MUSIC | HISTORY
The Britpop Years: The Greatest Time to be Alive in the UK
Underground culture went mainstream and changed the world
To music fans, there are many movements in history that perfectly capture the zeitgeist. It’s that moment in time where history feels like it’s being made and everything centers on a small group of people who have an enormous impact on a national and sometimes global scale.
I’ve lived through several scenes that ‘blew-up’ and went mainstream, but there was only one that I truly felt involved in. Until I left the UK and music drifted into nostalgia and the child-rearing years, my universe was the local music scene.
I was a child in the 70s and skipped heartily past the breakdancers and the rise of hip-hop. Acid rave came too soon for me to be named an early adopter. And while grunge sunk its ugly, whining teeth into the UK’s music scene, shaping and adapting the sounds to an all-American riff, this still felt miles away. Indeed, Grunge’s heartland was North America and sat awkwardly with the musos of Blighty.
The music I loved and identified with the most was Britpop. I was in university and having the time of my life. All around me were artists and musicians being embraced by the mainstream. Underground culture had broken…
