express and...
" were released around the same time in the spring of 1992. He stated, "[I]f Britpop started anywhere, it was the deluge of acclaim that greeted Suede's first records: all of them audacious, successful and very, very British". Suede were the first of the new crop of guitar-orientated bands to be embraced by the UK music media as Britain's answer to Seattle's grunge sound. Their debut album Suede
Suede (album)
Suede is the debut album by English alternative rock band Suede, released in March 1993 on Nude Records. At the time the fastest-selling debut album in British history, Suede debuted at the top of the UK Album Chart, won the 1993 Mercury Music Prize, and is often credited with starting the Britpop...
became the fastest-selling debut album in the history of the UK. In April 1993, Select magazine featured Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson
Brett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he briefly fronted The Tears, and has released four solo albums...
on the cover with a Union Flag in the background and the headline "Yanks go home!". The issue included features on Suede, The Auteurs
The Auteurs
The Auteurs were a British alternative rock band of the 1990s, and a vehicle for the songwriting talents of Luke Haines .-Career:...
, Denim
Denim (band)
Denim is an American band based in Austin, Texas formed in 1970. 1980 saw some members of Denim join in a different project, "The Austin All-Stars". The All-Stars were a premiere party band in Austin, playing at the Steamboat on 6th street regularly...
, Saint Etienne
Saint Etienne (band)
Saint Etienne are an English Pop group comprising Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. They are named after the French football team AS Saint-Étienne.-History:Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs were childhood friends and former music journalists...
and Pulp
Pulp (band)
Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
and helped foment the idea of an emerging movement.
Blur, a group that formerly mixed elements of shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
and baggy
Baggy
Baggy was a British dance-oriented music genre popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The scene was heavily influenced by Madchester, although it was not geographically confined to Manchester. Many Madchester bands could also be described as Baggy, and vice versa...
, took on an Anglocentric aesthetic with their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish
Modern Life Is Rubbish
Modern Life Is Rubbish is the second album by English alternative rock band Blur, released in May 1993. Although their debut album Leisure had been commercially successful, Blur faced a severe media backlash soon after its release, and fell out of public favour...
(1993). Blur's new approach was inspired by their tour of the United States in the spring of 1992. During the tour, frontman Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...
began to resent American culture and found the need to comment on that culture's influence seeping into Britain. Justine Frischmann
Justine Frischmann
Justine Elinor Frischmann is an English singer and guitarist, best known for being the lead singer of the now defunct band Elastica...
, formerly of Suede and leader of Elastica
Elastica
Elastica were an English alternative rock band that played punk rock-influenced music. They were best known for their 1995 album Elastica, which produced singles that charted in the US and the UK.-History:...
(and at the time in a relationship with Damon Albarn) explained, "Damon and I felt like we were in the thick of it at that point [. . .] it occurred to us that Nirvana were out there, and people were very interested in American music, and there should be some sort of manifesto for the return of Britishness." John Harris wrote in an NME article just prior to the release of Modern Life is Rubbish, "[Blur's] timing has been fortuitously perfect. Why? Because, as with baggies and shoegazers, loud, long-haired Americans have just found themselves condemned to the ignominious corner labeled 'yesterday's thing'". The music press also fixated on what the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
had dubbed the New Wave of New Wave
New wave of new wave
The New Wave of New Wave was a term coined by music journalists to describe a sub-genre of the British alternative rock scene in the early 90s, in which bands displayed punk, post-punk and New Wave influences, particlularly from bands such as The Clash, Blondie, Wire, and The Stranglers. The band...
, a term applied to the more punk-derivative acts such as Elastica, S*M*A*S*H and These Animal Men
These Animal Men
These Animal Men were an English band who achieved minor fame in the 1990s as part of the New Wave of New Wave before splitting up after releasing two albums, in 1998.-History:...
.
While Modern Life is Rubbish was a moderate success, it was Blur's third album Parklife
Parklife
Parklife is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur, released in April 1994 on Food Records. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish , Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a...
that made them arguably the most popular band in the UK in 1994. Parklife continued the fiercely British nature of its predecessor, and coupled with the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in April of that year it seemed that British alternative rock had finally turned back the tide of grunge dominance. That same year Oasis released their debut album Definitely Maybe
Definitely Maybe
Definitely Maybe is the debut album by English rock band Oasis, released in August 1994. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and "Live Forever"....
