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How Britpop Changed the Media

Miranda Sawyer explores the legacy of Britpop with contributions from Alex James, Justine Frischmann, James Brown, Andrew Harrison, Louise Wener, Andrew Collins and others.

Britpop has been picked over a lot in the past 20 years. Mostly, we concentrate on the rivalry between Blur and Oasis, the notion of Britishness and the high times in general - for music, art, politics, even football - for mid-90s Britain. How Britpop Changed The Media looks at Britpop and its legacy in a different way.

In the late 80s and early 90s, pop music had its own specialist media: NME, Smash Hits, Record Mirror, Select, The Face. Major pop stars like Madonna would make the tabloids' entertainment pages, but pop culture was rarely covered by the broadsheets. This was partly due to snobbery, partly a lack of access - pop's stars tended to be American.

Britpop, coming as it did after rave and grunge - youth cultures that were astonishingly, suddenly popular; but inaccessible to the mainstream media - was seized upon by tabloids, broadsheets and TV news. Here were stars that were easy to find - they were in Camden, or the Met Bar - and a scene that was familiar and on their doorstep. This sudden explosion of alternative indie musicians into the mainstream was a shock to the musicians themselves and changed the way we think of stars.

Britpop's point (like punk's) was that musicians and stars are like their fans. This indirectly led to the idea of ordinary people becoming instant stars, to reality TV shows like Big Brother where non-famous people become overnight celebrities. But also Britpop stars didn't want to talk to tabloids or non-music media: hence the media methods of the 2000s - phone-tapping, paparazzi-stalking, paying friends to talk.

Finally, of course, pop and indie music is a stalwart of all media now, from The Observer to The Sun. Britpop brought pop into the mainstream media, where it still rules today.

1 hour

Last on

Wed 22 Feb 2017 22:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

  • Find out about our special programming celebrating 20 years of Britpop.

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Music Played

  • Blur

    End Of A Century

    • Food.

  • Elastica

    Waking Up

    • Live Forever (Various Artists).
    • Virgin.

  • Nirvana

    Heart-Shaped Box

    • Geffen.

  • Blur

    Advert

    • Modern Life Is Rubbish.
    • FOOD.
    • 2.

  • Suede

    The Drowners

    • Nude Records.

  • Suede

    Drowners

    • Nude.

  • Suede

    So Young

    • Nude.

  • Saint Etienne

    Nothing Can Stop Us

    • FOXBASE ALPHA.
    • Heavenly.

  • Menswear

    Daydreamer

  • Elastica

    Line Up

    • Deceptive Records.

  • Blur

    Parklife

    • Food.

  • Sleeper

    Inbetweener

    • Indolent.

  • Oasis

    Rock 'N' Roll Star

    • Creation Records.

  • Pulp

    Something Changed

    • Island.

  • Elastica

    S.O.F.T.

    • ELASTICA.
    • DECEPTIVE RECORDS.

  • Oasis

    Roll With It

    • Creation Records.

  • Blur

    Country House

    • Food.

  • Oasis

    Some Might Say

  • Supergrass

    Alright

    • Parlophone.

  • Blur

    This Is A Low

  • Elastica

    2:1

    • EMI.

  • Pulp

    Sorted For E's & Whizz

    • Island.

  • Pulp

    Mis-Shapes

    • Island.

  • Arctic Monkeys

    Fake Tales Of San Francisco

    • BANG BANG.

  • Blur

    To The End

    • Food.

Credit

Producer Frank Wilson

Broadcasts

  • Sun 6 Apr 2014 13:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 6 Music
  • Wed 22 Feb 2017 22:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

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