Oasis beat Blur in the britpop war?

homerun_homer

Link to story
Back in the day I was Oasis all the way, so much so that I believed you couldn't like both bands at the same time - narrow minded youth that I was. But Oasis have been boring and irrelevant for too long and Blur's comeback and the work Damon Albarn has done in between has been more progressive and interesting than anything Oasis have done since they started down the slippery slop to tedium.

Ultimately regardless of what the stats may say I think Oasis won many battles originally but Blur & Co have come up trumps in the originality and musical side of things and in my mind have won the war.

What do ye think?

Pighead

Blue won that battle hands down. All Rise is the blueprint to which all jangly guitar Britpop ands should aspire to.

dream brother

All rise is a classic!! Definitely pisses all over Morning Glory!!

The Hustler

Duncans my favourite, he's ROIDE!!!!!

As for the original poster- Oasis may be un original but they made 2 all time classic albums and umpteen classic singles that will still be listened to in 25 years time.

Oasis, in years to come, will be remembered, Blur won't.

Oasis won the battler AND war

kippy

Spelling mistake of the week in the thread title.......

ceegee

i sat down last weekend and listened to parklife from start to finish, never really realised how great an album it is, such a great mixture of styles on it. And havin been in the pit for their glastonbury gig the other week i can safely say it was one of the best gigs i've been to, just thinking back to tender gives shivers up my spine.

Boom_Bap

Simon is so hot


Anyway, Oasis won the chart war, the popularity war, the ego war......all that good stuff.

But at the end of the day, Blur (and Blue) made much better music.

sham69

A very unfortunate typo but highly amusing.

Bubs101

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Anyway, Oasis won the chart war, the popularity war, the ego war......all that good stuff.

But at the end of the day, Blur (and Blue) made much better music.

They did in their ****. Oasis made two flawless albums that captured the decade better than everyone else and arguably the strongest B-side collection ever and then faded. Blur were consistently good but never reached Oasis' peak

buck65

Oasis beat black and blue in the britpop war - would be a better thread starter.

homerun_homer

Oooops:P

I'd ask the Mods to fix it but... it's a good funny mistake.

kippy

homerun_homer wrote: »

Oooops:P

I'd ask the Mods to fix it but... it's a good funny mistake.

Ah yeah, nice and light hearted! These posts will be meaningless when the thread title changes.

Back to what you meant to say. I always preferred Oasis at the time but as the years have gone on and Blur have evolved/broke up/got back together, I am preferring them and what their members have done since Blur.

Still hard to bear Oasis at the time, some brilliant stuff.

cinnamon girl

No contest IMHO. Oasis made two very good albums but I wouldn't call either of them classics in a musical sense, they were just good pop records. The accomplishments of Modern Life is Rubbish and Parklife are on a different level altogether.

And the other Oasis albums were much worse than the other Blur albums...

cherryghost

all oasis albums are the same

blur redefined their music album by album (with the exception of The Great Escape :P)

DerekD Goldfish

everyone knows that pulp were far superior to both

Bubs101

cherryghost wrote: »

all oasis albums are the same

How exactly are the first two the same.

All Blur albums are the same. They all go na na na na na

Dozen Wicked Words

If I want to listen to The Beatles type music, I will stick with the Beatles instead of a band without an original idea in their large eyebrowed heads.

Blur at least attempted some kind of change of direction, rather than the Gallagher brothers plus a. n. other musicians rinse and repeat.

Running Bing

Sigh:rolleyes:

Its become cool to bash Oasis now. People have such short memories. Def Maybe and Whats the story are absolutely top quality albums, few bands even get that. Be Here Now and Standing on the shoulder are two very underrated albums imo, probably understandably so because the first two set such high standards.

I do believe Heathen Chemistry is an absolute quality album that is criminally underrated and it's their third best album.

Dont believe the truth is pretty crap and I was very disapointed with Dig out your soul but thats a strong catalogue imo. Oasis we're very important, they defined a generation really and made some classic music.

So they've gone downhill....what band doesnt? Blur made great music too but I dont think they had the impact Oasis had. I think its a good debate but it always descends into people coming on saying how sh1t Oasis are just to show how cool they are.:rolleyes:

cherryghost

i never said they sucked. i said their albums sound samey. thats why the 1st two are the best the rest were... meh.

blur excited me every time they released a new album, their music was a progession of their style and i love them for that.

Dozen Wicked Words

Couple of things I would say about the "britpop war" is that it was a device of the British tabloid media to sell more papers and britpop itself an easy way to lump hugely diverse bands together in one big group.

