Britpop: True Confessions of a Fangirl

In the early 1990s, Nirvana & Pearl Jam dominated the American music scene & all anybody ever talked about was Seattle & grunge.  I missed that scene.  Instead, Anglophile that I am, I was head over heels with the music coming out of England-Britpop, from Blur & Oasis to Elastica & Sleeper.

It was with this musical history in mind that I picked up Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock by  British journalist John Harris. It's a fascinating study of the scene, when "UK rock rediscovered its confidence, tapping back into the spirit of The Beatles and Stones" [from the book's blurb], including plenty of snarky anecdotes & tales of squabbles & feuds amongst its major players. Watch the author talking about Britpop on YouTube-a 4 part series-to get a feel for what the book has to say:





Here is a list of some Britpop-related music that you can find in the library catalog (including influences from the '80s, shoegaze, & the Madchester scene):

Music from Glastonbury: The Film

Years of Refusal, Morrissey

Hatful of Hollow, The Queen is Dead, & the Sound of, The Smiths

Be Here Now, Oasis

Demon Days & Plastic Beach, Gorillaz (musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn of Blur and Jamie Hewlett)

The Best of  Joy Division

The Complete Stone Roses

We are the Night, The Chemical Brothers

Blue Lines, Mezzanine, & 100th Window, Massive Attack

Loveless, My Bloody Valentine

Spooky, Lush

Black Holes & Revelations & The Resistance, Muse

OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows & King of Limbs, Radiohead

We don't have any Elastica albums in the library catalog (Justine Frischmann is no longer making music), so enjoy this video of one of their best tunes:





If you are a music fan, make sure you check out the New Music LibGuide! There you can see, by genre, all the music that the library system has acquired in 2011.