The Guardian writes :

"Once upon a time, Britpop had taken over the world, as well as the Top 10. London was swinging once again: Damon Albarn was a teen pin-up and Jarvis Cocker was in the Sun and Smash Hits, while Noel Gallagher was busy getting builders' quotes on a target mosaic for the base of the Jacuzzi in his north London mansion. But it's 2003 now. Blur will never have another number one single, Pulp's Greatest Hits missed the Top 40 by a mile, and Liam Gallagher is a fan of S Club 8. Britannia stopped being cool, and just went cold.

The present success of good pop music makes it seem as if, after years of being bombarded with every hardcore major label marketing scam in the book, pop consumers' musical tastes have genetically mutated to the point where they are almost totally resistant to hype.

And that's the biggest irony of the new pop explosion. While the alternative world is full of super-stylised, high concept artists - White Stripes, The Strokes, Kings Of Leon, The Hives - it's the world in which Busted, Sugababes and the rest reign supreme where the music is all that really matters. It may make for a fickle relationship with record sales, but in a world where you're only as good as your last single, the current crop of UK pop bands are shining brighter than ever before."


can't wait to see the beerbarons response