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THE COOL SONGS IT WAS NEVER COOL TO LIKE

Is this new music bonanza here to stay?

The past two years have seen the rise of a new wave of indie rock/pop groups and artists that have brought back to life the music bonanza of the Britpop years.

Next to the usual suspects, such as Ash, Belle and Sebastian and Supergrass, new indie rock-pop acts like The Coral, Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines have started populating the British music scene. In 2004, a band like Snow Patrol who had struggled for many years to receive some recognition beyond the indie fringes, managed to emerge to prominence with their anthem 'Run', which stormed into UK charts at number 5.

If Britpop was regarded as the UK answer to the American grunge scene, this new wave of indie pop/rock music could be considered as the reaction to TV programmes, such as Pop Idol, which focus on the creation of manufactured and packaged pop groups whose only aim is to top the Christmas charts with recycled cover versions or with the ultimate battle of the sexes. As an act of protest against manufactured pop groups, Ash burnt a pile of Westlife CDs at one of their gigs last year.

As per Britpop in the mid 1990s, with 'Elastica' and 'Definitely Maybe' as the fastest selling debut albums, the odds seem to favour this new wave of indie music. What was regarded as purely alternative has now also become mainstream. Major radio stations such as Radio One play indie anthems such as Razorlight's ' Golden Touch' and 'Can't stand me now' by the Libertines during their daytime slots. The UK album charts, not just the alternative charts, see albums like 'Up all night' by Razorlight and 'Hopes and Fears' by Keane stable in the Top Ten positions.

During the Britpop years, the American music scene was considered as the enemy and indie groups/artists aimed at focusing their songs on the good and bad aspects of British society. 'Parklife' and 'Modern life is Rubbish' by Blur can possibly be regarded as two of the most 'British' albums, with songs like 'Sunday, Sunday' and the decadent 'This is a low' describing with irony and sarcasm the aspects of everyday life in Britain.

American acts have now joined forces with their British counterparts to create this new indie music wave in the UK. Las Vegas' born The Killers, NYC's the Strokes and Nashville's Kings of Leon are now in the indie orbit of the music industry and they add their names to the ranks of groups that give an extra boost to this new indie wave. These bands came to crack the British market before their own country's because the indie rock-pop scene is more prolific at our end.

In order to guarantee the continuity of this current indie music wave and to make sure that it will not break against the shores of failure, a few mistakes need to be avoided.
Two factors that certainly mark the difference between this new wave and Britpop and which contributed to the fall of the latter are the opulence in the music industry in the mid 90s, with its spree of drugs taking and the relationship between music and politics.

Drugs intake affected all the bands at the peak of their careers during the Britpop days, such as Elastica - whose split came in 2001 after long music silence fuelled by drug taking - and affected the creative work of Oasis, whose third album 'Be here now' culminated in a fiasco that even Noel Gallagher managed to describe as 'offensive'[1].

Ridding the music industry of drugs is always going to be regarded as impossible but it is now clear more than ever the impact that they can have on a band, especially in the case of The Libertines. The saga of the band\'s frontman, Pete Doherty and his struggle against his addiction to heroin which forced the rest of the band to leave him out until he comes clean is a reminder that drugs might be very rock 'n roll but they can affect your music career for the worse.

During the Britpop days, the concept of class divide was very much alive, with Blur as the middle class Southern fairies and Oasis as the northern working class heroes. The music scene of the time was waking up to the need of change from the Thatcher's years and from the nebulousness of John Major's government. The answer to this necessity for a wind of change was in the hands of a certain Tony Blair, the leader of the New Labour party.

In the past, artists like Paul Weller and Billy Brag had openly supported the Labour cause with politically fuelled songs and with participation in rallies. Blur and Oasis did not possess a political agenda and their songs did not seem to emphasise leftist values. However, it did not take them long to fall for the charms of a rock and roll New Labour leader, who read the NME and used to play in a band. Damon Albarn first at Westminster and Noel Gallagher second at Downing Street paid their respects to the Labour cause.

Blair, and Alistair Campbell, had clearly understood that music was a very influential part of British culture and it had to be exploited to make sure that the young population would join the cause for a 'Cool Britannia'.
According to the music journalist John Harris, Albarn and Blair were 'riding the same wave: a fervent desire for power, success and influence'[2].

If the New Labour victory at the 1997 General Elections and the disillusion generated by the realities of government could be regarded as partly responsible for the fall of Britpop, this new musical wave has proved to be a good example of counterculture, with clear responses to the hangover of the New Labour government, its tuition fees and its the participation to the war in Iraq. Artists like Damon Albarn took part in the largest anti-war protest held at Hyde Park last March and bands like Travis and Belle and Sebastian have used anti war feelings as their inspiration for songs such as 'Peace the Fuck out' (Travis) and for lyrics such as 'killing people is not my scene...village girl, why should she be the one who's killed? (taken from 'If you find yourself caught in love' by Belle and Sebastian).

In the introduction to 'The Last Party', John Harris' account of the Britpop years, the fall of this cultural movement is summarised with the sentence ' for if rock stars were friends of the government, then how could they continue to matter?'[3].

Now that we know the drugs don't work and that rock stars are not friends of the government, we are confident that they will continue to matter.

Elisabetta P.


[1] Harris John, 2003 'The Last Party'. London: Fourth Estate
[2] Harris John, 2003 'The Last Party'. London: Fourth Estate
[3] Harris John, 2003 'The Last Party'. London: Fourth Estate