Britpop

History
O Late 1970s O Unless you were signed to a major label, it

was tough to get ahead in the music industry O Geoff Travis set up a record store called Rough Trade which was dedicated to selling music by local bands. O No means of distributing the material further afield so he contacted other record shops around the country and set up and indiependant distribution network

History
O Travis did it for the love of the music, not

the profit O This fitted well with some bands attitude and ethos O As more bands flocked to Travis and his independent distribution system, the record shop became an indiependant record label: Rough Trade Records

Rough Trade
O Artists signed to Rough Trade tended to

be on significantly better deals than they would have had on a major record label O What do you think these deals would have included what made them better? O Important thing was that bands kept ownership of the music they made no major label would have allowed this

Manchester Our Kid

O A similar situation was happening in

Manchester with A man called Tony Curtis O He set up a label called Factory Records O Primary purpose was to distribute the work of a band called Joy Division O Were heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground and the punk movement

The Smiths
O Formed in 1982 by Morrissey and

Guitarist Johnny Marr O Influenced by 1960s rock music and and punk/new wave scene O Rejected the synth-based pop of the 80s for a chiming guitar driven sound reminiscent of the Byrds

Smiths cont.
O Lyrics were full of dark humour and

sarcasm O Were the perfect counterpoint for the happy jangly guitar O See Cemetery Gates (not the Pantera song..) O Proudly English, anti-Thatcher

Fashion - Discuss
O Trying to get

away from the overblown 80s Spandex and Hairspray

After the Smiths

O They had a heavy influence on what came

next-

Styles, roots and influences

O Britpop bands were influenced by British guitar

music of the past, particularly movements and genres such as glam rock, and punk rock. O Specific influences varied: Blur and Oasis drew from The Kinks and The Beatles, respectively, while Elastica had a fondness for arty punk rock. O all Britpop artists projected a sense of reverence for the sounds of the past.

Origins and first years

O The dominant musical force of the period

was the grunge invasion from the United States. O The origins of Britpop lie primarily in the indie scene of the early 1990s

Beginnings
O Britpop began when Blur's single "Popscene" and

Suede's "The Drowners" were released around the same time in the spring of 1992. O Suede were the first of the new crop of guitarorientated bands to be embraced by the UK music media as Britain's answer to Seattle's grunge sound. O Their debut album Suede became the fastestselling debut album in the history of the UK. In April 1993, Select magazine featured Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson on the cover with a Union Flag in the background and the headline "Yanks go home!".

O Blur took on an Anglocentric aesthetic with their

second album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993). O Blur's new approach was inspired by their tour of the United States in the spring of 1992. O While Modern Life is Rubbish was a moderate success, it was Blur's third album Parklife that made them arguably the most popular band in the UK in 1994.

O That same year Oasis released their debut album

Definitely Maybe, which broke Suede's record for fastest-selling debut album. O The movement was soon dubbed Britpop "Britpop" arose around the same time as the term "Britart" (which referred to the work of British modern artists such as Damien Hirst

"The Battle of Britpop

O A chart battle between Blur and Oasis dubbed "The

Battle of Britpop" brought Britpop to the forefront of the British press in 1995. O The bands had initially praised each other but over the course of the year antagonisms between the two increased. O release of Oasis' single "Roll With It", and Blur's "Country House" on the same day. O The battle pitted the two bands against each other, with the conflict as much about British class and regional divisions as it was about music

Decline
O Oasis' third album Be Here Now (1997)

was highly anticipated. O Despite initially attracting positive reviews and selling strongly, the record was soon subjected to strong criticism from music critics, record-buyers and even Noel Gallagher himself for its overproduced and bloated sound.

O At the same time, Damon Albarn sought to

distance Blur from Britpop with the band's fifth album, Blur (1997).
O On the album, Blur moved away from their

Parklife-era sound, and their music began to assimilate American lo-fi influences, particularly that of Pavement.

Post-Britpop
O Bands like Travis, Stereophonics and

Coldplay, influenced by Britpop acts, particularly Oasis, with more introspective lyrics, were some of the most successful rock acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s