Britpop!

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