Talking about Oasis, Blur and the ‘battle of Britpop’ is a somewhat lurid topic. Did the Manchester team win it? Did the Londoners do it? Who was more significant in that nineties era? These are questions that, in any case, appeal more to the personal taste of each person.
And of course there is no way to deny it: both are bandots, each one in their own style, and their music transcended so much so that today they continue to make noise, with those led by Damon Albarn meeting whenever they can, and the Gallaghers… well, you know.
With all that in mind, but understanding that there is less media intensity than in those times, the topic of Oasis, Blur and the battle of britpop is still an interesting debate. Who won it for you?
Oasis, Blur and the battle of Britpop
It’s been said until exhaustion that the rise of Britpop arose as a kind of British response to American grunge. Historically, The United States and the United Kingdom have dominated the music industryand the ’90s weren’t going to be any different.
US alternative rock and the ‘Seattle sound’ were the dominating hit at the start of the decade… but it wasn’t going to be forever. The antecedents of the Britpop battle began with Blur itselfsince the band had already released a couple of albums (Leisure y Modern Life is Rubbish) between 1991 and 1993.
Its reception in the UK was outstanding without being amazing. And in the United States, luck was not entirely with them despite the fact that they made the effort to go on tour in those years… Contrary to what would happen with Oasis and their debut album Definitely Maybewhich did appear on the gringo charts more than those of the London group.
The turning point of the Britpop battle came in 1994, with Blur’s third album (Parklife) and the aforementioned Oasis debut. Damon Albarn and company managed to become the most prominent British band of the momentwhile some strangers from Manchester began to make noise.
Con Definitely Maybe, the Gallaghers didn’t just tell the world ‘here we are’; they also established themselves as a band with strong ambitionstaking away from Suede – another of the greats of Britpop – the record for the best-selling debut album in UK history at that time.
Anyway, Blur and Oasis showed that the international music press now had to turn its eyes towards British soil. There were the new idols of Generation X and the 90s, although without the exacerbated pessimism or the unbridled melancholy of the grunge period. And yes, the shot was coming.
Start the Britpop battle
1995 arrived and now yes, the battle of Britpop was coming with everything. At the beginning of that year there was no friction and even at the Brit Awards there was an interesting gesture of Damon Albarn when collecting the Best Group Award, saying the award should be shared with Oasis. “Much love and respect for them”said Graham Coxon too (who knows if joking or not).
Nothing happened between the bands, until Liam Gallagher did his thing. It turns out that Oasis had achieved their first number one single in the UK, this with “Some Might Say”. The event deserved a party, which Albarn attended to congratulate those from Manchester for the success achieved… And the response of the youngest of the Gallaghers was quite peculiar.
“When Oasis went to number one with ‘Some Might Say,’ I went to their celebration party, you know, just to congratulate them. And Liam came over and said, ‘We’re number one!’ right in my face.. So I thought, ‘Okay, we’ll see…’”, Albarn told in a profile for the NME.
Blur won the battle of Britpop
Continuing in 1995 and with the aforementioned background, Oasis and Blur were preparing to release their following albums that year: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? y The Great Escape. In the prelude to all this, the friction and comparisons driven by the press about the most popular bands in the United Kingdom were already felt.
The Gallaghers’ provocations and Albarn’s competitive side led the latter, in an almost last-minute move, to decided to release his single “Country House” on the same day as Oasis’s “Roll With It”. A face to face worthy of any boxing match was put together.
Both songs came out on August 14, 1995 and in the post-release balance, Blur took the battle of Britpop: his single sold more than 274 thousand copies, thus exceeding the 216 thousand achieved by Oasis, this in the cut of the sales count that was made from August 14 to 20 of that same year.
As we said, the press dedicated itself to further encouraging this rivalry. In fact, there is a well-known cover of the NME that for many is the clear example of how the media fueled the britpop battle.
In that sense, it seems that both bands were aware of how this rivalry was handled in the media. Speaking precisely to the NME in September 1995, Liam Gallagher recounted that he once met Alex James (Blur bassist) in a pub and congratulated him –in his somewhat haughty way– for the hit that “Country House” meant.
