White Owl

Of course grunge wasn’t really about pop, it was rock music - without any of the roll.

Oasis’ arrival and the massive success of ‘Definitely Maybe’ had a devastating impact on popular culture. While it is undeniably a great album, the truth is that it was also the signal for the end of the line for indie music - and that was what Britpop really was, a gaggle of bands who, a decade earlier, would never have caught the attention of major labels or television but who thanks to a wave of nostalgia, the death of Kurt Cobain and the desire for something to believe in had become genuine pop stars. Jarvis Cocker and Pulp had been releasing records since 1983 without anyone ever knowing they existed. Saint Etienne’s ‘Fox Base Alpha’ had just scraped into the top forty albums in 1991. Anyone who thinks that Suede would have enjoyed the same sort of success if they had arrived in 1986 is delusional. Britpop from the very start was about art school aesthetics, effeminate boys, charity shop clothes and cult television and film.

Oasis erased all of that within six months and ushered in something very different, something less delicate and something much uglier too.