Brit Pop a good thing or bad thing?

arsenallegend

So its been a good 15 years or so since Britpop ruled the world
Making headlines when Blur and Oasis was the main story on the papers and news about who was going to get the number 1 single in britain.

So looking back after all these years i wanted to ask you what was the main Britpop single,Album,singer,moment and Band of that era and why. Plus what was the moment for you that ended the era . I'm sure some of you were in your teens at the time or read about the mid 90's.

Single: Supergrass: Alright
It was the single that captured the moment perfectly
about been young getting drunk and having fun
I'm sure the band regret ever writing it but its a stone cold classic.

Album: Blur Parklife
yes it was the big one to kick of the era and sold in its bucketloads but it was British when Amercia was ruling Britian with grunge. not their best but their most important

Singer Jarvis cocker
You couldn't get him from anywhere but Britian and Different class was one of the most underrated albums of that time.

Band Oasis
you can't deny it they carried the flag for Britpop and for three years they were the greatest and biggest band in the world.

Moment Blur vs Oasis
it showed that the music and bands had became big news and from here on in it marked the bgining of the end.

JerryHandbag

At the time, for me, a good thing. As a 17ish year old it got me away from listening to what ****e was on the radio, and made me actually go out and buy CDs. Oasis and Pulp were my main focus, liked Blur too.

Looking back now, I dont see it as a great time for music. I mean it only lasted 2/3 yrs, Blur being credited with killing off britpop with their 1997 self titled album. I'd much rather listen to Oasis/Blur post-britpop albums, I'm just bored with the britpop sound.

And unlike the 80s revival I dont think we'll see a britpop revival this decade!
We probably have the Stone Roses and The Kinks to blame for it all

arsenallegend

JerryHandbag wrote: »

At the time, for me, a good thing. As a 17ish year old it got me away from listening to what ****e was on the radio, and made me actually go out and buy CDs. Oasis and Pulp were my main focus, liked Blur too.

Looking back now, I dont see it as a great time for music. I mean it only lasted 2/3 yrs, Blur being credited with killing off britpop with their 1997 self titled album. I'd much rather listen to Oasis/Blur post-britpop albums, I'm just bored with the britpop sound.

And unlike the 80s revival I dont think we'll see a britpop revival this decade!
We probably have the Stone Roses and The Kinks to blame for it all

I loved and still do albums from that period like Elastica, supergrass, Boo radleys,CAST,paul weller,pulp it brings back the times of drinking warm cider in the middle of the field with my large ghettoblaster:D. It always has a place in my heart

Fanny Cradock

If you grew up under the influence of Brit Pop it is only natural to have some emotional ties to the music, I guess. However, given a bit of time, I've come to realise that musically it was more bluster bolstered by British national pride - Union Jack guitars, New Labour chumming around Noel Gallagher, Girl Power and the like - than it was anything particularly musically noteworthy. Apart from the odd song, I'm quite happy to live in a world devoid of any Brit Pop, and happily my music collection is a reflection of this. Oasis and their ilk have long since been digitally expunged.

Spiritoftheseventies

never liked the tag.

loveissucide

Depends.Certain records under the banner hold up great(early SFAs, Pulp, Blur, early Suede), others have aged horribly( most Oasis, Cast). It produced some fantastic pop songwriting, and does reflect the era it comes from.

Nolanger

Bad! Lots of great early '90s bands with their own individual sound who got replaced by bland Brit pop.

nyarlothothep

I liked some suede stuff and pulp but in retrospect the whole cheeky chappy mod cool britannia element annoyed me. Its kind of analogous to the whole skinny jeans indie phase that dominated in the 00s. The problem I have with both scenes is that they dominated music, it was everywhere rather than having a plethora of different sounding bands in the mainstream. I guess I prefer grunge.

arsenallegend

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I liked some suede stuff and pulp but in retrospect the whole cheeky chappy mod cool britannia element annoyed me. Its kind of analogous to the whole skinny jeans indie phase that dominated in the 00s. The problem I have with both scenes is that they dominated music, it was everywhere rather than having a plethora of different sounding bands in the mainstream. I guess I prefer grunge.