, which broke Suede's record for fastest-selling debut album.
The movement was soon dubbed Britpop. The term "Britpop" had been used in the late 1980s (in Sounds magazine by journalist, Goldblade
Goldblade
Goldblade are an English punk rock band from Manchester, England. The band formed in early 1995 when ex Membranes frontman, John Robb, put the band together with Wayne Simmons and former A Witness vocalist Keith Curtis on bass, Rob Haynes on drums and Jay Taylor on guitar.The band signed to...
frontman and TV pundit John Robb referring to bands such as The La's
The La's
The La's were an English rock band from Liverpool, originally active from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Lee Mavers, the group is most famous for their hit single "There She Goes". The band was formed by Mike Badger in 1984 and Mavers joined soon after...
, The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
, Inspiral Carpets
Inspiral Carpets
Inspiral Carpets are an alternative rock band from Oldham in Greater Manchester, England formed by Graham Lambert and Stephen Holt in 1983. The band is named after a clothing shop on their Oldham estate...
and The Bridewell Taxis
The Bridewell Taxis
The Bridewell Taxis were a Leeds-based British Indie rock group active from 1987 to 1993.-History:The Bridewell Taxis shone brightly but briefly as one of the few bands from east of the Pennines to make an impact on what was to become known as the Madchester scene.-Early years:The group came...
). "Britpop" arose around the same time as the term "Britart" (which referred to the work of British modern artists such as Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
). However, it would not be until 1994 when the term entered the popular consciousness, being used extensively by the music press and radio DJs. A rash of bands emerged aligned with the new movement. At the start of 1995 Britpop bands including Sleeper
Sleeper (band)
Sleeper were a British Britpop band in the 1990s fronted by Louise Wener. The band had eight UK Top 40 hit singles and three UK Top 10 albums. Their music was also featured in the soundtrack of Trainspotting.-Career:...
, Supergrass
Supergrass
Supergrass was an English alternative rock band from Oxford. The band consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes , Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey ....
, and Menswear scored pop hits. Elastica released their debut album Elastica
Elastica (album)
Elastica is the debut album by English alternative rock group Elastica, released in March 1995. At the time the fastest-selling debut album ever in the UK, Elastica was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. It hit #1 on the UK Albums Chart...
that March; its first week sales surpassed the record set by Definitely Maybe the previous year. The music press viewed the scene around Camden Town as a musical centre; frequented by Britpop groups like Blur, Elastica, and Menswear, Melody Maker declared "Camden is to 1995 what Seattle was to 1992, what Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
was to 1989, and what Mr Blobby was to 1993."
Peak of success
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
was preparing nuclear weapons, everyday folks were still getting slaughtered in Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
was making his comeback, tabloids and broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
s alike went Britpop crazy." Blur won the battle of the bands, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 - the songs charting at number one and number two respectively. However, in the long-run Oasis became more commercially successful than Blur. Unlike Blur, Oasis were able to achieve sustained sales in the United States thanks to the singles "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova". Oasis's second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Morning Glory? is the second studio album by the English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 October 1995 through Creation Records. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK and number four in the U.S...
(1995) eventually sold over four million copies in the UK, becoming the third best-selling album in British history.
By the summer of 1996 Oasis's prominence was such that NME termed a number of Britpop bands (including The Boo Radleys
The Boo Radleys
-Studio albums:-Compilation albums:-Extended plays:-Singles:-External links:* * * * * * by Laurent Orseau * *...
, Ocean Colour Scene
Ocean Colour Scene
Ocean Colour Scene are an English Britpop band formed in Moseley, Birmingham in 1989. They have had five Top 10 albums and six Top 10 singles to date.-Early days :...
and Cast
Cast (band)
Cast are an English rock band from Liverpool, formed in 1992 by John Power and Peter Wilkinson after Power left The La's and Wilkinson's former band Shack had split...