The singles that battled it out for that honour weren't either bands finest hour.

Roll with it, Liam at his whiney worst. Country House was decidedly meh.

Running Bing

cherryghost wrote: »

i never said they sucked. i said their albums sound samey. thats why the 1st two are the best the rest were... meh.

blur excited me every time they released a new album, their music was a progession of their style and i love them for that.

I see that criticism levelled at them a lot and I think its a bit unfair.

They definitely progressed, they have their own sound yes, when you hear Oasis you know its oasis but they have tried new things (admittedly with varying degrees of success).

I dont know how people could say dig out your soul sounds like Def Maybe or Whats the story

Running Bing

dooferoaks wrote: »

Couple of things I would say about the "britpop war" is that it was a device of the British tabloid media to sell more papers and britpop itself an easy way to lump hugely diverse bands together in one big group.

The singles that battled it out for that honour weren't either bands finest hour.

Roll with it, Liam at his whiney worst. Country House was decidedly meh.

Yeah that is definitely true. The whole thing was silly really and I imagine both Oasis and Blur knew it was a load of B0llox (and an opportunity to sell more records).

Spiritoftheseventies

Running Bing wrote: »

I see that criticism levelled at them a lot and I think its a bit unfair.

They definitely progressed, they have their own sound yes, when you hear Oasis you know its oasis but they have tried new things (admittedly with varying degrees of success).

I dont know how people could say dig out your soul sounds like Def Maybe or Whats the story

although the race for number one between Blur and Oasis i think was about the most exciting thing to happen in popular music in years, I think both have peaked at this stage. And always felt Roll with it was probably the weakest of singles released from the whats the story morning glory. Wonder Wall was far better

whatawaster

Oasis have two great albums, a handful of great B sides. They have however only written a couple of great songs in 10 years. not good enough,

Blur never got old, they never got dull. They constantly evolved and incorporated different styles. They also had fantastic lyrics.
They are hands down the better band imo, though i love oasis

cherryghost

Bubs101 wrote: »

All Blur albums are the same. They all go na na na na na

You're thinking of Kaiser Chiefs :pac:

Spiritoftheseventies

cherryghost wrote: »

You're thinking of Kaiser Chiefs :pac:

Weren't blue a boyband from Dublin?

ceegee

Bubs101 wrote: »

How exactly are the first two the same.

All Blur albums are the same. They all go na na na na na

No they dont. For Tomorrow goes la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.

Completely different syllable. Oasis could learn from that kind of diversity :P

Spiritoftheseventies

ceegee wrote: »

No they dont. For Tomorrow goes la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.

Completely different syllable. Oasis could learn from that kind of diversity :P

lets match the two in terms of single. top five oasis songs. Live Forever, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Wonder Wall, Dont Look back in anger, some might say. For blur theres no other way, Country house, Beetlebum, Pop Song number two, come on come on. who wins.

Running Bing

whatawaster wrote: »

Oasis have two great albums, a handful of great B sides.

Forgot to mention the b-sides.

I mean its testament to how good they were at that time that they could make a compilation of B-sides that was better than most bands A material....on the basis of Def Maybe, Whats the story and The Masterplan alone they were quality.

The Hustler

Manic Street Preachers take a massive sh*t on both bands

Spiritoftheseventies

Running Bing wrote: »

Forgot to mention the b-sides.

I mean its testament to how good they were at that time that they could make a compilation of B-sides that was better than most bands A material....on the basis of Def Maybe, Whats the story and The Masterplan alone they were quality.

Nah Oasis had one great album in definitely maybe, then did a complete u turn next album which for all its good songs never matched the sheer rawness of their opener. few good singles since.Blur if anything have improved.

Running Bing

The Hustler wrote: »

Manic Street Preachers take a massive sh*t on both bands

Who?

ceegee

bayviewclose wrote: »

lets match the two in terms of single. top five oasis songs. Live Forever, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Wonder Wall, Dont Look back in anger, some might say. For blur theres no other way, Country house, Beetlebum, Pop Song number two, come on come on. who wins.

Dont think too many people would class that as blurs top 5 singles. For me it'd be: Tender, To The End, Coffee & TV, End Of A Century, The Universal. It probably doesnt give a true reflection of their work, given the absence of their more uptempo songs but, hey, thats singles for you.

blur win.

Spiritoftheseventies

ceegee wrote: »

Dont think too many people would class that as blurs top 5 singles. For me it'd be: Tender, To The End, Coffee & TV, End Of A Century, The Universal. It probably doesnt give a true reflection of their work, given the absence of their more uptempo songs but, hey, thats singles for you.

blur win.

yes Beetlebum my favourite blur song even if they borrowed a bit from the Pixies. Song two was good as well

lordgoat

Keep it on topic. Read the first post properly before posting.

