Hello to you. Here I am again, this time to talk about my all time passion: Brit Rock. I became keen on this genre of rock in the tender age of 12 when I first listened to an Oasis song, Stand By Me. You may say, ‘wow Katy, what a rubbish album to start getting interested in Brit Rock’ to which I will respond: Be Here Now may be a very confuse album BUT it is very solid, full of anthems and sassiness, so SHUUUUSSSH.
Anyway, from there to digging all related acts and researching about it was just a matter of having internet, which was a little bit impossible considering I was 12 in 1997, was living in Manaus/Amazonas (yeah, the Amazon) and my father was the only one working, 4 shifts/day to make ends meet so, not a clue what internet nor what a computer was.
I started buying rock magazines, where I started getting to know a bit about everything; All of them were Brazilian publications which, now I realise, were a third world version of very well sold rock magazines abroad. Well, I started collecting them and kind of crossing information, trying to find a relation among bands and sleeping late at night trying to watch MTV, which reminds me as my family was poor we didn´t have the channel but I found a way of getting it through an antenna and get a very bad signal which I could see shadows and at least hear the songs. That´s how I learnt about Brit Pop way later its golden years.
Of course being from South America and from a state which is traditionally isolated (middle of the Amazon, you know?), all we could grasp from Brit Rock was summarised to Oasis and Blur; Here and there The Smiths would be mentioned but more as a band from the 80´s rather than, also, Brit Rock. As the years gone by I was more exposed to the genre, especially 90´s Brit Rock, as I became a daily Absolute Radio listener (née Virgin Radio) and I noticed how unfair the media outlets were and are to other equally superb bands from the 90´s Brit Rock era.
This playlist below is a more democratic to 90´s Brit Rock bands. Some of them turned out to be one hit wonders whilst others carried on playing small venues and revival festivals until an inevitable end. Here´s the list:
Of course I added some Oasis and some Blur, as they were the big exponents due to their chart battle, but I also added great acts, the likes of Verve, Radiohead (from the underrated album Pablo Honey), Pulp, Primal Scream, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, among others.
What strikes me is that this idle late 80´s/early 90´s youth community, inherited from a UK post Thatcher such unemployment, recreational drug intake, dissatisfaction and absolutely no hope for the future and turned all these into good music. I reckon that the thought of being able to dream again, hope for a better future, the angst turned into lyrics and the good old right to party is what made Brit Rock so strong after half a decade of grunge and hard rock (which were fading already once UK wasn´t as keen on them as US was, at least not the same intensity). Suddenly youth could see themselves being portrayed, the identity fact which is very important.
If you consider most of these bands were middle/lower classes, most of them on benefits, receiving the dole every month and having to make ends meet seeing nothing but a dark future — music then has a special role in such reality by not only giving them the ability of being rock stars but also inspired other young ones to pursuit the same path (which will be my next post).
These bands influenced a whole generation from how they dressed (adidas, jerseys, parka jackets, khaki trousers, updated bowl cut hair cut) to how people walked, establishing a kind of 90´s beatle-mania in everything related to the topic. In that aspect both Oasis and Blur managers were very smart to feed the media with this supposed feud which made them sell a lot of records and gigs. Personally, I guess Oasis won but I´m suspicious as I am crazy about the band. However, the Blur gig I attended was way better than Oasis´- but let´s not go there, hehe.
Next post will be about Brit Rock from late 90´s and early 00´s, which is the generation who was influenced by all these acts listed above in the playlist. I hope you lot enjoy this playlist as much as I enjoyed creating it.
See ya around ;)
