Rise of Britpop

Britpop was a movement in British guitar music and youth culture in the 1990s, a reaction to the dominance of American grunge and a celebration of British identity and the pop traditions of the 1960s, including the Beatles, the Kinks and the Small Faces. Its main bands were Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede, along with groups such as Elastica, Supergrass and The Verve. The movement peaked in 1995 with a famous chart rivalry between Blur's Country House and Oasis' Roll with It, which was extensively covered by the media. It was linked with the Cool Britannia moment of the Labour Party's election victory in 1997. By the late 1990s the movement had faded, though Oasis in particular remained hugely successful.

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