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

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Britpop!: Cool Britannia And The Spectacular Demise Of English Rock Details

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 EberleCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more 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 Read more About the Author John Harris is the author of Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, the Guardian, NME, Select, and New Statesman. He lives in Hay-on-Wye, England. Read more

Reviews

Easy, fast read - sweet page turner, especially if you're a Britpop fan living in the U.S. and didn't experience the press overload about this period of time in the UK music scene.

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