Indie/ Britpop

Britpop was a British alternative rock genre and movement that was at its most popular in Great Britain in the mid 1990s. Britpop emerged from the indie scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. more...

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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 grunge invasion led by bands like Nirvana, many bands positioned themselves as opposing musical forces, referencing British guitar music of the past and writing about uniquely British topics and concerns.

Although Britpop bands did not on the whole have a single unifying sound they were grouped together by the media first as a 'scene' and later as a national cultural movement. Blur, Oasis and Pulp are generally considered the scene's most prominent acts; other major bands associated with Britpop at various stages included Suede, Elastica, Ocean Colour Scene, Supergrass, and The Verve. These bands 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 and even to America, Britpop fell apart by the end of the decade.

Style, roots and influences

Britpop bands were strongly influenced by the British guitar music of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly British Invasion groups The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and The Small Faces, glam rock artists such as David Bowie and T. Rex, and punk rock bands like the Sex Pistols, The Jam, the Buzzcocks, and Wire. Specific influences varied: Blur and Oasis drew from the Kinks and the Beatles, respectively, while Elastica had a fondness for arty punk rock. But they all projected the sense of reverency for the classic 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.

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 shoegazing and 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 was 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 (to the point of including Andy Bell in Oasis), and Martin Carr of the Boo Radleys has pointed out Dinosaur Jr's influence on their work. 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".

Read more at Wikipedia.org