Britpop : Time For Reevaluation?

turrican are you british?

i like indie rock and roll

I said on my fb about how the older fans of britpop (aka the roses/primals fans) loved dance music and how we all thought oasis "would do a screamadelica" on their 3rd album , and how said dance acts supported oasis and were seen as britpop along WITH the spice girls (Geri's union jack dress), robbie williams etc but post 1997 going to #10 Cool Britannia the kids chose to go with "real music" and now Britpop has come to mean only white guitar pop. ffs i went to gigs with friends who were into britpop and baggy and grunge but also ravers, goldie fans, massive attack, prodigy, underworld, leftfield,aphex fans. 1995/96 wasnt as bad as what followed. (if its tl;dr - what turrican said)

― ۩, Thursday, April 24, 2014 10:59 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ This.

I mean, I know a lot of folks that loved the first couple of Oasis records (they sold a shitload, so obviously I would) that also loved Massive Attack, Prodigy, Underworld, Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Bjork etc. etc. etc.

fucking hell, all that different stuff?

endless variety

actually, it seems that supergrass have avoided a lot of current britpop hate, which perhaps gives hope that beyond the debut, they were a band beyond such a narrow minded genre.

i.e. of all the supposed britpop bands, supergrass are the one band i still listen to, and enjoy.

― mark e, Thursday, April 24, 2014 10:45 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I still have a lot of time for Supergrass, and even though 'Diamond Hoo Ha' was hardly their finest album, I still think they had plenty more in them.

lolll xp

fucking hell, all that different stuff?

― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:08 PM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm being general, but you get the point :)

well NV as you know fine well something happened and "indie" fans went from iking all forms of dance music and hip hop to craig david lookalike on the toilet on Melody Maker and nme readers only wanting guitar music.
1997 seemed to be when it happened too in my mind.

classifying the manics as britpop seems kind of off, even their softer post-1994 material doesn't really have much in common with any of the rest of those bands.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:01 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It does, but circa Everything Must Go and 'A Design For Life', they were definitely lumped in with the Britpop lot.

The first couple Divine Comedy albums are sooooo good. They just fill me with joy. xp

― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic)

Liberation, Promenade and Casanova is possibly my favourite album run of the 90s.

I still have a lot of time for Supergrass, and even though 'Diamond Hoo Ha' was hardly their finest album, I still think they had plenty more in them.

― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican)

Such a great band. Just listened to the first two albums today and enjoyed them a ridiculous amount.

hah, I thought The Divine Comedy/My Life Story stuff was some of the worst britpop on a par with bluetones and ocean colour scene

I loved them both at the time but Divine Comedy still sound great to me now where as My Life Story now sounded as dated as the worst Britpop bands. I really do understand why people dislike the Divine Comedy but they've been one of my favourite bands for almost twenty years now.

I dunno why but I thought you were in your mid to late twenties

I'm just about to turn thirty one. I was probably twelve/thirteen when I first got into them.

There were a whole number of things in '97 that had me thinking "yeah, this is getting a bit silly now"... Be Here Now has always been cited as being "the end", but there was a whole load of other nonsense going on. Stuff like Catch (essentially a glorified boyband) putting out 'Bingo', Robbie Williams' Liam Gallagher-isms on 'Old Before I Die'... I remember watching a video of Embrace doing 'All You Good Good People' on MTV and hearing Danny McNamara's foghorn vocal and thinking "seriously!?", stuff like Travis...

20 years ago I was getting into dance music, funk, krautrock, jazz and classic canon and even classic weird stuff. Used to order things in through the local library. Expanding my knowledge from grunge/metal/indie/industrial that was my listening for the 3 years previous.
My mate got cds by funkadelic/tim buckley/can and i was hooked. bought mc5, stooges,can,kraftwerk, 13th floor elevators cds as well as my own cds of the ones my mate got. Already liked a lot of 60s stuff by 1994 so britpop mainly seemed a rehash of the good stuff for me aged 21

The funny thing was Be Here Now got amazing reviews (to make up for terrible reviews of morning glory). It was those who bought it who hated it. Yet it was still their 3rd best studio album lol

they just picked up so many new fans each album (many of whom never heard the first)
They really were massive in the UK weren't they? Pretty staggering really. Was that the last time the british music industry were basically printing money?