Nirvana were the only great grunge band

Pearl Jam were never grunge to me rather rock

Spiritoftheseventies

Some great singles from brit pop area but I think the good bands to be fair outlived it. If im right the likes of Elbow and Radiohead were all in existence around that time but maybe made a point about not getting sucked into it.
Highlight for me remains the number one biz between Oasis and Blur. Two songs werent the best to be honest but was great fun.
To this day cant understand how Country House got the top spot. Compared to singles like beetlebum and Song two it sucks big time.

bonerm

Mansun (if they even count for Britpop?) were my favourite. Attack of the Grey Lantern and Six are underappreciated classics imho.

pickarooney

A lot of the music of the era was fantastic, the 'branding' was bollocks, as was the Blur/Oasis battle.

arsenallegend

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

Some great singles from brit pop area but I think the good bands to be fair outlived it. If im right the likes of Elbow and Radiohead were all in existence around that time but maybe made a point about not getting sucked into it.
Highlight for me remains the number one biz between Oasis and Blur. Two songs werent the best to be honest but was great fun.
To this day cant understand how Country House got the top spot. Compared to singles like beetlebum and Song two it sucks big time.

radiohead were The Bends was released in 1995

i agree Roll with it and country house were awful songs still my most hated songs from each band

Taz86

I love it. It reminds me of much happier days when I was a child. I remember being dragged to the pub of a Sunday (small village, 3 pubs, nuff said) and spending any money I got on the jukebox playing the great Britpop songs of the time. My older brother and his mates all bought a lot of the stuff - Cast, Sleeper, Lightning Seeds, Blur, Lush, Space, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Bluetones, Super Furries (more Cool Cymru than Cool Britannia), Manics (more Cool Cymru than Cool Britannia) but most of all Pulp. I remember Bowie on TOTP doing Dead Man Walking in *that* Union Jack frockcoat though this was later in 1997 when Britpop was dead. I remember Noel's Union Jack guitar. I remember Noel at 10 Downing Street. I remember Jarv's Jacko stage invasion being interpreted as the UK reacting against the US. I remember singing happily to Three Lions during Euro '96. It brings on the tears now due to nostalgia. TOTP was so important. Longwave Radio Atlantic 252 was so important. Every utterance by Jarvis and Noel was so important. The dream of someday getting to England was so important. I'll always love it.

(went to the Feile in 1996 a bit before my 10th birthday - saw Super Furries, Cast and Pulp )

Edit: I have found many criticise it now saying it was choreographed. Ok. Still I have noticed that many who piss and moan about it were older than I was. They probably don't have the same emotional connection to it. Like someone earlier said if you were young and grew up with this you're probably going to be emotionally attached. Not saying everyone feels this way but there may be a good chance. I am emotionally attached to Eurodance too for the same reasons mind! was a music nut since I came out of the womb!)

cinnamon girl

Have some great memories from that era, particularly the part of it I spent studying in London (or "studying" - actually spent an obscene amount of time in Camden pubs...) As for the music, some of it has aged well, a lot of it hasn't. Does anyone remember Menswear? Gene? Northern Uproar? I was going to include Mansun in that list but I see someone here actually does still like them :eek:

zimovain

[QUOTE=Spiritoftheseventies;65470072
To this day cant understand how Country House got the top spot. Compared to singles like beetlebum and Song two it sucks big time.[/QUOTE]


I think they sneaked it by releasing two versions with different b-sides,which led fans to buy both compared to Oasis releasing just one. I'm open to correction on this but I think it's how they got the number 1. That's my theory anyway! It was a very close one...

Blur won the battle of the bands, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 - the songs charting at number one and number two respectively

• CD1

1. "Country House"
2. "One Born Every Minute"
3. "To The End (la comedie)"

• CD2

1. "Country House" (live)
2. "Girls & Boys" (live)
3. "Parklife" (live)
4. "For Tomorrow" (live)

1. "Roll with It" - 4:00
2. "It's Better People" - 3:59
3. "Rockin' Chair" - 4:36
4. "Live Forever" (Live at Glastonbury '95) - 4:40

Taz86

I think you're right on the money there, zimovain. I remember them saying this in a documentary not sure was it Britpop Forever or Live Forever...

thesultan

I thought it was an amazing time for music. I forgot all about Altantic 252 but I remember being around 14 or so in around 95 and going down to matches on the buses and having some great songs coming back at you. Now would you get nowadays?

Oasis were in the essence. PEople had moptops and everyone seemed to wear addidas runners. Some great albums Everything Must Go, Mosley Shoals, Whats the Story Morning Glory,Stanley Road .


Some Amazing singles out too.......... Slight Return , Common People , ALright , The Day we caught the Train, Hey Dude ,Changing Man Place your hands, Don't look back in Anger, End of the Century.

I remember going up to Pairc Ui Chaoimh and the atmosphere was amazing.

Pity it wasn't around again

arsenallegend

thesultan wrote: »

I thought it was an amazing time for music. I forgot all about Altantic 252 but I remember being around 14 or so in around 95 and going down to matches on the buses and having some great songs coming back at you. Now would you get nowadays?

Oasis were in the essence. PEople had moptops and everyone seemed to wear addidas runners. Some great albums Everything Must Go, Mosley Shoals, Whats the Story Morning Glory,Stanley Road .


