Intro

Britpop is a subgenre of Rock and Indie that kicked off in the United Kingdom. Britpop first emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar Pop music of the 1960s and 1970s.

Info

The movement developed as a reaction against various musical and cultural trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the Grunge phenomenon from the United States. This goes to prove that every musical revolution is a reaction to another.

Prominent and originating Britpop acts would include Blur, Suede and Pulp.

While it may have been a reaction against inward-looking Grunge and Gothic, Britpop followed on from other existing “good time” British scenes such as the whole Indie scene. It was also an evolution of many other British musical movements and heavily featured some “retro” elements, but combined them with electronic styles

Britpop generally focused more on 60’s revivalism, pop-punk and songcraft than attempting to create new sounds, Blur originally started off as an Indie Dance style, and had a lot of crossover with the Rave scene, but like a lot of the bands from this scene, they soon jettisoned these aspects for standard songwriting structures.

Influences

Britpop bands were influenced by British guitar music of the past, particularly British groups The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and The Small Faces, Glam Rock artists such as David Bowie and T.Rex as well as Punk, influenced bands like the The Jam, and Buzzcocks, were influences on many Britpop artists.