I hate it when you buy a Subway cookie and it has a hair in it. Then you go back next time and ask for a hair-flavoured cookie and they stare at you like you've just eaten their newborn baby.

Stone Roses, The Verve and The La's were not Britpop.

Good band, but not Britpop. More like Mod-Revival.



No, not in a Britpop thread.

Citing Wikipedia in your argument just lets it down horrendously...considering they've put Blackgrape as an example of a Britpop band, that just shows how fucked up the article is.

Whoever said Britpop is a wide genre was correct. Some people class almost every guitar based band between 91-99 as 'Britpop' when it isn't really the case.

Oasis themselves deny that they were part of it but it was inevitable they would be classed as Britpop because they were such a massive part of the 90s music scene. There is no denying they were a central part of the Britpop scene, but also out on their own as a separate entity, coming into it a little later. The Britpop thing was a reaction to the shite American grunge that kids were listening to at the time, which Oasis were an obvious counteraction to. Remember also, many people consider Knebworth weekend to be the very peak of the whole Britpop scene.
Britpop to me is exactly that, guitar based British pop music, performed by 4 or 5 guys (or even girls, unbelievably) Faintly Mod stylings, 60's melodies and musical ideals, quirky, very British lyrics, much in the style of The Kinks. Blur were always good at this.

True Britpop bands in my opinion are Blur, Suede, Pulp, Elastica, Gene, Supergrass, Sleeper, Menswe@r, Echobelly, and Cast to a certain extent, amongst others. I'm a big fan of all these bands (well Menswe@r are a bit shit). Suede were the ones that kicked it all off with their debut.

The 90s was when I got into music as a young teenager and I guess it's stayed with me and grown wider as I've got older. The first song I ever really fell in love with was Country House ironically, but I soon turned my attentions to Oasis.

As others have pointed out, The Roses and The La's aren't Britpop, although are of course vitally important bands in terms of inspiration. Their excellent albums set a real tone for what was to come a few years after they were released. The Verve weren't really making Britpop style records to start with, as anyone who's listened to A Storm In Heaven will know. Their more mainstream sound came with A Northern Soul to a certain extent and then more so with Urban Hymns, (one of the best albums ever made, IMO) and when Bittersweet Symphony exploded, but this wasn't until 1998 remember.

BTW, no one's mentioned Kula Shaker. I get shot down for it frequently, but I think they are fucking great. I love a bit of Sitar, it's the Beatles fan in me.

I don't think the Yanks understand the nuances found in British culture, one has to actually live in the country to understand Britpop totally. I'm digging your love for Kula Shaker, Tom, it's a shame they could never sustain the brilliance from K.