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Britpop: The Music That Changed Britain
Charting the birth, boom and bust of one of the biggest movements in British music. Britpop revitalised pop music and saw artists emerge that would help rewrite the workings of the music industry.
Episode 1 - Sunday, 12 March How the fortunes and rivalries of Blur, Oasis, Suede and Elastica created Britpop as we know it. Featuring fascinating anecdotes and rarely seen archive footage. Episode 2 - Sunday, 19 March 1995 was the year Britpop took over, with the Blur/Oasis rivalry making the national news, Pulp emerging from the sidelines along with a raft of female-fronted bands. Episode 3 - Sunday, 26 March A look at the movement's peak in '96, when Britpop's laddish swagger was inescapable. Episode 4 - Sunday, 2 April Exploring the movement's tumultuous last days, as non-stop hedonism, creative exhaustion, and a change in the national mood combined to change Britpop beyond recognition. Read More
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There is a four-part documentary on Britpop airing on Channel 5. Unfortunately, the television documentary is geo-locked, so those outside the UK cannot watch this show. Thanks to a friend of mine in London, I was able to watch the show.
Being a massive Britpop fan, all the bands presented in the documentary are familiar to me. I love all the bands… but I felt the documentary actually goes beyond what I considered Britpop, for example, they dedicated a whole segment to Ocean Colour Scene, which I never really group them in Britpop.
Watching the show, and hearing all the great music, it made me put on some old records from Pulp, Oasis, Blur, Elastica, etc.
Again, I knew all about the birth and story of Britpop, as I was a huge fan… but there were some nuances that I didn’t get, because I didn’t live in England. Things like “Lads culture”, spearheaded by the magazine Loaded, caused a backlash from audience. I didn’t think that was a thing, but I can see how these “bros” rocking to music that some indie kids are into… and that might turn off some original fans.
They also had a segment about Three Lions, the “band” led by Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds, English comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner. Again, I don’t even consider this a Britpop song, even though it was one of the most famous song for England football team’s participation in that year’s UEFA European Championship. It was the sequel to New Order’s “World in Motion”… but it was lost on anyone outside of England to know “Three Lions” as a Britpop song.
Some of my favorite things about the documentary was seeing behind the scenes of Blur’s music video for “Parklife”. I love seeing Space! I love that band. I love seeing footages of Jarvis Cocker invading Michael Jackson’s performance. I remember the Cocker thing, but I never knew what a controversy it was. So many great moments in Britpop’s history.
I love that we got basically a four-hour documentary on Britpop, and it covers a lot of bases… but I felt like it was also missing things that I would’ve at least mentioned briefly. For example, the music movement before Britpop, I would’ve touched on New Wave of New Wave (NWONW) or Madchester or Shoegazing. I might have briefly mentioned some semi-obscure bands like Me Me Me or Northern Uproar or The Longpigs or Theaudience.
I think this is still a great documentary, and I’m just sadden that the BBC decided that the rest of the world can’t see it. I’m hoping that the producers will put this out on Bluray and make it for sale for the rest of the world. I know I will be one of the first to buy it. Many of my non-UK Britpop friends would buy it too. We love this stuff, just make it available for us.
Being a massive Britpop fan, all the bands presented in the documentary are familiar to me. I love all the bands… but I felt the documentary actually goes beyond what I considered Britpop, for example, they dedicated a whole segment to Ocean Colour Scene, which I never really group them in Britpop.
Watching the show, and hearing all the great music, it made me put on some old records from Pulp, Oasis, Blur, Elastica, etc.
Again, I knew all about the birth and story of Britpop, as I was a huge fan… but there were some nuances that I didn’t get, because I didn’t live in England. Things like “Lads culture”, spearheaded by the magazine Loaded, caused a backlash from audience. I didn’t think that was a thing, but I can see how these “bros” rocking to music that some indie kids are into… and that might turn off some original fans.
They also had a segment about Three Lions, the “band” led by Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds, English comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner. Again, I don’t even consider this a Britpop song, even though it was one of the most famous song for England football team’s participation in that year’s UEFA European Championship. It was the sequel to New Order’s “World in Motion”… but it was lost on anyone outside of England to know “Three Lions” as a Britpop song.
Some of my favorite things about the documentary was seeing behind the scenes of Blur’s music video for “Parklife”. I love seeing Space! I love that band. I love seeing footages of Jarvis Cocker invading Michael Jackson’s performance. I remember the Cocker thing, but I never knew what a controversy it was. So many great moments in Britpop’s history.
I love that we got basically a four-hour documentary on Britpop, and it covers a lot of bases… but I felt like it was also missing things that I would’ve at least mentioned briefly. For example, the music movement before Britpop, I would’ve touched on New Wave of New Wave (NWONW) or Madchester or Shoegazing. I might have briefly mentioned some semi-obscure bands like Me Me Me or Northern Uproar or The Longpigs or Theaudience.
I think this is still a great documentary, and I’m just sadden that the BBC decided that the rest of the world can’t see it. I’m hoping that the producers will put this out on Bluray and make it for sale for the rest of the world. I know I will be one of the first to buy it. Many of my non-UK Britpop friends would buy it too. We love this stuff, just make it available for us.
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