BRITPOP

"There's something in the air. For the first time in 30 years,
Britain is exporting pop music again"

1980s

The Beginning

What are we doing here?

They say, in the eighties, there was nothing. Everyone just existed: some romanticized the good old days, some did electronic music, but generally - everyone was bored. Britain was not so great.

Oh wait! There was a punk movement.

By the end of the decade, it was pretty much done though. So now people had nothing, in particular, to believe in. They still had their DIY clothes and wild hairstyles, but no wave already.

And this is as fashionable as it gets for sports fans.

1991

Grunge comes to the UK

Nirvana makes their famous Top of the Pops appearance

Nirvana does Top of the Pops performance, where, not allowed to play live, they just show off all over the place. And as the UK youth saw this happening, they did not exactly fall in love with Grunge but rather got the idea for their own attitude of the next decade. "The Scene That Celebrates Itself", as they call it, was finding its way.

THE VISION ARRIVES

"Our current state sucks. Let's look for something interesting in the past. Let's pretend the past is still here."

1993

First Acknowledgement

Suede make it to the magazine cover

It was this issue of the Select magazine that stated that Britpop is a thing. It featured Suede, The Auteurs, Denim, Saint Etienne, and Pulp. No Blur and no Oasis yet.

Suede were one of the first bands to establish themselves in this new genre. They set the guidelines for everyone to follow. As the journalist John Harris wrote, "If Britpop started anywhere, it was the deluge of acclaim that greeted Suede's first records: all of them audacious, successful and very, very British"

1994

April 1994

Blur release their third studio album, Parklife

The singles include:

1. "Girls & Boys"
Released: March 7, 1994
2. "To the End"
Released: May 30, 1994
3. "Parklife"
Released: August 22, 1994
4. "End of a Century"
Released: November 7, 1994

"Blur went from being regarded as an alternative, left field arty band to this amazing new pop sensation"

— Graham Coxon, |Blur

August 1994

Oasis releases their debut album, Definitely Maybe

The singles include:

1. "Supersonic"
Released: April 11, 1994
2. "Shakermaker"
Released: June 13, 1994
3. "Live Forever"
Released: August 8, 1994
4. "Cigarettes & Alcohol"
Released: October 10, 1994
5. "Rock 'n' Roll Star"
Released: May 1995 (US radio single)

"We don't want to be an indie band from England who've had a couple of hits. We want to go on and be an important band and there's certain things you've got to do."

— Noel Gallagher, Oasis

1995

Young British Artists

Damien Hirst gets Turner prize for a divided cow

The similar go-get-'em moods dominate the art scene. Young British Artists, led by Damien Hirst, are making art as outrageous as possible. In 1995, Hirst himself gets the Turner Prize (the most prestigious prize in Fine Arts) for "Mother and Child (Divided)" - the installation consisting of a cow and a calf, divided in halves and put in tanks of formaldehyde.

Sarah Lucas' Self Portrait and "I'm Desperate" by Gillian Wearing

COMMON PEOPLE

1996

The Anthem on Air

She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge

The song Common People released by Pulp in 1996 is voted a Britpop anthem. In a 2012 question and answer session on BBC Radio 5 Live Cocker said that he was having a conversation with the girl at the bar at [Central Saint Martins] college because he was attracted to her, although he found some aspects of her personality unpleasant. He remembered that at one point she had told him she "wanted to move to Hackney and live like 'the common people"

Written by Natasha Savicheva
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