Ahh, Thursday. Anybody else feeling one of those inexorable drives to rant about something nineties-related?

So pretty sure we can all agree that Thursday Throwback had a nice run—and FYI this is far from TT’s retirement—but I thought I’d go a bit more macro for a stretch and take a look at some of the genres and subgenres that have come to define my (spoiler alert) far-and-away favorite decade in music. Grunge comes immediately to mind (and will, I hope, be discussed down the line), but I’d like to start off with a look across the pond at Britpop. My reasons for launching here are a few, not least of all that it produced the song whose title I wanted to rip for the series’ name—“Tied to the Nineties,” off Good Feeling, the first and last record before Travis went all Five-For-Fighting and forgot they were Scottish. Just as importantly, Britpop stands as one of the more diverse nineties’ genres and thus easy pickins for the would-be music blogger.

At its core, Britpop was a revivalist movement, celebrating three-plus decades of pop dominance in the UK, from classic pop-rock in the 60s (the Beatles, Small Faces, Stones), to glam in the 70s (Bowie, T. Rex, Roxy Music), to punk/post-punk in the early-80s (Wire, Buzzcocks, the Fall). Though Britpop’s heaviest hitters (particularly Oasis) devoted themselves largely to the first of these eras, in my opinion the movement’s most interesting output (including some of Oasis’) successfully copped a bit from each of its inspirations, distilling the lot into a sound simultaneously melody rich, chock with bravado, ear-catchingly angular, and (perhaps most of all) quintessentially British.

Probably the preeminent examples of this are the two records most would consider the catalysts behind Britpop as well as its crowning achievements: Suede’s 1993 self-titled debut and Blur’s landmark third album, 1994’s Parklife.  If grunge deep down sought to manifest who-gives-a-fuck modernity through formula-driven arrangements and apathetic singing, records like Suede and Parklife focused on that same, contemporary shit-wallow but celebrated the ridiculous irony and larger-than-life romance of it all by congealing localized angst with a truckload of swank and British-invasion fun. Songs like “Boys & Girls” were equal parts parody and glorification, pomping the era’s hedonism while fully aware of its own self-aggrandizement—mocking the imprudence, while emphasizing  what hella good time it could lead to nonetheless.

This is not to say, however (thank, God), that the sole function of Britpop-et al was post-modern masturbation. No, for better or worse, Britpop by way of embellishing the archetypes laid down by Blur and Suede created first and foremost some of the catchiest POP music of the nineties. I mean seriously, listen to Cast twice and tell me they’re not the second coming of the La’s. Ohhh, right… Not unexpectedly, Britpop never really caught on stateside. Music historians would have you believe that American’s habitual xenophobia viewed the sound’s cockney aesthetics as simply too UK. I, however, like to think we just thought it a bit too blustery—a far cry from the slacker-affect of our own alt-sound already quietly in the works….

“Alright” by Cast

“The Drowners” by Suede

“Daydreamer” by Menswe@r

“Step into My World” by Hurricane #1

“Girls & Boys” by Blur

“Connection” by Elastica

“Show Girls” by The Auteurs

“Lucky Man” by The Verve

“Something 4 the Weekend” by Super Furry Animals

“Sale of the Century” by Sleeper

“Bluetonic” by The Bluetones

“Female of the Species” by Space

“She Said” by Longpigs

“Mulder and Skully” by Catatonia

“Tied to the Nineties” by Travis

“Do You Remember the First Time” by Pulp

“All Around the World” by Oasis