in Pencil Music

I’m a fan of Britpop, but I’ll admit I was late to the celebration. Chalk it up to being too focused on other genres, and a sincere obsession with live music, but the fact is I didn’t truly experience Britpop until my British friend took me to see Razorlight in Brooklyn about a year ago. Now, you might be thinking they’re not really Britpop, but let me take a few steps back.

When I was in college at IU there was a guy who lived right next door to me in my dorm. He loved Oasis. His favorite band. He also had an acoustic guitar. I can’t tell you how many times I had to listen to him play Wonderwall – and he would carry his guitar with him everywhere in the dorm. So there was no shortage of this song being played close by to me. I began to really dislike it. (I know, bias just entered the room)

So you probably heard that Oasis broke up, or rather, Noel Gallagher quit. I know it’s common knowledge that he and his brother Liam never really got along. This isn’t the first time they’ve “broken up”, and this one isn’t being orchestrated by Live Nation to boost concert sales when they miraculously reunite. They actually cancelled the remainder of their tour. (See statement from Noel)

I’ve listened to a lot of their music, I don’t like it. Maybe I’m missing something. Let’s rephrase, surely I’m missing something, as millions of people buy their albums. But I’ve always found the music to be overly whiney, with boring melodies, and generally just uninteresting from a stylistic point-of-view.

So I guess I thought I didn’t like Britpop. Having been a child of the Nirvana era, grunge music shaped my musical preferences at a young age. Britpop was the UK’s response to the infiltration of Nirvana. They wanted something different and their own in the 90’s, while Kurt was dominating the airwaves.

So back to Brooklyn and Razorlight. I went to see them live about a year or so ago at the Warsaw (awesome venue btw), and they rocked! Songs like “In the Morning” and “Hold On” won me over immediately.

Britpop is characterized by paying tribute to the sounds of the past – particularly British music from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. I find this incredibly respectable, mainly because I believe all musicians are influenced heavily by what they hear, and owe the artists of the past a thank you. This is Britpop’s mantra. When I saw Razorlight, I felt like I was seeing a cultural “thank you” and tribute to The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, The Kinks, The Beatles… and even more recently Blur, which I also really like.

It’s amazing what seeing live music will do to your perception of a band or genre. When it’s performed in front of you, you get to witness first hand what’s truly at play. Oasis may be done, (I’m not upset about that one), but my dislike for the band brought about a great eye opening experience later in life that now allows me to really dig in to some new Britpop bands and other new British acts that I really enjoy.

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Filed under: Uncategorized, opinion by Jason in Pencil