3 Britpop Classics From the 1990s That No 90s Kid Will Ever Forget

Britpop arrived, in part, as a reaction to the popularity of American grunge bands. The big four, Oasis, Blur, Pulp, and Suede, can be seen to mirror Seattle’s cultural influence via Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains. Yet both movements came to define a peak commercial era for guitar-based rock music.

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For this list, I wanted to avoid—from an American perspective—the obvious Britpop hits in hopes of highlighting less popular (but no less great) ones. You’re likely already familiar with “Wonderwall”, “Girls And Boys”, and “Animal Nitrate”, so let’s revisit three additional Britpop classics that every 90s kid will never forget.

“Bring It On Down” by Oasis

“Bring It On Down” endures as an essential Oasis track for multiple reasons. First, Creation Records planned for it to be the first single. However, as the band struggled to get the song right in the studio, they released “Supersonic” in its place. (It worked out pretty well for them.) Still, the multiple attempts at “Bring It All Down” foreshadowed the drummer Tony McCarroll’s eventual exit. Together with Owen Morris and Mark Coyle, Noel Gallagher finally captured the live energy of the band, and Definitely Maybe became one of the most consequential rock albums of the 1990s.

“Country House” by Blur

By 1995, Oasis and Blur were engaged in the great Battle of Britpop. The battle reached epic proportions of media hype when Blur released “Country House” the same day Oasis released “Roll With It”. So Blur pop-blocked Oasis from the top spot as “Country House” outsold its rival tune. “Oh, it’s like an animal farm, that’s the rural charm in the country,” sings Damon Albarn on Blur’s pastoral hit. Soon, Blur would record their biggest global—and no less charming—anthem only after they abandoned Britpop altogether.

“Beautiful Ones” by Suede

Due to a dustup over the trademark, they are known as The London Suede in America. Though even with this domestic distinction, Brett Anderson and his band are far from household names in the States. But Suede helped kickstart Britpop by combining the glam rock of T. Rex and David Bowie with the localized poetry of The Smiths. Anderson and guitarist Bernard Butler became the next generation’s Morrissey and Marr, releasing a pair of landmark Britpop LPs before Butler (like Marr) split. He was replaced by a teenage virtuoso named Richard Oakes, and then Suede released its biggest-selling album, Coming Up, in 1996. I chose “Beautiful Ones” for the following verse:

Loved up, doved up, hung around,
Stoned in a lonely town,
Shaking their meat to the beat.
Oh, high on diesel and gasoline,
Psycho for drum machine,
Shaking their bits to the hits.

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