The term may have been a tenuous catch-all that bands turned their noses up at, but the mid-90s Britpop boom saw the UK music scene at the centre of a feelgood factor not witnessed since the 60s. Ben Wardle is mad for it…
Like Fight Club, the first rule of Britpop was don’t talk about Britpop. Any band from the era would immediately bristle if a hapless NME or Melody Maker journalist ever brought up the genre. Indeed, the recently issued and highly recommended Britpop Top Trumps (we kid you not) has a ‘We’re not Britpop!’ category – Suede score 22, Elastica just 9. Just like punk euphemism ‘new wave’ in the late 70s, Britpop was a club to which few wanted to belong.
Yet 25 years on, the term has acquired a respectability because, guess what? The public liked it! Britpop was always a useful catch-all for the diverse array of bands that emerged during that period. But only now are they lining up to play festivals like Starshaped, happy to be associated with the term.
Of course, it means different things to different people; look up the term on US websites and you’ll find every UK artist from the 90s and often 00s. Some lists (UK included) put Radiohead in their Britpop round-ups which, for reasons apparent to anyone who knows anything, is just wrong: the Oxford quintet may have made two of the best albums of the 90s but they simply did not share the urban irony and retro-pop aspirations of most Britpop bands.
Likewise, The Auteurs, who may have dealt in irony and melody but were just too gloomy for the genre. For the same reason, we haven’t included Suede’s moody debut, which, while brilliant, is superseded by their celebratory Britpop opus Coming Up. And Embrace? Well, this writer just doesn’t care for them. Looking at our list, it’s clear that despite being such a long time ago, most of these artists continue to make interesting and popular records in one way or another. Some have never split up, many have reformed and are surprised at the warmth of the reception they get. Indeed, the latest of these is the band in our coveted number one slot …
Britpop Collectables
The holy grail is Oasis’s 1993 one-sided 12" white label demo of Columbia. It needs to be the original, catalogue number CTP 8 – with only 510 copies pressed, it once fetched over £1,500 (it’s since been reissued on Oasis’ own Big Brother label).
A one-side promo of I Am The Walrus is also rare, and it’s Oasis original vinyl that has held value best. Even the big hits on commercial 12" – such as No.1 All Around The World – can go f
