HEN wrote:sloopjohnc wrote:What is this "Britpop" of which you discuss?
Retro, parochial, and somewhat silly - these days, it seems nobody has a good word to say about Britpop. At the time, however, it felt like a breath of fresh air, as we kicked against the monolithic nature of grunge with the most tuneful music to come off these shores for more than a decade. It had been rumbling for a while, with the Stone Roses, the Las, and Suede all producing high-calibre debut albums from the turn of the decade with a peculiarly British feel, a relatively 'delicate' nature, and an attention to melody.
Britpop's big four - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, and Supergrass - all hit big in 1994 and produced albums that both delighted the critics and sold bucketloads. Their music drew largely on '60s pop with dashes of other styles (especially punk and glam - and the influence of the Smiths loomed large) - but I suppose there was a kind of purism there, in that, at least initially, all these bands appeared to reject anything that wasn't pop. The experimentation - if indeed there was any - came later. In some ways, this was liberating and refreshing - for a while at least.
Many bands kicked against the faintly ludicrous 'definitions' of Britpop in order to assert their individuality, but by dint of them being in the right place at the right time, ended up under the same Union Jack umbrella anyway. Most famous of these bands was perhaps Echobelly, who featured a black female guitarist who was often seen wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'My Country Too', and an Asian female singer.
By 1997 'The Scene That Celebrates Itself' had become 'The Scene That Nobody Wants To Be Part Of', and we were left with grinning-ninny bands like Cast, Kula Shaker, and Space. But it was good while it lasted. Wasn't it?
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I was kidding. I know what it is. I'm always interested that you guys/gals had that kind of reaction to it when only a smidgeon made its way over here.
Especially, when America usually has such a fondness for music from the UK, like we did in the '60s, '70s and '80s. Maybe folks over here were too consumed with grunge to care. But I remember bands like Nirvana, Tad, etc., being pretty popular over there when they first toured.
Was there really that big a negative reaction to it? Grunge seemed to be a pretty lazy description as you had so many different sounding bands originally from one region that seemed to exemplify it: Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney.
