What was your favorite scene in music history? This was a conversation which I was having with my good friend Greg Lindae last week, and we were discussing some of the movements which we would have loved to be a part of. I would love to have been in San Francisco or London in the late 60s to enjoy the Summer of Love, Seattle in the early 90s to jump headfirst into grunge music or even in New York in the 80s when rap music blew up. Instead however, the music scene with I did live through, and one of my favorite of all time, was Britpop, the invasion of guitar bands from around the British Isles, who sang songs of teenage angst, love, drugs, sex and boredom. If you aren’t familiar with this scene, here are some f the best bands that came out of it.
Oasis
Brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher not only became the poster boys of Britpop but prior to the band’s breakup, they manage to transcend the scene which had helped them to rise so high. From the moment that debut album Definitely Maybe came out, to the dizzying heights of sophomore album What’s the Story Morning Glory, the band rode the crest of the Britpop wave like no other band.
Blur
Oasis were the mouthy northerners and their arch nemesis was the geeky Cockneys Blur. Blur were far more musical than Oasis but much less raw and their albums Leisure and Parklike are two of the seminal albums from that time. Blur were involved in Britpop’s finest moment which was the Top of the Pop’s clash to see whether Oasis’ Roll With It or Blur’s Country House, both released at the same time, would win the number one spot on the charts. Despite being the smaller of the two bands, Blur’s Country House ended up at number 1.
Pulp
Sheffield-based band Pulp had been one of the hottest underground acts of the Britpop era until their album Different Class was released. The album featured two of the greatest ever Britpop songs in Disco 2000 and Common People and firmly cemented Jarvis Cocker’s band’s status and Britpop headline acts.
The Verve
After the blinding success of Oasis, a great number of Manchester-based bands found fame as record companies look for the next version of the Indie band. Whilst many groups from the area were tarred with the Oasis brush, lead singer Richard Ashcroft had very different ideas for what his band would be. The result was a band with poetic lyrics, beautiful music and the true embodiment of what Britpop was. The band’s third album Urban Hymns became an instant classic and to this day songs such as Drugs Don’t Work, Bittersweet Symphony and Lucky Man, immediately bring back memories of the golden time for British music.
What is your favorite Britpop band? Let us know in the comments below this post.
