Trainspotting, from Irvine Welsh's 1993 cult novel, declares war on the dull gravity of social realism.

Trainspotting is Quadraphenia for The Britpop generation. Different from bands from the 80: there was a british scene: an identity: iconic years To many, Britpop will go down as the defining UK music scene. It fuelled Cool Britannia and wrestled control back for British guitar bands after the dominance of grunge. Popping up at just the right time it grabbed the tabloid headlines and our hearts and was a cultural revolution. It made millions of people start buying records again, including me. Never before had I been at HMV at 9am, waiting for the doors to open so that I could be one of the first to get my sticky mitts on a copy of Dog Man Star.

'britpop' being devised by the media There were no more good bands around from 94-97 as there were in 1982, 1990, or anytime.

During those years of '94 - '97 there was a real 'buzz' in the air. The papers were full of the Britpop bands and the radio was bursting full of catchy, fun, jumpy songs

. This scene and brit pop heavily revolved around Blur, who arguably gave birth to it with 'Modern life is rubbish' and killed it off with their 1997 album 'Blur' where they turned thier backs on the jaunty sounding indie pop songs about british modern life in favour of introspective, 'lo-fi'. Band swho had grown up with the kinks with the smiths

1995 was even better: Oasis and Blur reached a level of cultural ubiquity and red top supremity normally reserved for Royals. Singles like Supergrass' 'Alright' and The Boo Radleys' 'Wake Up Boo' soundtracked a blazing hot summer that culminated in the Blur v Oasis Battle Royale. Pantomime it may have been, but for a 15-year-old obsessed in equal measuire with Liam and Damon it was enormous fun. Landmark albums from Black Grape, Pulp and Elastica as well as a career-reviving effort from Paul Weller ensured that British guitar pop ruled the charts in a way not seen since the '60s. 1996 saw Ocean Colour Scene, The Bluetones, Dodgy and Space join the party, while the year also witnessed some of the Britpop era's crowning moments: the post-'Wonderwall' mayhem led to Oasis selling out the mammoth Knebworth gigs; 'Trainspotting' and its Britpop-inflected soundtrack reminded Hollywood that the Brits are great movie-makers too; and Euro 96 brought a nation together and saw 'Three Lions' become the new national anthem and possibly the biggest track of the entire

era.

Without the media attention and chart success that would later follow, Blur's 1993 album Modern Life Is Rubbish slowly shifted the band's sound away from shoegazing dance music and to a quirky pop sound influenced by the likes of the Kinks. In hindsight, the writing and sound of Modern Life Is Rubbish contained many of the lyrical themes, chord changes, harmonies, and decidedly British singing which would later become iconically recognised as "Britpop".

1995 when the term exploded and was used extensively by NME, Melody Maker, Select, and Q magazine. The word subsequently entered the mainstream media. Its influence was recognised by an article in The Guardian by the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary declaring "Britpop" as the new word which best exemplified 1995. "Britpop" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1997.

In April 1993, Select magazine helped spark the upswing in British pride by featuring Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson on the cover with a Union Jack in the background and the words 'Yanks go home!' on the cover, accompanied by features on Suede, The Auteurs, Denim, Saint Etienne and Pulp. This and the sophomore great albums kickstarted the movement and in the following three years (1993 1995) other Britpop and similar style acts just poured - Mansun, Elastica, Echobelly, Sleeper, Supergrass, Primal Scream, The Auteurs, The Boo Radleys, Pulp, Cast, The Bluetones, Black Grape, Space and The Divine Comedy. Some of them were new, others such as the Boo Radleys already established media: ++ importn in the bulding up of the all britpopmovement Fans of Britpop are divided over which album kick-started the movement. Oasis' breakthrough debut Definitely Maybe (1994), Blur's bombastic third album Parklife (1994) and Suede's self-titled debut Suede (1993) are all contenders. These albums defined the movement and paved the way for many other acts. Pulp's His 'n' Hers (1994) also coincided with this trio of landmark albums and laid the basis for the territory explored on their own landmark release a year later, Different Class. Britpop hysteria then rapidly gained huge media and fan attention in Britain, Western Europe and some parts of the North America. The movement was as much about British pride, media hype and imagery as it was about the particular style of music. Suede (known in America as "London Suede") was the first of the new crop of guitar-oriented bands to be completely embraced by the UK music media as Britain's answer to Seattle's grunge sound. Their self-titled first album was released in March 1993, and became the fastest-selling debut album in the history of the UK. This title was later claimed by Oasis with Definitely Maybe. In 1995 the Britpop movement reached its zenith. The famous "Battle Of The Bands" found Blur and Oasis as prime contenders for the title "Kings of Britpop". Spurred on by the media, the "Battle" was headed by two groups - Oasis' brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher representing the North of England, and from Blur, Damon Albarn and Alex James representing the South. This "Battle" was epitomised when, after some back-handed marketing, Oasis' Single "Roll With It" and Blur's "Country House"

