Bangers and Mash: A History of Britpop
After eleven long years of working class oppression under Thatcher’s conservative regime, something had changed.
British youth united in chants that rebuked Thatcher’s dream. Warehouses were turned into recording studios. Pubs became the new boardroom. England was no longer hoping for a future of change; they embodied it. At the turn of the decade, 1990s England had finally reclaimed its voice.
England was exporting pop music.
The beginnings of the Britpop era saw an influx of homegrown bands define the very nature of their region of England. Pulp encapsulated hopeful escapism from the industrial Sheffield in which they were formed. Suede reinvented a post-punk sound in line with the new generation’s increasing flippancy towards London. And The Verve introduced a recurring experimental sound reflective of the suburbia of Wigan, with pop lyrics that emphasised the drudgery of everyday England.
Accompanying this music revival came the resurgence of the Cool Britannia movement. Unavoidably British, Cool Britannia referenced 60s pop culture and drew upon British historical iconography with a forward vision. Adidas, polished suits, Doc Martens, reclaimed Union Jacks. Cool Britannia stylised Britpop bands, most famously Blur and Oasis.
The rivalry between these Britpop pioneers, instigated by their front men Damon Albarn and Liam Gallagher, created a pop culture subplot within the Cool Britannia movement. Becoming caricatures of opposing British identities encouraged fans to side with the band that lyrically complemented one’s own ideation of this new era for England.
As proudly born and bred Mancunians, Oasis wrote songs for the newly emancipated working-class. While Blur, the Colchester-raised-turned-lovely-lads-of-London, wrote songs that took the pomp and snobbery out of the landmarks that were groomed so heavily under Thatcher.
To be a fan of Britpop is to unswervingly swear an allegiance to one of these two bands. While the origins of this conflict has never been explicitly revealed, my personal exploration into deep-cut Britpop interviews has hypothesised it was centred upon a yearning for Justine.
After years of an on-again-off-again relationship between the lead singer of Elastica, Justine Frischmann—and both Damon Albarn of Blur and Brett Anderson of Suede, respectively—Liam Gallagher made a comment about his desire to also date Frischmann; a statement that has coyly never been touched upon further and to which Albarn wishes not to divulge, as “there are other people involved”.
The rivalry came to a head in 1995 when both bands released their biggest selling albums on the same day – Blur’s The Great Escape, and Oasis’ What’s the Story Morning Glory. The shared album launch date furthered the division between fans in record stores across the country. It was a chart war that enhanced the success of both bands in the Britpop music scene and solidified the groups as the most popular bands in England.
The point at which the death of Britpop became most apparent was when studio-manufactured pop stars integrated a working-class sound into their work.
Following the death of Princess Diana in 1997, Robbie Williams launched his solo career with the song Angels, after leaving one of Britain’s most popular pop groups, Take That. The song took inspiration from the structure of Oasis melodies and Willams even asked other Britpop groups such as Sleeper for feedback on his new project.
Angels was picked up as a best-selling single after being associated with Diana’s death. The Britpop sound had become synonymous with the exact institution it aimed to rebel from.
Successor to Britpop was the 2000s pop star era. The identity of an artist was no longer a reflection of the unique regional sound from which they hailed; but rather, a construction of what was most viable for monetary success.
Visible at the turn of the millennium was a distinct Americanisation of Britpop. America began to integrate the British sound into their own popstar’s music, while their indie bands equally constructed their work upon a Britpop format, rather than the Seattle Sound that had been so successful in American indie bands just years previously.
Madonna’s 1999 release Beautiful Stranger is a perfect example of an American popstar creating a bestselling Britpop-sounding song without any reference to what the sound was politically built upon. The song even went so far as being included in the soundtrack of the infamously Cool Britannia film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). When England’s established sound no longer embodied the same political message it was first written for, Britpop lost its very purpose in popular culture.
Despite the 21st century’s aversion to unpolished pop music, 30 years on we are experiencing a Cool Britannia revival. Britpop anthems are infiltrating social media soundscapes. The online sphere is obsessed with all things Cool Britannia – from Cocaine Kate’s party girl style, to an emphasis on Adidas fashion, as well as an amassed love for 90s British films such as Trainspotting.
It seems that the plight for everyday freedom, from inflated cost of living prices and the increasing prevalence of government surveillance, has inspired a connection to the politics of Britpop. From Oasis bringing their comeback world tour to Sydney last October, Pulp performing two nights at the Opera House Forecourt earlier this year, to Radiohead announcing a 2027 tour, the message is clear: Britpop is back.