No more - one line oasis/blur bashing. Make a proper well thought out post and construct your argument sensibly and with some level of courtesy. This means no more 'oasis songs all sound the same/blur just go na na na na'
(Blue bashing is allowed)

Oh sorry homer that typo is too good to change!

cherryghost

my personal top 5 blur songs are No Distance Left to Run, For Tomorrow, Theres no Other Way, Popscene and The Universal.

selpher

Blur have some cracking B-sides too. Inertia, all your life, young and lovely all great tunes. Was delighted to see the 4 of them back on stage together at Hyde Park last week.

Spiritoftheseventies

homerun_homer wrote: »

Link to story
Back in the day I was Oasis all the way, so much so that I believed you couldn't like both bands at the same time - narrow minded youth that I was. But Oasis have been boring and irrelevant for too long and Blur's comeback and the work Damon Albarn has done in between has been more progressive and interesting than anything Oasis have done since they started down the slippery slop to tedium.

Ultimately regardless of what the stats may say I think Oasis won many battles originally but Blur & Co have come up trumps in the originality and musical side of things and in my mind have won the war.

What do ye think?

ultimately Brit Prop was a very crude piece of marketing. Sure the race to see who would make number one was exciting but there was a lot more to british music than that. the Mancs, Radiohead and Elbow, doves etc have all outlived it and gone on to better things. To my mind Oasis were at their best with their first album and Blur had some very good singles but it was never about just two bands. never liked that whole brit pop name tagging thing at all.

cinnamon girl

My Top 5 Blur singles:
Chemical World
For Tomorrow
Tender
Sunday Sunday
Girls & Boys

Top 5 Oasis singles:
Live Forever
Wonderwall
Don't Look Back In Anger
don't really like the others much TBH

Most of my favourite Blur songs weren't singles to begin with: This Is A Low, Oily Water, Miss America, Peach, You're So Great...

Dozen Wicked Words

I know video is not a musicians main concern but if you were to compare Blur and Oasis video I think the difference in creativity is marked. (I know the band themselves don't make the videos, but I am sure they have a large say in who is commissioned to make them and the shape they take).


There's No Other Way, Parklife, Coffee and TV all very memorable videos, I think my favourite though is Out of Time (which is also my favourite Blur song)

An absolutely brilliant video, taken from a documentary on an American Aircraft Carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln. Still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

My bias is obvious, so not too many good Oasis videos spring to mind, The Importance of being Idle is fairly good.

loveissucide

Why the blazes are people still having this discusion.Even Albarn and the Gallaghers have moved on.

blastman

Better 13 years late than never, eh?

For the record, I've always been a fan of both, Oasis are an unashamed dumba$$ rock 'n' roll band with some stone cold classic songs and albums (mentioned already, so I won't bother repeating). Sometimes that's enough. Blur weren't as straightforward rock 'n' roll, but they also had classic albums and songs (Parklife is a brilliant album from start to finish, Tender, There's No Other Way....all IMO, of course). Can we move on to at least the 21st century now?

Spiritoftheseventies

kippy wrote: »

Spelling mistake of the week in the thread title.......

No we were actually talking about the band blue. someone decided to bring up blur!

Dudess

The Hustler wrote: »

Oasis, in years to come, will be remembered, Blur won't.

Of course they will. No need to say that just because you prefer Oasis.

Running Bing wrote: »

Sigh:rolleyes:

Its become cool to bash Oasis now.

Has it? I started to notice huge cracks in Oasis' output in 1997, which is hardly "now". I have found anything I've heard by them since then (no exception) to be tedious, turgid, unoriginal and uninspiring - that is my own single-mindedly formed opinion. And I'm not alone... but apparently that's not what we really think, we're just trying to be "cool".

People have such short memories. Def Maybe and Whats the story are absolutely top quality albums, few bands even get that.

I don't think anyone is disputing that - but Definitely Maybe was released in 1995. I think it's ok for people to have "short memories" in relation to nearly a decade and a half ago and everything subsequently being mediocre at best.

Be Here Now and Standing on the shoulder are two very underrated albums imo, probably understandably so because the first two set such high standards.

I do believe Heathen Chemistry is an absolute quality album that is criminally underrated and it's their third best album.

Dont believe the truth is pretty crap and I was very disapointed with Dig out your soul but thats a strong catalogue imo. Oasis we're very important, they defined a generation really and made some classic music.

