So, what do we think of "Britpop" now?

Backslapping time. Well done us. We are fantastic.

Britpop...was

One of the most vibrant times in British music
5
7%
Responsible for some of the 90s best stuff
14
20%
Mostly a media-beat up, but a few great groups arose out of it
21
30%
A shamelessly derivative cover-up, in which only a couple of acts justified even half their hype
18
26%
A joke, just terrible mostly
7
10%
What's Britpop?
5
7%
 
Total votes: 70

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Postby Guest » 07 Dec 2003, 12:52

Well I liked it for the most part.

Pulp, Radiohead, Supergrass, Oasis.

Derivative maybe, but fun and vital for the times, Yes.

I fell badly in love and Britpop was the soundtrack.

So I blame Love, not Britpop.

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Postby Brother Spoon » 07 Dec 2003, 12:55

cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:vital for the times, Yes.


So the British Nation wanted the rest of the world to believe, but the rest of the world was slightly more savy.

EDIT: God, I was being obnoxious here. Don't mind me. :oops:
Last edited by Brother Spoon on 23 Mar 2005, 10:51, edited 2 times in total.

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Postby Guest » 07 Dec 2003, 13:00

brother festoon wrote:
cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:vital for the times, Yes.


So the British Nation wanted the rest of the world to believe, but the rest of the world was slightly smarter.


Well, let's put it this way:

I don't recall too much going on at the time musically that interested me, I was just treading familiar waters, and then Britpop appeared and it went well with what was going on with me at the time. And let's face it, EVERYONE talked about it at the time. Doesn't mean, of course, that it was necessarily any good, but I can think of worse periods in history.

If it was unintelligent or distasteful, at least it got us thinking about What was intelligent and tasteful again.

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Postby Brother Spoon » 07 Dec 2003, 13:04

cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:
brother festoon wrote:
cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:vital for the times, Yes.


So the British Nation wanted the rest of the world to believe, but the rest of the world was slightly smarter.


Well, let's put it this way:

I don't recall too much going on at the time musically that interested me, I was just treading familiar waters, and then Britpop appeared and it went well with what was going on with me at the time. And let's face it, EVERYONE talked about it at the time. Doesn't mean, of course, that it was necessarily any good, but I can think of worse periods in history.

If it was unintelligent or distasteful, at least it got us thinking about What was intelligent and tasteful again.


Sure, as long as you replace every "us", "we", and "everyone" with "British press".
Last edited by Brother Spoon on 23 Mar 2005, 10:26, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby Guest » 07 Dec 2003, 13:05

brother festoon wrote:
cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:
brother festoon wrote:
cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:vital for the times, Yes.


So the British Nation wanted the rest of the world to believe, but the rest of the world was slightly smarter.


Well, let's put it this way:

I don't recall too much going on at the time musically that interested me, I was just treading familiar waters, and then Britpop appeared and it went well with what was going on with me at the time. And let's face it, EVERYONE talked about it at the time. Doesn't mean, of course, that it was necessarily any good, but I can think of worse periods in history.

If it was unintelligent or distasteful, at least it got us thinking about What was intelligent and tasteful again.


Sure, as long as you replace every "us", "we", and "everyone" with "British people".


Well, as you seem very insistent about this point, then so be it.

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Postby Brother Spoon » 07 Dec 2003, 13:06

cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote: Well, as you seem very insistent about this point, then so be it.


After all, Great Britain takes up only 50% of the earth's dry land.

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Postby Beebsy » 07 Dec 2003, 14:07

Am I too late? Am I coming into this thread like a little pub band that finally realized if OCS can do it so can they, only to find that "Britpop" - whatever that was - had been replaced by the next "movement"? Oh well.

Save this thread. In 10 years time, take it out and read it. Come back to this (or whatever site/virtual pub/skin implanted chatroom it has evolved to) and check out what people are saying about "garage" or "new new wave".

It's kinda like the emperor's new clothes. Once we admit to ourselves that "movements" like Britpop or grunge or acid house can really only be appreciated in the context they existed, we all get to talk about the naked king.

