The 90’s - Britpop

Britpop is a genre of music that started in the late 80’s - early 90’s. It comes from the United Kingdom and has its influence from 60s and 70s bands such as The Who, The Beatles and The Smiths, and punk bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash. British punk bands like these also influenced an attitude for Britpop. Britpop uses these influences but mixes it with other styles that were popular at the time such as electronic music. The Stone Roses used this influence to create electronic style beats and percussion in a song called Fools Gold. Other bands like Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets also used this sound. Other features of Britpop are the lazy vocals which were mainly used in Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Pulp etc. Britpop was seen as a British Invasion for music as before that American bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were most popular, This was like an anti-influence for British bands.

The type of lyrics used in Britpop are important to this type of genre because they were about everyday life in Britain, Lyrics from Common People by Pulp - “Rent a flat above a shop, cut your hair and get a job.
Smoke some fags and play some pool, pretend you never went to school.” Bands also used to sing in local accents which was used a lot in the “Madchester” movement in the late 80’s. Madchester was what people used to describe Britpop that came specifically from Manchester. Stone Roses and Happy Mondays were from Manchester but there were lots of other bands like The Charlatans, The Smiths, Joy Division, Oasis and James. Singing in local accent have influenced bands and artists today like The Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen. Football had a big influence on Britpop and the England team made people proud to be British. Lyrics with football references were used a lot and in 1996 The Lightning Seeds (Frank Skinner and David Baddiel who were British comedians) released a song called Three Lions which was used in the European Championships in that year for England. The video for the song is a good example of what everyday Britishness was like, and the England shirt and Union Jack became a fashion. Lyrics - “Three lions on the shirt
Jules Rimet still gleaming
30 Years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming”
Pictures of bands in magazines would often be wearing England shirts like Liam and Noel Gallagher in Rock and Folk magazine.  Image from - http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f62/brit-pop-51639.html

The Union Jack was always used on magazine covers when there was a Britpop band and they could always be seen at festivals. Noel Gallagher had a Union Jack guitar and Gerry Halliwell from The Spice Girls famously wore a Union Jack dress on stage.

Britpop Artists

Blur (Damon Albarn, Graham Coxen, Alex James and Dave Rowntree)

The Charlatans (Tim Burgess, Mark Collins, Martin Blunt, Tony Rogers)

Elastica (Justine Frischmann, Annie Holland, Justin Welch)

Inspiral Carpets (Tom Hingley, Stephen Holt, David Swift, Tony Feeley)

James (Tim Booth, Adrian Oxaal, Paul Gilbertson, Gavin Whelan, Michael Kulas)

Cast (John Power, Liam Tyson, Peter Wilkinson, Keith O’Neil)

Oasis (Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer, Andy Bell, Alan White)

Dodgy (Richard Payne, David Bassey, Chris Hallam, Nick Abnett)

Black Grape (Shaun Ryder, Bez, Kermit, Jed Lynch, Psycho)

The Levellers (Mark Chadwick, Jeremy Cunningham, Charlie Heather, Simon Friend)

Suede (Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Simon Gilbert, Alex Lee)

Pulp (Jarvis Cocker, Mark Webber, Steve Mackey, Nick Banks)

Ocean Colour Scene (Simon Fowler, Steve Craddock, Oscar Harrison, Andy Bennet)

Supergrass (Gaz Coombez, Danny Goffey, Mick Quinn, Rob Coombez)

The Stone Roses (Ian Brown, John Squire, Mani, Reni, Andy Couzens)

Happy Mondays (Shaun Ryder, Bez, Gary Whelan)

Important Albums

Pulp - Different Class
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Supergrass - I Should Coco
The Stone Roses - Second Coming
Ocean Colour Scene - Mosely Shoals
Cast - All Change
Blur - Parklife
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Elastica - Elastica
Happy Mondays - Pills n Thrills and Bellyaches
Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go
Oasis - Morning Glory
The Charlatans - The Charlatans
The Verve - A Northern Soul
Suede - Dog Man Star
Black Grape - Its Great When You’re Straight
The Boo Radleys - Wake Up!

Bands Influenced by Britpop

The Arctic Monkeys
Kasabian
Franz Ferdinand
The Libertines
Coldplay
The View
Bloc Party
Pigeon Detectives
Jamie T
BabyShambles
Lilly Allen
Muse
Radiohead
Feeder
The Futureheads
The Hoosiers
Kaiser Chiefs
The Kooks
Klaxons
The Zutons

Initial Pop Music Influences Assignment - The Prodigy

The Prodigy are an English band formed in 1990 by Liam Howlet who plays keyboard and composes, the other two main members are Keith Flint and Maxim Reality who both sing and dance/MC. Their genre is mainly electronic dance, but also has rock, breakbeat, punk and rave elements to it.
Currently they have five studio albums - Experience (1992), Music For The Jilted Generation (1994), The Fat of The Land (1997), Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned (2004) and their most recent album Invaders Must Die (2009) which features Dave Grohl on drums. They have sold over 17 million records which is more than any other dance artist. The Prodigy are also known to do good live performances as Keith Flint and Maxim Reality were originally dancers before they joined the band. From NME, Live Reviews http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-prodigy/10358 - “We’re under attack. An incredible onslaught of noise. The sound of missiles, choppers, shelling: boom boom boom. Strobe lights disorientate us, the smell of smoke and adrenaline thick in the nostrils, hellish screaming all around.

Early music from the Experience album is influenced by dance and rave music which was popular in the early nineties. They use a lot of old school keyboard sounds and synthesisers. The drums are break beat and are played very fast with extra percussion like bongos and shakers. The baseline is heavy and there is no guitar or lyrics, but rave style vocal samples are played throughout. Artists like this that could have influenced them are Acen, Future Sounds of London and Channel X.
Their second album Music For The Jilted Generation is very similar to Experience. It has the same kind of drum patterns, keyboard sequences and vocal samples that are still influenced from early 90’s rave artists like Acen. I think there are artists now that were influenced by these albums like Glowstiyx who released the album Class of 92 in 2007.

Their next two albums were The Fat of The Land and Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned, they had a punk guitarist called Gizz and the style had moved from rave to heavy punk and dub - step. The guitar riffs, vocal styles and their image were similar to punk artists like The Sex Pistols. The drums and bass had slowed down and got heavier and now they had punk - style singing.
Interview from Kerrang http://www.theprodigy.info/articles/kerrangnov96.shtml - "I guess you get influenced by what you see", says Howlett, "We just got bored with the typical sound of the dance scene and wanted to expand on that”.
Their latest album is Invaders Must Die, the style has mixed genres, rock, electronic, break beat and also has dance style keyboards again. QOTSA were an influence and songs by Pendulum sound similar to Invaders Must Die. The vocals still have a punk style to them - "I have to write angry music - not like Rage against the Machine, politically angry, but just a reaction to the energy of the music that comes from angry, hard sounds. ".