Some Amazing singles out too.......... Slight Return , Common People , ALright , The Day we caught the Train, Hey Dude ,Changing Man Place your hands, Don't look back in Anger, End of the Century.

I remember going up to Pairc Ui Chaoimh and the atmosphere was amazing.

Pity it wasn't around again

it was a great time when all this music came out and it got you into 60's music like The beatles,the kinks,the small faces,the rolling stones and the who. thats one good thing it done for me. Kula shaker's debut was brillant sadly its looked down upon these days.

thesultan

I thought there second album was very good as well. 'Sound of Drums & Hush' are great songs. Their recent third release was poor

Xavi6

Absolutely loved that era. I grew up with it and still listen to all the classics now.

Oasis
Blur
Pulp
Manics
Space
Suede
Kula Shaker
Ocean Colour Scene
Supergrass
Garbage
Dodgy
Republica
Bluetones
Cast
Boo Radleys
Catatonia
Lightning Seeds

Good times!

cinnamon girl

arsenallegend wrote: »

Kula shaker's debut was brillant sadly its looked down upon these days.

Erm it's not just "these days" I'm afraid! I had one flatmate who liked that album and everyone else mocked her about it...

Futureadvocate

loveissucide wrote: »

Depends.Certain records under the banner hold up great(early SFAs, Pulp, Blur, early Suede), others have aged horribly( most Oasis, Cast).

I think you've got it backwards to be honest.The only Oasis record that aged poorly was Standing on the Shoulder of Giants which wasn't really a Britpop record anyway.

Early Blur and pretty much all of Suede's stuff sounds tacky to my ears.

zimovain

Futureadvocate wrote: »

I think you've got it backwards to be honest.The only Oasis record that aged poorly was Standing on the Shoulder of Giants which wasn't really a Britpop record anyway.

I think it stands up well, DM as much as I still love it sounds very 1990's to me:(

thesultan

I still think that 'Be Here Now' is a pretty good album and that 'D'you Know what I mean ' is the brillant single. Can't believe its so overlooked.


I have to say I have always hated 'Boys and Girls' by Blur

arsenallegend

cinnamon girl wrote: »

Erm it's not just "these days" I'm afraid! I had one flatmate who liked that album and everyone else mocked her about it...

it got great reviews back in the 90's and shame on everyone mocking her cause its a fine album.:)

Table Top Joe

The brilliance of "OK Computer" and crapness of "Be Here Now" killed Britpop stone dead imo,up until i heard "Do You Know.." i bought every single and had both albums,rememeber hearing that and thinking "thats it for them",was never interested in them after that,liked "Hindu times" and that was about it,the thing i liked about Britpop was it got young people listening to bands that played instruments,up until Blur/Oasis all my friends were listening to awful dance and pop music,just whatever drivel happened to be in the charts,i think Oasis changed that,i actually downloaded a load of Britpop stuff just the other day(feelin nostaglic,nearly 30)but tbh i thought most of it was crap,i liked a lot of bands at the time but none of them were my favourites(apart from Oasis 94 -96).......anyway,this thread makes me feel ancient!


Oh yeah,id say overall it was a good thing even if the music was nowhere near previous decades

steelcityblues

Nothing so wrong about Britpop, only it was the mediocre bands (possible exception being Pulp), who get the heaviest promotion/recognition from the media darlings (Blur, Oasis, SuperGrass), while superior groups like the Bluetones and the Charlatans had to take a backseat!

Van Occupanther

Table Top Joe wrote: »

The brilliance of "OK Computer" and crapness of "Be Here Now" killed Britpop stone dead imo

OK Computer, Blur (album) and Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen... all came out around more or less the same time and made the whole Britpop scene totally redundant. Was blown away by these three albums then and still, they've all aged well too.

Table Top Joe wrote: »

Oh yeah,id say overall it was a good thing even if the music was nowhere near previous decades

Bang on the money. Looking back at it now it's remarkable how little good music came out of Britpop, for all the sales and hype. Damon Albarn said he got sick of the scene as it turned into a bit of a general election campaign and that's a pretty good summation of where it ended up, especially the media driven aspect of it. Loved it at the time but apart from Blur, Pulp, Elastica and some Supergrass, I never listen to any of it.

Table Top Joe

Van Occupanther wrote: »

OK Computer, Blur (album) and Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen... all came out around more or less the same time and made the whole Britpop scene totally redundant. Was blown away by these three albums then and still, they've all aged well too.



Bang on the money. Looking back at it now it's remarkable how little good music came out of Britpop, for all the sales and hype. Damon Albarn said he got sick of the scene as it turned into a bit of a general election campaign and that's a pretty good summation of where it ended up, especially the media driven aspect of it. Loved it at the time but apart from Blur, Pulp, Elastica and some Supergrass, I never listen to any of it.