Britpop was nothing. A battle for number 1 between Blur and Oasis? Noel Gallagher at Number 10? Kate Moss in a White Stripes video? The anticipation of the new Strokes album (hey! wait! it's exactly the same as the last one!)? Ho-hum...

The fact that a few excellent bands come about at the same time as a media-defined movement is purely coincidental. If they went for it because they saw that even an inarticulate brickie can be famous then so be it.

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Postby Shaky Jake » 07 Dec 2003, 16:22

An excellent post, Mr. Holder.

Personally I loved Britpop. I embraced it.It was a local phenomena, totally of its time. But it was great.

It wasn't stupid or lacking in taste. Some great music sprang from that time. The Verve, The Manics, some Weller.

As has already been mentioned further up the thread, like most stylistic movements it reacted against what had gone before: the dourness of grunge.

When I was a kid in the eighties, we used to laugh at the seventies as the decade that taste forgot. How wrong was that? I got Al Green on the stereo now.

We're always reacting against what went before. Which I suppose is good and healthy.

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Postby Cédric » 07 Dec 2003, 16:27

Shaky Jake wrote:When I was a kid in the eighties, we used to laugh at the seventies as the decade that taste forgot. How wrong was that? I got Al Green on the stereo now.


I was a kid in the eighties too, but I didn't laugh at the seventies (and even less the sixties)... And I listened to some Al Green and a lot of Motown and Stax at the time... :)


PS : I know that I don't really answer to what you were saying... :)

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Postby My name is Spaulding » 07 Dec 2003, 16:51

cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:Derivative maybe.


Definitely.
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Postby Guest » 07 Dec 2003, 17:29

Spaulding Dang Dong wrote:
cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:Derivative maybe.


Definitely.


Well excuse my French but what music Isn't derivative, Cap?

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Postby Balboa » 07 Dec 2003, 18:43

Well my view is purely a personal one - I'm sure Britpop had little impact worldwide but in the UK it was an exciting time to be young. Sure a lot of the music was dipensible. It just felt fresh at the time - someting to be involved in, something that went mainstream too (front page of the tabloids, Top of the Pops et al). Plus no matter whether you like Oasis or not (I thought they were alright - that first album still sounds pretty good to me), they were important for a couple of years and at least they acted like proper rock stars (drugs, fights, attitude, No. 1 albums) - which was a shot in the arm.

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Postby Matt Wilson » 07 Dec 2003, 21:04

Was hardly aware of it then.

Love it now, but then I loved grunge, too.

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Postby My name is Spaulding » 07 Dec 2003, 23:54

cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:
Spaulding Dang Dong wrote:
cheepnizthefuckingsnowman wrote:Derivative maybe.


Definitely.


Well excuse my French but what music Isn't derivative, Cap?


No, don´t get me wrong. Most of the music I love is derivative.
I was only trying (and failing as it seems) to create a pun with your post and one of Britpop´s most lauded albums.
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Postby Shaky Jake » 08 Dec 2003, 07:21

Ced wrote:I was a kid in the eighties too, but I didn't laugh at the seventies (and even less the sixties)... And I listened to some Al Green and a lot of Motown and Stax at the time... :)


Are you sure you don't have Revisionist Memory Syndrome? :)

e.g.

"Yeah, well of course I was listening to the Velvets in the pram and Funkadelic was never off my stereo around the time I started school."

Although I was quite a cool teenager (he says modestly), my route to Stax was through Phil Collins (I was about 13 and loved Miami Vice and No Jacket Required was the first album I bought), my route to Parliament and Curtis was through Level-42 (my first proper gig: 6.12.86 at Birmingham NEC). Checking out music that was referred to by bands in interviews...

... which has nothing to do with Britpop.

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Postby Cédric » 08 Dec 2003, 09:09

Shaky Jake wrote:
Ced wrote:I was a kid in the eighties too, but I didn't laugh at the seventies (and even less the sixties)... And I listened to some Al Green and a lot of Motown and Stax at the time... :)


Are you sure you don't have Revisionist Memory Syndrome? :)

e.g.