Oasis were important-ish in that they timed it perfectly to make no-frills, laddish, anthemic rawk n' roll, which hadn't been around for a while and which had been associated only with auld fellas. Some great stuff on Definitely Maybe, some very good stuff on Morning Glory... then they lost it. Oasis - saviours of rock n' roll, 1994-1995. Seeing as their legacy spans about 18 months and they've been around for over 15 years, I think it's pretty reasonable for people to be critical of them.

So they've gone downhill....what band doesnt?

So the fact other bands go downhill (and not all have - and certainly not as soon) makes it ok for Oasis to churn out dreary music and makes it unreasonable for people to criticise them? I can never understand the "they're not bad, I've heard worse" defence, as if that's an impressive achievement.

Blur made great music too but I dont think they had the impact Oasis had. I think its a good debate but it always descends into people coming on saying how sh1t Oasis are just to show how cool they are.:rolleyes:

I find it always descends into Oasis fans becoming personally offended and ridiculously defensive - and resorting to accusing Oasis detractors of only being so to be "cool". People don't always do stuff to be cool you know - many have their own minds. And people are allowed to dislike stuff you like.

bayviewclose wrote: »

lets match the two in terms of single. top five oasis songs. Live Forever, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Wonder Wall, Dont Look back in anger, some might say. For blur theres no other way, Country house, Beetlebum, Pop Song number two, come on come on. who wins.

What difference does successful singles make? Commercial success isn't a measure of a band's importance.

Spiritoftheseventies

sad to say it but Oasis now just bring out the occasional good single. They were a candle that once burned brightly but no longer pioneers. Same for Blur.

Bubs101

ceegee wrote: »

No they dont. For Tomorrow goes la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.

Completely different syllable. Oasis could learn from that kind of diversity :P

And Charmless man goes? Had forgot they used the same trick in a different song

Spiritoftheseventies

Bubs101 wrote: »

And Charmless man goes? Had forgot they used the same trick in a different song

should we discount hey jude because it had a lot na na na nana na's at the end?

super_furry

I think Oasis, having flirted with some of their musical sensibilities earlier in their career, have finally become Status Quo. A good pub band with a few old choruses that everyone sings along to come closing time, but little to nothing in the way of musical creativity anymore. They made two classic albums that they'll still be playing live into their 60s, but are in danger of becoming a bit of a parody of what they once were.

Bubs101

bayviewclose wrote: »

should we discount hey jude because it had a lot na na na nana na's at the end?

Hey Jude is one of the most hated songs around

bottlerocket

Definitely Maybe is an all time classic. Few debuts capture a young band with all their energy and raw self-assuredness like it does. Did help that they had the tunes, mind. Morning Glory has two or three great songs and a lot of filler. I remember the guy who reviewed it for Melody Maker at the time got sacked because he said it sounded like the comedown after a party and gave it 7/10. Whatever people think of these albums, few would champion their successors. Oasis became formulaic and dull, the rot set in a long time ago. Personally, I don't think Noel had the imagination or the nerve to really test himself. Didn't help that he was the only songwriter either. If ever a band needed another influence, another songwriter or a really strong producer, it was Oasis from 95 on. Clearly Noel came up with the tunes and the others jobbed on and off doing their bits. They did define that period though but they inspired a lot of truly awful imitators. Their legacy was a lot of bad, unimaginative stuff coming out of the UK in mid-late 90's.

Blur on the other hand have, like all great bands, constantly challenged themselves and their audience. With one glaring exception - The Great Escape is pretty awful, bar two or three standouts. They made up for it by never putting out a bad album again. They were embarrassed by the whole singles war thing and moved on, daring to redefine themselves at a commercial height (a risk all too few bands take). Even 12 years on the Blur album sounds fresh and full of ideas, a talented band stretching themselves and trying out new ideas. And some great singles too. Blur and 13 are masterpieces and Radiohead aside, the high point of English indie bands of the time. To come up with an album like Think Tank after Graham left/got sacked was astonishing. Damon and Graham continued to make mostly excellent music afterwards, The Good, The Bad & The Queen is easily one of this decades best albums for my money. It's simply wonderful to see them back and lets hope some new music comes of this.

So, to end the rant, their trajectories are so wildly different that to compare their careers because of their (brief) intersection at the height of Britpop is ludicrous. Both will be remembered, both had an impact but artistically and creatively Blur win, hands down, no contest.

Oh, and as for Beetlebum sounding like Pixies, if they were ripping anyone off (and they were), then it was Beatles Abbey Road period surely?

Spiritoftheseventies

definitely a pixies connection with Beetlebum. from the Bossanova era.