Britainology 95: Britpop (feat. Oscar Rickett and Alex Niven)
Added 2024-11-28 14:20:07 +0000 UTCFor this month's second Britainology, we've convened journalist Oscar Rickett and sociologist Alex Niven (author of NEW MODEL ISLAND and THE NORTH WILL RISE AGAIN) to discuss a short period in British musical history that everyone keeps talking about. We very much hope you enjoy!
Check out THE NORTH WILL RISE AGAIN here! https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/north-will-rise-again-9781472993458/
Comments
Has anyone here read Kieron Gillen's "Phonogram"? It's basically... no, I can't describe it, but it comes from someone who holds the whole Britpop phenomenon in contempt (except maybe the Auteurs), thinks that it was the result of the UK music press trying to avoid becoming obsolete in the face of Nirvana and other grunge acts, and yet is still very much rooted in how much he loved a lot of it (especially the Manics) during that era.
Amy
2024-12-18 15:47:50 +0000 UTCThat Shatner version makes me want to put a Black and Decker drill into my ear on the hammer setting
Samuel Wicks
2024-12-03 18:05:53 +0000 UTCI had a mate at uni who was a bit oblivious of wider pop culture perhaps in a Riley-esque way. We go into the kitchen and he's playing a very weird version of Common People I'd not heard before. I ask the friend who sings this and he's like "William shatner, great song isn't it". I'm then starting to go slightly insane as it was the first time hearing this version also learning William shatner did a version of it is hilarious. I then say something like "I think I prefer the original, can't beat the pulp version". My mate then goes "oh is it a cover, I thought shatner wrote this 😃" and then my brain just full on broke for a bit not knowing how to react
Alex
2024-11-30 12:48:51 +0000 UTCAlso milo you have correctly diagnosed the ubiquity of Pulp on bisexual women’s sex playlists. We love that lanky little man.
Clare Patterson
2024-11-29 19:56:01 +0000 UTCIt’s a deeply depressing film but Mike Leigh’s Naked would be a good companion episode to this for an anti-Cool Britannia/darker side of 90s Britain vibe. Also just feels like a very Trashfuture film to me for some reason.
Clare Patterson
2024-11-29 18:47:26 +0000 UTCWell, more in terms of they were around at the time and they're somewhat adjacent to the scene, much like Lush and I spiral and later The Coral were. They were all reading in that nostalgia for the 60's and in Stereolab's case, the 70's.
Oliver Cant
2024-11-29 16:16:36 +0000 UTCSneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
Benjamin Young
2024-11-29 14:46:17 +0000 UTCThey’re (were) not Britpop are they? They’re completely Sui generis. RIP Mary Hansen.
Benjamin Young
2024-11-29 13:36:06 +0000 UTCDivine Comedy and James shoild get honourable mentions here. "Laid" has defo gotta be a song that made it across the pond.
Oliver Cant
2024-11-29 11:58:56 +0000 UTCalso I didn’t realise Bush wasn’t very popular here. I was a terminally online teenager from 1997 though, so probably had that US influence
Sarah Hayman
2024-11-29 11:55:17 +0000 UTCplacebo mentioned!!
Sarah Hayman
2024-11-29 11:43:33 +0000 UTCI think a lot of the 1990s nostalgia is also pre-Internet nostalgia. There was already total media saturation and for a brief moment it did seem like there was some hope that the machine would be used to actually reflect what people wanted.
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 10:33:51 +0000 UTCAnd of course the ancient Trashcan Sinatras.
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 10:30:44 +0000 UTCI think the first Bluetones album is still worth a listen. Into The Blue by Geneva is pretty and also worth looking up.
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 10:28:12 +0000 UTCFor reference, Cotton Mather's Kontiki came out in 1997.
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 10:16:04 +0000 UTCThere are no niche bands now. You can research a "phenomenon", listen to their whole back catalog, and live in an alternate decade where that was the soundtrack of your youth.
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 10:08:01 +0000 UTC"Places like the North of England, where Oasis were from..."
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 10:00:55 +0000 UTCIn an alternate timeline I like to imagine that we had our own popular traditions, Fairport Convention is a household name, and, crucially, the Farrage/BNP axis is no longer a political force 😢
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 09:59:10 +0000 UTCI grew up on English (British) folk music, primarily live and accoustic. Britpop made sense to me because it was lyrical and melodic. A brief glitch in the matrix when we had our own mainstream music.
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 09:47:05 +0000 UTCHeartbroken there was no mention of Stereolab.
Oliver Cant
2024-11-29 09:31:29 +0000 UTCOr Oasis specifically has 2 possible chord sequences. Wonderwall or Don't...
Michael Hopwood
2024-11-29 09:28:24 +0000 UTCStone Temple Pilot I would argue, that like Blur, they're so characterised by their respective country that they didn't really travelled anywhere else. I don't think anyone really knew them in the UK unless you were a big time Grunge and Stoner Metal head.
Oliver Cant
2024-11-29 01:12:06 +0000 UTCThere’s a classic video out there of John Harris trying to explain the word “androgynous” to Liam Gallagher and he’s like “are you sayin’ I’m a bird?”
Callum Butler
2024-11-28 22:44:14 +0000 UTCFountains of Wayne mentioned! Welcome Interstate Managers is such a slept on album
Michael
2024-11-28 22:24:24 +0000 UTCAnyway, here's wonderwall
Josep C.
2024-11-28 18:00:08 +0000 UTCIf anyone wants to replicate Britpop on guitar, just play a dominant chord, and follow it up with a major. Instant Britpop vibe. That's the whole thing music theory wise in a nutshell 😆
Oliver Cant
2024-11-28 14:52:56 +0000 UTC