"Yeah, well of course I was listening to the Velvets in the pram and Funkadelic was never off my stereo around the time I started school."

Although I was quite a cool teenager (he says modestly), my route to Stax was through Phil Collins (I was about 13 and loved Miami Vice and No Jacket Required was the first album I bought), my route to Parliament and Curtis was through Level-42 (my first proper gig: 6.12.86 at Birmingham NEC). Checking out music that was referred to by bands in interviews...

... which has nothing to do with Britpop.


No, I'm serious ! :lol:

Of course, I listened to some shit records at the time, but I also listened to some really cool stuff. For instance, I bought my first Motown comps (Temptations and Four Tops) around 1986. I was fifteen. I had seen a Motown show on TV, etc... Same for Jackie Wilson (it was when some of his hits were re-released in England after the success of "Reet Petite") and Otis Redding around the same time, and I was listening to Sam Cooke and Al Green on a soul comp that I had brought back from England (where I satyed for holidays in the summer). It didn't "protect" me from listening to Guns N' Roses (which I still rate) two years later but, at that time, I was also into Lou Reed, The Velvet, The Byrds, The Band, Dylan and the Creedence (I don't even mention the Beatles and Stones) which were among the first CDs I bought. As a matter of fact, I discovered most of these artists by myself while watching two great TV programs : "25 Years of Rock'n'Roll" (Rolling Stone mag's birthday) and "100 Best Singles Ever" (also made by Rolling Stone). And then, from one great album to the other, I didn't have much time to pay attention to the contemporary records. :)

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Postby Love Vigilante » 08 Dec 2003, 09:30

Just by the by, I went to see Suede last night (for the final time, it would seem) and they were terrific. Brett is a star.
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Postby The Write Profile » 24 Jan 2004, 09:35

Okay, reviving this thread to ask the key question...

Of all those acts who were in that supposed "movement", who will have the most most lasting legacy, if any?

Blur did well in carrying on after Coxon's depature, and Think Tank was actually a very good album at times, even if it was stupendously erratic. Mind you, Blur never made a great album, but they did release several great songs (obviously that's personal opinion)
Think Tank also distances them from their past so dramatically that it gives the impression that they might still have legs for at least a short while yet. It's certainly miles better than the overly-retread Great Escape and the shoe-gazing, grating "13"

Suede's work post- Bernard Butler isn't really that interesting, an it shows badly on the singles collection. They had their moments most certainly, but it's hard to justify their carrying on so long probably.

Supergrass' albums were fun, and I still dust them off every now and then, but it's safe to say that of that "era" so to speak, only SFA's double of Fuzzy Logic/Radiator strikes as purely great "pop music"

Pulp were clearly outsiders, but Different Class is seemingly perfect. I hear Jarvis has been touring with Lee Hazlewood over the last year or so, is that true?

Just out of curiousity, who here has seen the "Live Forever" doco?
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

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Postby The Write Profile » 05 Apr 2004, 03:06

Just bumped in case someone has something to comment and/or has seen "Live Forever" doco. I've been wanting to rent it, but the blurb at the back has put me off, almost as self-deluding as the Gallagher brothers it is...
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

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Postby Silent Bob » 05 Apr 2004, 14:09

The Right Scarfie Profile wrote:Just bumped in case someone has something to comment and/or has seen "Live Forever" doco. I've been wanting to rent it, but the blurb at the back has put me off, almost as self-deluding as the Gallagher brothers it is...


The Live Forever documentary was poor. People just taking themselves too seriously. Damon Albarn came over as a complete twat.

Of the 2 films about my favourite musical eras, 24 Hour Party People stamps all over this piss poor effort. I was reading the Mojo Britpop special from last year 2 weeks ago (at last!) and the media influence was very evident as well as the copious amount of cocaine going down.

I might have to do myself a Britpop CDR one of these days.
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