The Student Room Group

Britpop

Honestly love britpop but no one I know even knows what on earth it is. Same for most things though, I’m a fan of the 60s and 90s and my fiends are very much into modern music, not to say it’s terrible, but to me there’s less effort and more money-making.
Reply 1
Original post by Kittyaaaa
Honestly love britpop but no one I know even knows what on earth it is. Same for most things though, I’m a fan of the 60s and 90s and my fiends are very much into modern music, not to say it’s terrible, but to me there’s less effort and more money-making.

Britpop is amazing, I'm a massive fan of Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, The Verve and Stereophonics as the OG Britpop bands, but I also like post-Britpop like Coldplay, Travis, Arctic Monkeys and Snow Patrol as well.

The genre was essentially created as a response to the Grunge scene in America as at the time bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam were receiving all the headlines and the British music influence was waning. Oasis kickstarted the phase with Definitely Maybe, their debut album which received critical acclaim, then other British bands followed suit such as Blur, Suede, Pulp, Radiohead and The Verve. Blur and Oasis were the two heavyweights in Britpop music and because of that, a rivalry was inevitable. The rivalry was at its peak during the mid 90's so 94-96 and during that time both bands were just at it with neither being fully dominant over the other. The downfall of Britpop was attributed to the loss of interest in the genre over time and the emergence of the Spice Girls as they became Britain's next biggest thing and therefore stole the limelight away from Britpop.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 2
Ditto the above. Big Oasis fan with soft spots for Blur, The Verve and Pulp. I've got the first three Oasis albums on CD and hope to get them all on Vinyl soon.

Britpop was the response to grunge in the USA but also a recognition of indie music that had been largely ignored by the mainstream press during the 1980s. Despite this, it was the Madchester movement with bands like the Inspiral Carpets, The Smiths, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses that really influenced Britpop in general (they were producing alternative music that focused on good times and overall catchiness in their songs).

I love the genre's music as its probably the last time that you get music not wholly influenced by American music trends like Lo-Fi, etc. Parklife, Cigarettes and Alcohol and many more are really so British in their tone that its nice to hear the humour but also the evocation of young people's issues which are still relevant today.

Blur and Oasis were the big two and even battled it out in mid 1995 for the top of the charts which was a big headline in the news and fuelled an excitement towards music that people hadn't seen since the 1960s. Its true that in many ways, they shut out many other capable Britpop bands like Sleeper, Suede, Elastica, etc but Pulp imho held their own too; their 1995 album A Different Class is still brilliant but Oasis' What's the Story Morning Glory just had more flavour (only just). By 1997 it started falling apart because of three things.

1-Oasis' third album Be Here Now was so eagerly anticipated that when it was released, it sold about 700,000 copies in four days. It was rushed and over bloated; although a good album, people realised it wasn't anything innovative and so grew bored by what Britpop as a whole had become (guys on copious amounts of drugs making songs that clearly didn't appeal to the times).

2-Death of Princess Diana. The Britpop movement was all about capturing the happy times and national pride of the country. When Diana died, it ended the public euphoria for a while and so bands like The Verve, Radiohead, etc who were making slower, more emotionally charged songs snatched the attention away from bands like Oasis.

3-The Spice Girls. Posh, Baby, Scary, Sporty and Ginger paved the way for more manufactured pop music after a big decline, benefitting people like Robbie Williams. They became a massive phenomenon which thanks to the mass marketing campaigns they fronted, ensured they were the new 'cool' and their distinctive personalities also helped this. The fact that Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress at the 97 Brits is arguably the most remembered image of Britpop era culture rather than Noel Gallagher's UJ guitar also highlights how popular they were.
(edited 3 years ago)

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