BRITISH music has squeezed out US acts from the top of the UK charts, according to new figures released on the tenth anniversary of the high-point of "Britpop".

The mid-1990s, when bands such as Blur, Oasis, Suede, Supergrass and Pulp rose to the fore, was seen as the last golden age in British music.


But figures released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK's record industry's trade association, reveal that British music dominated the UK charts at the expense of US rivals last year.

In 2004, British acts took the lion's share of sales in Britain's biggest genres - rock, pop, R&B, middle-of-the-road and easy listening, dance, and hip-hop.

Mike Skinner's The Streets was the best selling hip-hop act in 2004 - the first time a UK name has achieved the accolade in a genre traditionally dominated by US heavyweights like Eminem and 50 Cent.

Robbie Williams became 2004's biggest-selling pop artist with several of his albums, including his Greatest Hits, flying off the shelves and outdoing US counterparts like the Scissor Sisters. Double-Brit winner Joss Stone was the best-seller in R&B, beating Usher and Destiny's Child.

Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins was the top-selling classical artist in the UK and The Prodigy's first album in seven years (Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned) helped position it as the biggest-selling dance act.

Blur and Oasis went head-to-head in the charts ten years ago this week, marking the height of Britpop.

A spokesman for the BPI, which has compiled the figures for the first time, said: "British music has always been incredibly popular, but last year's run of fantastic debut artists and new releases from top artists such as Oasis and Coldplay is helping to push British music to the top of the charts."