EVERY GENRE PROJECT - February 24 - Britpop

Genre of the Day - Britpop 🇬🇧

Album of the Day - Different Class by Pulp (1995)

The UK is one of the most self-referential countries ever. Fitting, as it’s really the last major developed country to have such a cultural emphasis on its monarchy. Whether Brits like it or not, they tend to perpetuate its proudly insular, distinctive nation’s culture, even if it’s tongue-in-cheek. That’s not always a bad thing. In my opinion, the UK has produced some of the most transcendent, thoughtful music in history. They reserve a certain right to be proud of that, I suppose, and look back at past eras and recall and imitate. The US’ music culture is often about moving forward, that youthful, forward-looking energy that has defined the US’ relatively short history; the UK by contrast is perhaps more willing to value music of the past given its lengthy history as a culture. Or maybe those are just vast generalizations. There are definitely some who would turn up their nose at Britpop and claim it doesn’t deserve this amount of analysis.

Either way, back in the mid-90s, a bunch of young lads looked back at the incredible 1960s British bands their parents had grown up loving, and with enough generational distance, felt it was time to begin appropriating the same ethos of those optimistically self-starting and then world conquering bands like the Beatles and the Who. Those bands’ musical era was dampened in the turn from the ‘60s to the ‘70s and ‘80s which saw a Britain marked by stagflation, extreme pessimism, and urban decay. The economic fortunes had improved a bit by the mid-1990s, and British people’s usual wry glumness gave way for a time of increased optimism, allowing the brightness of Britpop to permeate through a wave of grunge across the pond and shoegaze at home. In fact, countering grunge was a major point for Blur, and bands started using the Union Jack as imagery again, as they felt they were seizing the rock zeitgeist back from those pesky Americans. 

Britpop is less a genre with specific musical hallmarks than a movement among a bunch of bands, with Blur mostly setting the curve. However, generally they drew upon musical styles from the past three decades in Britain that were retro enough to be considered a compelling callback, from New Wave and glam rock to mod and garage rock further back. An emphasis on brighter, catchier alternative rock. This amalgamation of so many styles so iconic really is a bit of a flex, like Brits saying look at everything we can mash together and still call our own. We get it, Blur, you hate grunge, just the same way British people will retort that at least they’re not getting shot in schools when you so much as crack a joke about them. 

Pulp set themselves apart by not centering themselves in Britishness so much, a very literal component of Britpop. And to me they’re all the better for it: they cover an empty rave drug culture in “Sorted for E’s and Wizz” and pull out uncommon conventions like a stray four-on-the-floor beat and evocative lyrics on “Disco 2000.” Like the most astute British twentysomethings at the time, I guess, they recall back to their school days, expertly connecting the same lonesome struggles as adolescents to their present-day situations, with razor sharp lyrics that manage to succeed in landing as hooks. Pulp’s approach is a bit unorthodox: but they’re talented enough and realize that it’s enduring enough to not have to bear the Union Jack on their sleeve, to wear themselves so self-seriously. It’s enough of an unserious album combined with thoughtful guitar melodies to be enjoyed with balance. Just like many of their associates, though, Pulp faded with the fall of Britpop. I guess British optimism can never last too long.