were released in the same week. The event caught the public's imagination and gained mass media attention - even featuring on the BBC News. While this battle raged on Pulp took the spots with the magnificent single "Common People" and Suede with their "Trash" and "Beautiful Ones". In the end, Blur won, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 - the songs charting at number one and number two respectively. However, in the long-run, Oasis' album (What's the Story) Morning Glory won the popular vote over Blurs The Great Escape, outselling it by a factor of 4 or more. In the UK, What's the Story spent a total of three years on the charts, selling over eighteen million copies and becoming the second best selling British album of all time. Oasis' second album is widely considered to be the definitive Britpop album capturing the essence of the attitude and the Cool Britannia movement. (In Britain and Ireland it became popular for a time when asked "What's the story?" (lit. "How are you?"), to answer with "Morning glory".) The media went even further, branding the movement "Third British Invasion", because of it massive popularity at the time and because acts represented particular musical influence or movement in their music, which led to more or less mediagenerated conflicts between the bands, as was the case with previous bands and movements. The Britpop movement was also symbolised in 1994-1995 by the outwardly happy, poppy sing-along summer anthems of such bands as Dodgy's "Staying Out for the Summer", Supergrass' "Alright", Sleeper's "Inbetweener", The Boo Radleys' "Wake Up Boo" and Echobelly's "Great Things". Although the majority of the bands associated with Britpop were English, there were exceptions. Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Manic Street Preachers and Stereophonics were Welsh. Others like The Gyres, The Supernaturals, Travis and Belle and Sebastian were Scottish. This even led native media to call the rise of Welsh Bands "Cool Cymru" and "Cool Caledonia" - a pun to "Cool Britannia". There were also Irish acts such as - the Cranberries and Ash (from Northern Ireland) - and not to mention the infamous Gallagher brothers, who were Irish descendants. In spite of accusations of Southeast bias (typified by Blur, Supergrass and the much-lamented Menswear), the movement and Britpop hysteria engulfed not just one province or city; it encompassed the entire region and established itself as a hegemonic and definitive British movement, both musically and spiritually. The movement also exercised a brief period of cultural hegemony, with the 1996 film Trainspotting and its Britpop-centric soundtrack (featuring Blur, Elastica, Pulp and Sleeper), through to Ocean Colour Scene's music being used on Chris Evans' TFI Friday and the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
or many of you, it is the period when Britain became a different place - or it felt like it did, at least. Not only was there a new wave of homegrown music midway through the decade, symbolised by Blur, Oasis and Pulp, but this was followed by Euro 96 and the New Labour landslide of 1997, which stoked a feeling of euphoria and optimism.

"new dawn"

Britain was cool again, we had our own music, our own art, our own identity. Who'd have thought a few years down the line there would be debate on whether Britain even had an identity?

Pete Doherty queuing for an album of oasis nurtured the whole british scene at the moment

Britpop - Deceleration of the movement 1997 1999

The core initiators and leaders like Oasis and Blur turned their backs on the movement. Oasis' third album Be Here Now although selling strongly, attracted strong criticism from critics and recordbuyers for its "overproduced and bloated acid sound". Blur's self-titled fifth effort was very well received like their previous two, partly because it showcased stylistic evolution for the band, unlike Oasis. The band by Graham Coxon's urgence was moving and developing and marked a considerable departure from the familiar Britpop style of Parklife and The Great Escape. Their music began to assimilate American lo-fi influences, particularly that of Pavement, with frontman Damon Albarn telling the NME that the album was "English slacker".

t should be considered that there was a natural oversaturating of the market, as the public was buying much of the material that was released. Even though some of the bands, which benefited, but were not critically acclaimed, had their albums bought by the public. Naturally, the market oversaturated, causing fewer sales due to the bands' style becoming static. This inevitably caused some bands to break up or burn out. This is when the fans turned their attention acts like Radiohead and The Verve, who were overlooked by media attention, centered before on Pulp, Suede, Blur and Oasis. These two bands showed considerably more esoteric influences from the 1960s and 1970s that weren't so much found among the Britpop acts. When the movement showed signs of fading, Radiohead and the Verve released their respective 1997 landmark efforts OK Computer and Urban Hymns, both of which were and remain widely acclaimed. While these albums were Britpop in the sense of being British and popular, neither were self-consciously 'Britpop' and have avoided the negative stigma attached to the label to this day. Pablo honey was actually pretty brit pop