) as "Noelrock", citing Gallagher's influence on their success. John Harris typified this wave of Britpop bands, and Gallagher, of sharing "a dewy-eyed love of the 1960s, a spurning of much beyond rock's most basic ingredients, and a belief in the supremacy of 'real music'". Starting on 10 August 1996, Oasis played a two-night set at Knebworth to a combined audience of 250,000 people. The demand for these gigs was and still is the largest ever for a concert on British soil; over 2.6 million people had applied for tickets.
During this time the new electioneering saw the emergence of the young leader of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
- Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. Blair represented the new face of the dreams and wishes of the British counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
and many acts like Oasis admired him. Noel Gallagher also appeared on several official meetings — even being invited to Downing Street on one occasion, along with Alan McGee
Alan McGee
Alan McGee has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian.McGee is best-known for co-forming and running the independent Creation Records label from 1983–1999, and then Poptones from 1999-2007...
from Creation Records
Creation Records
Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
- and expressed his support for Blair.
Decline
Oasis' third album Be Here Now (1997) was highly anticipated. Despite initially attracting positive reviews and selling strongly, the record was soon subjected to strong criticism from music critics, record-buyers and even Noel Gallagher himself for its overproduced and bloated sound. Music critic Jon Savage pinpointed Be Here Now as the moment where Britpop ended; Savage said that while the album "isn't the great disaster that everybody says," he noted that "[i]t was supposed to be the big, big triumphal record" of the period. At the same time, Damon Albarn sought to distance Blur from Britpop with the band's fifth album, Blur (1997). On the album, Blur moved away from their Parklife-era sound, and their music began to assimilate American lo-fiLo-fi music
Lo-fi is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an...
influences, particularly that of Pavement
Pavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
. Albarn explained to the NME in January 1997 that "We created a movement: as far as the lineage of British bands goes, there'll always be a place for us", but added, "We genuinely started to see that world in a slightly different way."
As the movement began to slow down, many acts began to falter and broke up. The popularity of the pop group the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
has been seen as having "snatched the spirit of the age from those responsible for Britpop." While established acts struggled, attention began to turn to the likes of Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
and The Verve
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
, who had been previously overlooked by the British media. These two bands—in particular Radiohead—showed considerably more esoteric influences from the 1960s and 1970s, influences that were uncommon among earlier Britpop acts. In 1997, Radiohead and The Verve released their respective efforts OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
and Urban Hymns
Urban Hymns
Urban Hymns is the third album by English rock band The Verve, released on 29 September 1997 on Hut Recordings. It earned nearly unanimous critical praise upon its release, and went on to become the band's best-selling release and one of the biggest selling albums of the year...
, both of which were widely acclaimed. Post-Britpop
Post-Britpop
Post-Britpop is a sub-genre of British alternative rock, made up of bands that emerged from the late 1990s and early 2000s in the aftermath of Britpop, influenced by acts like Pulp, Oasis and Blur, but with less overtly British concerns in their lyrics and making more use of American rock...
bands like Travis
Travis (band)
Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland, comprising Fran Healy , Dougie Payne , Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose...
, Stereophonics
Stereophonics
The Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band now living in turners x that formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in Cynon Valley, Wales. The band currently comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Kelly Jones, bassist and backing vocalist Richard Jones, drummer Javier Weyler, guitarist and backing...
and Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
, influenced by Britpop acts, particularly Oasis, with more introspective lyrics, were some of the most successful rock acts of the late late 1990s and early 2000s.
See also
- List of Britpop musicians
- The Britpop StoryThe Britpop StoryThe Britpop Story is a British television documentary about the Britpop movement which occurred in Britain during the 1990s. Hosted by John Harris, it was first broadcast on BBC Four in August 2005...
- Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit PopLive Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit PopLive Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop is a 2003 documentary film written and directed by John Dower. The documentary is a study of popular culture in the United Kingdom during the mid to late 1990s...
- Post-BritpopPost-BritpopPost-Britpop is a sub-genre of British alternative rock, made up of bands that emerged from the late 1990s and early 2000s in the aftermath of Britpop, influenced by acts like Pulp, Oasis and Blur, but with less overtly British concerns in their lyrics and making more use of American rock...