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Britpop (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[Britpop]] was a somewhat ill-defined scene in British [[Alternative Rock]] in the mid-90s. When in 1991 [[Nirvana (Music)|Nirvana]] released "Smells Like Teen Spirit", [[Grunge]] quickly took over the British music conciousness: suddenly everyone had long hair and scrappy clothes again. A loose rabble of musicians in Britain took exception to this, and around 1993 Britpop was born - music that was somehow 'British' rather than the American stuff.
 
Despite the eager tagging of bands, what exactly Britpop ''was'' is difficult to define. Among the earliest adapters were [[The Stone Roses]] in 1989 (who themselves were part of "Madchester" a sort of halfway point between [[New Wave (Music)|New Wave]] and Britpop), but they never lived up to the promise of their first album. Then there were The La's, who were either twenty years ahead of their time or twenty behind. [[Manic Street Preachers]], a Welsh group that was influenced equally by [[Glam Rock]], [[Punk Rock]] and American hard rock, were another early innovator of the Britpop sound (and actually wound up [[Long Runner|lasting longer]] than most of the bands that were directly influenced by them).
 
The groups that followed these bands' lead and, in turn, became the leading Britpop bands include:
 
* [[Suede]], glam rockers taking cues from [[David Bowie]] who camped it up around Camden Town and got their picture on the cover of Melody Maker before they even had a record out.
* [[Blur (Musicband)|Blur]], a former [[Shoegazing]]/Madchester act that, after touring America in 1992 and finding the experience dreadful, became one of Britpop's leading lights, hearkening back to British pop music of [[The Sixties]] such as [[The Kinks]].
* Elastica, a mostly-female group who drew their sound from punk acts like Wire or The Stranglers
* [[Pulp (Musicband)|Pulp]], a band that was formed by a few teenage friends in [[Older Than They Think|1978]] which had finally found commercial success with their 1994 album ''His n' Hers''
* [[Primal Scream]], one of the weirdest bands of the genre due to their influence from house music and trippy psychedelic beats, but Screamadelica is considered a key Britpop album.
* Sleeper
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* The Bluetones
* Ocean Colour Scene
* Kula Shaker, a band influenced not only by early 90's rock, but also by late 60's psychedelia and Indian music. Notable for being led by Crispian Mills, son of [[Former Child Star]] [[The Parent Trap|Hayley]] [[That Darn Cat (Film)|Mills]].
* Super Furry Animals, a Welsh psychedelic band that actually had nothing to do with Britpop, but because they played rock music and formed around the same time, they were often grouped with the scene.
* And last, but certainly not least, there was [[Oasis]], big Mancunian fans of [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]] and simple, big, stadium-filling rock 'n' roll. They were by far the most successful act to come out of the Britpop years, and the only ones who really made any impact in America.
 
Additionally, there were several, smaller groups of varying popularity (and quality) that rode the Britpop wave to a handful of chart singles. Among them are Cast, Dodgy, Menswear, Smaller, Mansun, Mega City Four, Rialto, These Animal Men, Gene, Hurricane #1, Shed Seven and Northern Uproar. Many of these groups were considered to be [[Follow the Leader]] acts to the big names, and many never even managed a blip on the radar outside of the UK, but they all have their own devoted followings to this day.
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Britpop came to a head in the summer of '95 (when Blur and Oasis fought the Battle of Britpop, a fight to get to Number One when they released singles - "Country House" and "Roll With It" - on the same day. Blur won that battle, but Oasis ultimately was the more popular band at the end of the 90's) and in early '96.
 
In the end, heaving under the weight of drugs, [[Creator Backlash|artist disillusionment]], and the continued failure by any band not named Oasis to break America, it collapsed in 1997: Oasis's long awaited third album ''Be Here Now'' was (and still is) the fastest selling album in British history, but it was equally quickly sold on to charity shops by disheartened fans and went down in history as an overhyped, dismal flop. Oasis chugged along, releasing well selling albums that got alright reviews until the band ended in an yet another squabble between the Gallagher brothers in 2009. [[Blur (Musicband)|Blur]] turned away from the Britpop sound with their fifth album ''Blur'', paved the way for the [[Garage Rock (Music)|Garage Rock]] Revival of the 2000s, and unlike Oasis quit while they were ahead and still at the top of their game in 2003. Pulp continued to release critically adored albums for a few years before completely disappearing. Supergrass somehow managed to outlive most of their second-tier Britpop competition, became a major player in the British alternative scene and existed until April 2010. [[Radiohead]] and The Verve, formerly 'the ones who did ''Creep''' and 'that shoegaze act', released ''OK Computer''
and ''Urban Hymns'', successful albums that moved the music scene onward.
 
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=== Tropes somehow involved with Britpop: ===
* [[Americans Hate Tingle]]: The lukewarm British reaction to grunge was what spawned Britpop in the first place. This worked both ways -- Britpop was met in America with the same reception that Britain gave grunge.
* [[Breakup Breakout]]: [[Sophie Ellis- Bextor]], lead singer for Britpop also-rans Theaudience became a superstar when she went solo in the early 2000's.
* [[Fan Dumb]] - much, especially surrounding the Blur vs. Oasis debate.
* [[Follow the Leader]] - first when the scene started becoming popular with bands like Menswear and Dodgy being thrown together, and then again after 1995 with a large crowd of Oasis-a-likes.
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* [[One-Book Author]]: The La's, who basically imploded on themselves after releasing their self-titled album, an important influence on the Britpop bands that came only a few years later.
* [[Perishing Alt Rock Voice]]: A lot.
* [[Quietly Performing Sister Show]]: Well, a Quietly Performing Sister ''Scene'' anyway: the "Cool Cymru" movement of Welsh bands that ran alongside Britpop in its last few years. The most famous of these bands, Super Furry Animals, despite never really having a huge hit single like [[Oasis]] or [[Blur (Musicband)|Blur]], released many critically acclaimed albums and managed to outlive most of their Britpop peers. Psychedelic folk band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci also had critical acclaim and were favourites of BBC Radio indie tastemaker [[The Last DJ|John Peel]], but [[No-Hit Wonder|they never even managed a Top 40]] single despite ''eight'' of their singles making the UK Top 75.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Oasis (Red Oni) and Blur (Blue Oni).
* [[Sex, Drugs and Rock Andand Roll]] - extremely prevalent, and one of the reasons everything collapsed.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Now defunct magazine ''Select'' fired an early shot in the Britpop wars with a cover feature about Suede, with the headline {{smallcaps|Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mister Cobain?}} This was a reference to the theme song of the sitcom [[DadsDad's Army]]:
{{quote| Who do you think you are kidding Mister Hitler?<br />
If you think old England's done }}
* [[Three Chords and Thethe Truth]] - the approach of most of the Oasis-like groups.
* [[Trope Codifier]] - Oasis
* [[Trope Maker]] - "Popscene" by Blur is sometimes considered the first Britpop single.
* [[Truck Driver's Gear Change]] - only to be expected in such populist music and sometimes invoked deliberately; see "Inbetweener" by Sleeper for a particularly neat example.
* [[Vindicated Byby History]] - In the past decade, music critics have realized that [[Blur (Musicband)|Blur]] - sometimes considered inferior to Oasis - were one of the finest singles acts of the 1990's.
* [[Younger Than They Look|Younger Than They Sound]] - Ash and Supergrass were both formed by teenagers during Britpop's heyday and as mentioned above, managed to outlast most of the older, more popular bands.
 
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