I remember in the aftermath the best record shop in glasgow expanded and opened other shops during the boom and it killed it. Maybe thats another reason i hate britpop so much?

xpost:

Yeah, I had young parents, so there was a lot of late '70s/early '80s music in my parents record collection which I had been exposed to/was consciously listening to around that time.

Oasis were stupidly huge in 1996-1997, absolutely fucking stupidly huge. It wasn't just that they sold millions of copies of Morning Glory and played to thousands of people at Knebworth, they just seemed to be everywhere. I remember some episode of The Vicar Of Dibley being on in '96, and two of the main characters arguing over what kind of Oasis advent calendar they wanted "the Liam one or the Noel one", and there were a thousands more examples besides... there just seemed to be a point where you couldn't avoid them.

Having said that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOFT253yNHQ

I remember that. Still got a soft spot for Game On. Matthew invented emo remember ;)

Daniel Hewson

25 April 2014 1:54am
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2

Whatever you say about Britpop, the current UK music scene can't muster a worthy Glastonbury headliner, last year the Rolling Stones, year before U2. British Glastonbury headliners weren't a problem in the 90s. Where in Nick Clegg's 'modern' Britain are the Great British bands we used to produce? Or am I longing for W.G. Grace?

ithappens is as popular with the guardian commentors as a fart in a spacesuit for his article.

Well done!

and yes where in this guys modern Britain is Dublin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av9Vn48fOEs

Tony Riviere

24 April 2014 7:19pm
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64

Though not a fan, I think Britpop reaffirmed what it was to be British, white and male. Black music informs so much of modern pop and rock (and there is nothing wrong with that) that it was most refreshing for bands to stick their heads above the parapets and wave their mojos in the face of the PC norms of journo-driven hip but utterly soulless media icons.

ILX's favourite sport: find the idiot, quote the idiot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWSrx41iyfg

xxp impressive how much of the article he can agree with while coming to the opposite conclusion

Fans replied in their thousands, demanding an explanation with many suggesting it could mean the long pined-for reunion.

"WHAT DOES THIS MEAN" one wrote, "DUDE" another said, with a third adding: "Oh my god it's happening".

This is the internet though, so obviously there was also a "Shut up I hate you".

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/quiz/2014/apr/25/quiz-how-much-you-know-about-britpop

yeah, I got 22

18, but with a lot of guesswork

Oh shit, I got 23. In my defence, this was the era I grew up in. ;_;

15 and so did I, albeit in NZ

27, please shoot me.

22 but only coz I read Select religiously every week.

(I'm far prouder of scoring 12 out of 13 on "Cornish or Dothraki" to be honest)

24. And life goes on.

Oh dear. I got 26.

Really wish it had been Heavy Stereo on the Yanks Go Home Select cover.

21. Tbf anyone who read MM/NME/Select around that time will score pretty well.

17, from Canada! I worked hard for that score. Select cost ~$10!

19, with a lot of guesses, and a reasonable number I got right by virtue of it happening around me (the Good Mixer was my local, I worked near Berwick St, etc)

19. but frankly i hate this music and wish it would die

I got 24. Who knew Parklife almost had a fruit & veg cart on the cover?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av9Vn48fOEs

St George's Day knees-up at The Red Lion in Leytonstone - 23rd April 2014

http://i.imgur.com/6GCQQqR.gif

hermione008018 hours ago

This is just bonkers! Can you imagine, you are having a pint in a pub and suddenly Damon Albarn is there singing Parklife???!!!! I bloody love London! :)

I honestly think I would be overjoyed if I was having a pint in a pub and suddenly Damon Albarn was there singing Parklife

if it was Phil Daniels tho I'd glass the cunt eh lads