Yeah those other albums helped too,a lot bands had the sense to know it didnt have much life left in it,i dont listen to any of the bands from then either though i picked up Supergrass's "Diamond Ha Ha" album for a fiver a few weeks ago and it was fantastic,if Blur pop up on my Ipod ill play them but thats about it,there really wasnt anything great from that period(under the Britpop banner that is)most of it has dated really badly,i still listen to music from the mid 90s but nothing Britpop,Radiohead avoided it like the plague and its served them well,Blur got out just in time but Oasis werent really able to get past their limitations

Spiritoftheseventies

steelcityblues wrote: »

Nothing so wrong about Britpop, only it was the mediocre bands (possible exception being Pulp), who get the heaviest promotion/recognition from the media darlings (Blur, Oasis, SuperGrass), while superior groups like the Bluetones and the Charlatans had to take a backseat!

Some music mag dubbed the song "The only one I know" the only song we know.
Wasn't too fond of that whole baggy look and music that came with it. Sound got very tiresome after a few listens.
Oasis and Blur were always going to outgrow that whole scene tbh.

steelcityblues

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

Some music mag dubbed the song "The only one I know" the only song we know.
Wasn't too fond of that whole baggy look and music that came with it. Sound got very tiresome after a few listens.
Oasis and Blur were always going to outgrow that whole scene tbh.

Don't really care what the 'in' music mags of the day said about them, largely with contributions by bandwagon jumping f*ckwits, who bought in to the whole Oasis v Blur crap.

Self titled album and 'Up to Our Hips' were probably stronger albums than 'Great Escape', 'What's the Story', 'Parklife', etc., although Bluetones 'Expecting to Fly' remains my favourite from that brief era.

Anyway, what is a music thread without some disagreement.

Spiritoftheseventies

steelcityblues wrote: »

Don't really care what the 'in' music mags of the day said about them, largely with contributions by bandwagon jumping f*ckwits, who bought in to the whole Oasis v Blur crap.

Self titled album and 'Up to Our Hips' were probably stronger albums than 'Great Escape', 'What's the Story', 'Parklife', etc., although Bluetones 'Expecting to Fly' remains my favourite from that brief era.

Anyway, what is a music thread without some disagreement.

I think the bluetones and Charlatans borrowed too much from the Stone Roses as did the Soup Dragons. Agree with you on Pulp though. They penned some of the greatest songs in Brit Pop.

cinnamon girl

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

I think the bluetones and Charlatans borrowed too much from the Stone Roses as did the Soup Dragons.

The Soup Dragons were fantastic when they started off as a C86 band. Jumping on the baggy bandwagon in the '90s was their downfall.

The Charlatans' first album has some really great tracks. Never cared much for the Bluetones.

BornToRun88

I hate the term Britpop. These bands didn't bandish themselves under the banner of 'britpop' sure it is a good tag for a period in the 90s when a lot of good british bands came to the fore but bands like Suede certainly aren't 'pop'.

For me, my favourite band from the era is Oasis and favourite album 'What's The Story Morning Glory'. I think Blur got much better after this period, their following three albums 'Blur' '13' and 'Think Tank' are all amazing and piss all over their so called britpop era album 'The Great Escape'. Bands in the background such as Cast and The Bluetones were quite good too.

Dudess

British indie was very different pre 1993/94 - more "DIY". Some bands were charting, but the independent ethos didn't get lost.
In my opinion, Britpop marked the end of that. However, some great bands emerged or became recognised between 1993 and 1998 - the already established ones like Pulp and Blur, Oasis's best stuff was released during the earlier part of those years, Suede - for me, hit and miss, but when they hit, they were superb; Elastica were pretty good - had the potential to be great but seemed to fizzle out, Supergrass - became an excellent band. There was also good stuff happening in Bristol.
Live Forever is a DVD worth watching for an examination of the musical landscape during those years. Even though I didn't appreciate it at the time, that doumentary paints quite an appealing picture.

Dreadful dross though (in my opinion) - e.g. Sleeper, Cast, Babybird, Echobelly, Shed Se7en, Dodgy, the list goes on. Real bland, sanitised stuff. Britpop for me marked the start of "indie" meaning that type of thing (like The Kooks, The View etc). Someone mentioned Lush - they were around from 1988 and had a very distinctive sound, but then I guess they had to make a buck and board the Britpop bandwagon. Their stuff from 1996 is wildly different - very Blur-ish, and not as good as their highly acclaimed earlier stuff.

Not being a musical snob - it was great, awesome actually, when The Stone Roses or Ride or Ned's Atomic Dustbin were on Top Of The Pops, but indie seemed to have a lot more soul, passion and substance over style pre Britpop.