Britpop!: Cool Britannia And The Spectacular Demise Of English Rock [Paperback]

John Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2004

Beginning in 1994 and closing in the first months of 1998, the UK passed through a cultural moment as distinct and as celebrated as any since the war. Founded on rock music, celebrity, boom-time economics, and fleeting political optimism, this was "Cool Britannia." Records sold in the millions, a new celebrity elite emerged, and Tony Blair's Labour Party found itself returned to government. Drawing on interviews from all the major bands including Oasis, Blur, Elastica, and Suede, and from music journalists, record executives, and those close to government, Britpop! charts the rise and fall of the Britpop moment. In this wonderfully engaging, page-turning narrative, John Harris, currently the hottest young music journalist in the UK, argues that the high point of British music's cultural impact also signaled its effective demise. After all, if rock stars were now friends of government, how could they continue to matter?"Cool Britannia was an empty promise that was bound to end in tears. John Harris captures the moment when New Labour, desperately wanting to seem hip, invited Britpop into Downing Street. Irresistible."-Billy Bragg

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Noted music journalist Harris examines in exquisite detail the rock bands that dominated the UK's Billboard Albums chart during the middle of the last decade. He recounts the change of attitudes held by both the independent record labels and the bands themselves from complete contempt of the commercial mainstream (The Smiths, Joy Division, etc.) to the embracing of it by groups of the mid-nineties. Such bands as Blur, Pulp, Suede, Elastica, and especially Oasis represented a brief but noteworthy renaissance of British rock music (coined Britpop) that placed a high premium on commercial success. Not that the music suffered, as exemplified by such standout albums as Blur's Parklife and Oasis' Definitely Maybe. Britpop's bands looked to the Kinks and the Beatles to carve out a prepensely British identity in part as a reaction to the sweeping influence of Seattle's grunge scene, but they couldn't escape the corrupting influence of their own success. Eventually most of them repeated the rock cliches of yesterday-- drugs, egotism, and bitter infighting--that would become Britpop's undoing. Mandatory reading for rock devotees. Jerry Eberle
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A comprehensive take on what went down in England (and abroad) when Oasis took over the world." -- Harp March / April 2005

"A compulsive page-turner." -- Sunday Times (London)

"An epic account of an intriguing but short-lived period of British rock history." -- American Songwriter January/February 2005

"An evocative, polished, page-turning look back...strangely moving." -- Philadelphia Weekly, 11/23/05

"Fully evaluates the highs and lows with solid precision...Harris covers all topics-economy, politics, social movement." -- New City Chicago 12/30/04

"Indispensable reading? Definitely...Britpop! succeeds as a sincere document of a heady but troubled time." -- Gambit Weekly 2/8/05

"So much fun...[Harris] expertly weaves together an archetypal, but ever satisfying, rock narrative of thrills, pills, and bellyaches." -- Baltimore City Paper 11/24/04

"What really carries the narrative...is the nationalistic clash between Britpop and America's grunge scene." -- Magnet January / February 2005

"[A] wonderful retrospective...keenly researched." -- Village Voice 7/12/05

"[I was] totally absorbed in this book." -- Instinct March 2005

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030681367X
• ISBN-13: 978-0306813672
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Better Book on Britpop May Never Be Written, February 20, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Britpop!: Cool Britannia And The Spectacular Demise Of English Rock (Paperback)

I've never read anything by John Harris before, but after reading the superbly detailed and imaginatively researched BRITPOP!, I picture him as a kind of Theodore K. White of music journalism. He is careful to place the phenomenon inside a political and social context which included the passing of the Thatcher kingdom and the birth of "New Labor" as exemplified by the triumph of the young, music loving prime minister, Tony Blair. And paralleling also the rise of the Young British artists llike Damien Hirst and or Tracey Emin.

Against this changing backdrop of society and expectations, a new breed of British bands appeared all at once to world consciousness. Oasis, Blur, Pulp and more seemed poised to take over the world the way that the Beatles, Stones and Kinks has once dominated rock 30 years before. And yet within a few years, all this excitement had dried up, and the Gallagher Brothers were now seen only as a pair of drunken louts who slagged everyone they could, even their own wives and girlfriends. Harris is good at depicting not only the appropriation strategies of these bands but the way they knew how to play themselves in the media against their American or Australian counterparts for maximum effect, culminating in the episode where Jarvis Cocker showed up at a Michael Jackson TV taping to denounce the black R&B singer, or the way that Noel Gallagher assailed Kylie Minogue for being a "lesbian," or so he said.

The Koran says, "In our beginning are our ends," and this book Britpop! proves it over and over and over and over.

Well done, John Harris.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Work, October 25, 2010

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Rory Miller (Rural America) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Britpop!: Cool Britannia And The Spectacular Demise Of English Rock (Paperback)

A fantastic tour of force on the subject of Britpop. If I had any complaints it was that the author focused a bit much on the bands that come from London as opposed to giving enough due to Oasis. In the whole though, it was full of stuff that I wasn't aware of and I even discoved a few new bands (which was quite the feet as I have tons of cd's).

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good read, November 21, 2011

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PaulW - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Britpop!: Cool Britannia And The Spectacular Demise Of English Rock (Paperback)

If like me, you were a student during the Britpop era, and spent many nights dancing badly, drinking, and chasing girls, chances are you were also a fan of this music. This book provides a wry analysis of the music, the personalities and the wider movement, It explains the origins of and linkages between bands. In short, if you liked the music, you'll love this book.