- Date:
- 1990 - 2000
Britpop
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What is Britpop music?
Britpop is a British rock music movement from the 1990s that embraced the tradition of melodic, guitar-based British pop music pioneered by the Beatles. It was characterized by songs, guitars, fashion, and attitude.
Bands like Oasis and Blur, with their classic guitar-based pop songs and catchy choruses, epitomized the genre, though many artists associated with the term resisted the label. Britpop is a style of British rock music of the 1990s suggesting a reaction against American grunge and typically featuring catchy melodies and lyrics with distinctively British references.
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When and where did Britpop start?
Britpop emerged in the 1990s in Britain, drawing from British guitar-based pop music traditions established by the Beatles. It was less a movement and more of a simultaneous emergence of like minds, shaped by the New Musical Express (NME). Many associated with the term resisted it.
Oasis (founded in 1992) and Blur are central to Britpop, with their shared belief in classic guitar-based pop songs and fashionable sportswear. Oasis, formed by two brothers from Manchester, stood for authenticity, while Blur, from Essex, had an ironic, art school-influenced take.
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Which bands are most famous for Britpop?
Britpop emerged in the 1990s among British rock bands who embraced British guitar-based pop music tradition. Though many associated with the movement resisted the label, Britpop was about songs, guitars, and attitudes.
Two bands most associated with Britpop are Oasis and Blur. Both believed in classic guitar-based pop songs with sing-along choruses, but they had different attitudes. Oasis, formed by two brothers from Manchester, stood for authenticity, while Blur borrowed from irony and art school camp. Pulp, fronted by Jarvis Cocker, is another peripheral band associated with Britpop.
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What musical styles influenced Britpop?
Britpop's foundation lies in British guitar-based pop music, notably from the Beatles. Bands like Oasis and Blur drew from this tradition, emphasizing melodic songs and sing-along choruses.
Blur also incorporated irony and art school camp, reminiscent of the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and John Lennon. Additionally, the British youth were inspired by American rock and roll, initially replicating the music of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly, before blending it with local traditions.
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How did Britpop music affect British culture in the 1990s?
Britpop emerged in the 1990s as a British rock movement that celebrated British pop music, particularly the guitar-based sound of the Beatles. Bands like Oasis and Blur championed catchy melodies and lyrics with British cultural references, setting themselves in opposition to American grunge music.
Britpop coincided with a period of increasing cultural diversity and cosmopolitanism in England, where global influences were mixing with traditional English culture. The popularity of Britpop, along with other forms of pop music, played a role in shaping identities and lifestyles, especially among youth, and contributed to a more fluid and open popular culture.
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How did Britpop compare to other music genres of its time, like grunge or American pop?
Britpop arose in the 1990s among British rock bands drawing from British pop music tradition. It can be viewed as a reaction against American grunge, with catchy melodies and British cultural references.
Bands like Oasis and Blur emphasized guitar-based pop songs with sing-along choruses, taking different approaches to their British pop roots. Oasis, with members from working-class Manchester, stood for authenticity, while Blur took a more art-school approach.
In contrast, American popular music saw the rise of alternative rock, built on distorted guitars and generational discontent.
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Britpop, movement of British rock bands in the 1990s that drew consciously on the tradition of melodic, guitar-based British pop music established by the Beatles. Like nearly all musical youth trends, Britpop was about songs, guitars, jackets, and attitudes—though not necessarily in that order. It was perhaps not so much a movement as a simultaneous emergence of fairly like minds, given shape and direction by the determined boosting of the English music weekly the New Musical Express (NME)—which referred to Paul Weller of the Jam as “the Modfather of Britpop.” Indeed, many of those most associated with the term resisted the pigeonhole it offered.
Various peripheral bands were involved in Britpop—most enjoyably, Pulp, from Sheffield, which was fronted by the lanky veteran rocker Jarvis Cocker (b. September 19, 1963, Sheffield, England) and had its biggest hit with the single “Common People”—but it was essentially about Oasis and Blur. What the two bands had in common was a belief in the classic guitar-based pop song with a sing-along chorus—and a love of fashionable sportswear. Their attitudes were quite different, though. While both reached back to British pop’s golden age of the 1960s, each had a different take on the inheritance.
Oasis stood for authenticity. At heart the band was two brothers from Manchester, guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher (in full Noel Thomas David Gallagher; b. May 29, 1967, Manchester, England) and singer Liam Gallagher (byname of William John Paul Gallagher; b. September 21, 1972, Manchester). They were northern, working-class, and swimming in illegal drugs and the same kind of romantic aggressiveness as their hero John Lennon. Founded in 1992, Oasis released its first single, “Supersonic,” in 1994. Their biggest hit was the album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) and its best-known track, “Wonderwall.” Oasis toured the United States; they fought; they entered into disastrous marriages, bought big houses, and took more drugs; and by the late 1990s they had faded into a rut of same-sounding songs.
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Blur’s take on the pop past borrowed from its reservoir of irony and art school camp—the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger’s makeup and Lennon’s whimsies. They were from Essex, the exurban flatlands that separate London from the North Sea. Formed in 1989 and driven by singer Damon Albarn (b. May 23, 1968, London, England) and bassist Alex James (b. November 21, 1968, Bourneouth, England), Blur had minor success as an “indie” band before finding its place with its third album, Parklife (1994), a collection of witty, seemingly light pop songs that held echoes of the Kinks, the Small Faces (see Rod Stewart), and Squeeze (see New Wave). Outgunned and outsold by Oasis in the great Britpop war of 1996, which was reported on by even Britain’s leading newspapers, Blur retreated into the angry art dislocation of their eponymous album (1997) before slowly reemerging via the new popism of 13 (1999).