Alex James, for his part, accepted the congratulations and said that both songs weren’t really good anyway. And that is something that many experts agree on: neither “Country House” nor “Roll With It” were really the highlights of either band. But the timing and circumstances made it the perfect hook to sell a cultural clash.
That yes, although the members of Blur were less provocative regarding the battle of Britpop, they did have one or another little detail of those to boil the blood. And if you don’t believe it or don’t remember it, there is Alex James himself as an example.
It was on a broadcast of Top of the Pops of 1995 in which the bass player came out playing “Country House” with an Oasis shirt on. Was it a mockery or some sign of respect for his most renowned competitors? Here the moment with the inclusion of Jarvis Cocker from Pulp to introduce Blur.
The Oasis album sold more
Blur won the battle of britpop, which for practical purposes is that period in which both bands released their singles on the same day. After that, the music industry went its way as usual, waiting for the two bands to release their respective albums in 1995.
And with the warm spirit, the rivalry continued to be fed, taking everything to a greater magnitude with the record releases. On that ground, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? he beat The Great Escape On sales. They were only a month apart from each other, with Blur’s album coming out in September and Oasis’s in October.
Noel Gallagher also dared to blow up the media again with statements to The Guardian hoping that “Albarn and Coxon will get AIDS and die.”. Of course, he later retracted, but the hostility did not stop in that peak 1995 that, in the end, would be the peak year of Britpop.
Cultural differences and the fall of Britpop
The Britpop battle was a media attraction beyond music for British culture had found its idols in the extreme north (Manchester) and south (London) of England.
Blur weren’t the cool kids from college, but they certainly came from a more middle-class background, studied in appreciation of the arts and musically more experimental. They were the bohemian types of the English capital.
Oasis, meanwhile, represented the dream of the working class of the English North. They came from a more ‘raw’ background (so to speak) and musically, they were more of a regular at classic rock & roll. Both bands were the perfect antithesis… if that has any meaning, they were successful anyway.
1997 killed britpop
In the end, being from one extreme or another, making fun of bands or seeking recognition as the biggest group of the moment was worth little. Like grunge, Britpop’s stay at the top of the music industry was short-lived.. Be Here Now by Oasis and Blur’s self-titled album, both released in 1997, were standouts but not to the degree of past records.
The Oasis album, although it’s good, sounds the same as the past albums. Unlike their early albums, if you ask an Oasis fan about iconic songs from the band, they’re unlikely to tell you a single of the material first.
Blur’s was also good and the band innovated in sound. But unlike his past materials, this album was more influenced by American indie bands, as Coxon once recounted. The themes of the letters were more personal and they no longer spoke so much of British daily life.
The battle of Britpop and the ‘Cool Britannia’ trend that was bringing British culture to the world, they were losing glamor. As Alan McGee (founder of Creation Records, Oasis’ label) once said:
“Three things defined the Britpop era. It was that moment (1995), Knebworth, and then the death of Princess Diana killed the moment. We put out ‘Be Here Now’, Diana died and the country abandoned Britpop…”
Alan McGee for the NME in 2019.
Who won the britpop battle?
Oasis, Blur and the fleeting battle of Britpop… Who won it then? As we said, it is a subjective issue that appeals to the taste of each person. Culture and the British music industry (which is still a corporate roll) were the winnersbut not without the side effects that come when a trend catches on.
That two of the most representative bands of that movement ended up getting involved – consciously or unconsciously – in a rivalry fueled by the media, it is the decline of art before sales and popularity charts. And the history of popular music, even today, shows that the landscape hasn’t really changed much.
Today, Oasis and Blur survive on nostalgia. The Gallaghers, although they live in a fight as always and without the certainty of reviving the band that made them legends, remain in force separately. Blur, with its ups and downs, first started in the 90s and continues to this day sporadically. (with Albarn more involved in Gorillaz and enhancing his legacy there).
At least in that area, Blur wins by a landslide. But neither band won the Britpop battle, if we’re being honest.. Graham Coxon himself said it in a very interesting interview from 2009 with The Daily Mailwhere he recalled the clash of the two biggest bands in the United Kingdom in the 90s:
“It was the climax of the so-called Blur-Oasis war. ‘Country House’ outsold ‘Roll With It’ and went straight to the top of the charts. It felt like a meaningless, hollow victory…”
