A Britpop Rant

On Monday I had a lecture on British music. As I came through the door my lecturer, Mike O'Hara, stabbed a finger at me and ordered me to name a British band. For some reason the best I could come up with was Oasis (I was even wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt ferchristsakes), but then I suppose Oasis are a pretty quintessential British band.

What followed was a dissection of Britpop, a category into which were lumped Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Suede, Supergrass, Elastica, etc. etc. All fairly standard. But I was somewhat offended at the implication, snidely exuded by both Mohara and the BBC documentary he was showing us, that the movement - and, by extension, the bands associated with it - were worthless and unoriginal.

I'd like at this point to refer to a few samples from my last.fm chart:

plank201's Music Profile - Top Artists

5. The Magnetic Fields
6. Supergrass

7. Manic Street Preachers

...

29. Arab Strap

30. Suede

31. Brakes

...

45. The Hold Steady

46. Pulp

47. Travis

Maybe Travis should be highlighted too, I'm not sure. Either way, my point is that I like Britpop and a few of the bands that came about in that era are, well, good.

We did go to the cinema last night - contrary to my predictions it was actually Tom, not Cliffey, who had to bow out, and that was due to genuine illness, not hilarious golf injuries. Pete ended up coming along too, as did Rob "Tammerz" Tamlyn, his chosen Orange Wednesday chum for the evening. The Adjustment Bureau was excellent, but I'm more interested in talking about the drive home.

Sarah, Cliffey, and I were being chauffeured back to the house by Andy, who as I mentioned yesterday is back for Easter. As we came turned onto Tewkesbury Street, Pulp's Common People came on the radio, and I (more or less jokingly) requested that Andy go around the block so that I could hear the first couple of verses.

Andy thought for a moment, and then, swinging the car around, proceeded to go one better. He had already proven himself a pretty brave man behind the wheel by virtue of a slalom in the John Lewis car park, so i suppose it wasn't entirely surprising when he took us for a quick - as in, he drove really quite fast - drive around the lake, while we all danced and sang and held on for dear life.

And a realisation that I had undergone in Monday's lecture came back again - you can't throw Oasis and Pulp in the same boat because a) Pulp songs are largely good, b) Oasis songs are largely notgood, and c) Oasis are proud of being working class, while songs like Common People are angry at people who think it's good to be working class because it's actually shit.

So thank you Andy for that lovely blob of daredevil driving and excellent music (even if it was the radio edit). And thanks also for squashing the cranefly in my room with my copy of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture.

Joel.