Editing Britpop (section)

==Origins and first years==
[[File:Select BritPop cover April 1993.jpg|thumb|''[[Select (magazine)|Select]]'' magazine's April 1993 issue – with Suede's [[Brett Anderson]] on the cover in front of a [[Union Flag]] – emphasised "Great British pop"]]

John Harris has suggested that Britpop began when [[Blur (band)|Blur]]'s fourth single "[[Popscene]]" and [[Suede (band)|Suede]]'s "[[The Drowners]]" were released around the same time in the spring of 1992. He stated, "[I]f Britpop started anywhere, it was the deluge of acclaim that greeted Suede's first records: all of them audacious, successful and very, very British."<ref>''The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock''; John Harris; Harper Perennial; 2003.</ref> Suede were the first of the new crop of guitar-orientated bands to be embraced by the UK music media as Britain's answer to Seattle's grunge sound. Their debut album ''[[Suede (album)|Suede]]'' became the fastest-selling debut album in the history of the UK.<ref name="British alt-rock">Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101209194628/http://allmusic.com/explore/essay/british-alternative-rock-t579 "British Alternative Rock"]. ''[[AllMusic]]''. Retrieved on 21 January 2011. Archived from [https://www.allmusic.com/explore/essay/british-alternative-rock-t579 the original] on 9 December 2010.</ref> In April 1993, ''[[Select (magazine)|Select]]'' magazine featured Suede's lead singer [[Brett Anderson]] on the cover with a Union Flag in the background and the headline "Yanks go home!" The issue included features on [[Suede (band)|Suede]], [[the Auteurs]], [[Denim (band)|Denim]], [[Saint Etienne (band)|Saint Etienne]] and [[Pulp (band)|Pulp]] and helped start the idea of an emerging movement.<ref name=Birth>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4144458.stm|website=Bbc.co.uk|title=Looking back at the birth of Britpop |author=Ian Youngs |date=15 August 2005}}</ref><ref name=liveforever />

[[Blur (band)|Blur]] were involved in a vibrant social scene in London (dubbed "[[The Scene That Celebrates Itself]]" by ''[[Melody Maker]]'') that focused on a weekly club called Syndrome in Oxford Street; the bands that met up were a mix of music styles, some would be labelled [[shoegazing]], while others would go on to be part of Britpop.<ref>Harris, pg. 57.</ref> The dominant musical force of the period was the [[grunge]] invasion from the United States, which filled the void left in the indie scene by the [[The Stone Roses|Stone Roses]]' inactivity.<ref name=liveforever>''Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop''. Passion Pictures. 2004.</ref> [[Blur (band)|Blur]], however, took on an Anglocentric aesthetic with their second album ''[[Modern Life Is Rubbish]]'' (1993).

Blur's new approach was inspired by a tour of the United States in the spring of 1992. During the tour, frontman [[Damon Albarn]] began to resent American culture and found the need to comment on that culture's influence seeping into Britain.<ref name="liveforever" /> [[Justine Frischmann]], formerly of [[Suede (band)|Suede]] and leader of [[Elastica]] (and at the time in a relationship with Albarn) explained, "Damon and I felt like we were in the thick of it at that point{{nbsp}}... it occurred to us that [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] were out there, and people were very interested in American music, and there should be some sort of manifesto for the return of Britishness."<ref>Harris, pg. 79.</ref> John Harris wrote in an ''NME'' article just before the release of ''Modern Life is Rubbish'': "[Blur's] timing has been fortuitously perfect. Why? Because, as with baggies and shoegazers, loud, long-haired Americans have just found themselves condemned to the ignominious corner labelled 'yesterday's thing'."<ref name=shite /> The music press also fixated on what the ''[[NME]]'' had dubbed the [[New Wave of New Wave]], a term applied to the more punk-derivative acts such as Elastica, [[S*M*A*S*H]] and [[These Animal Men]].

While ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' was a moderate success, Blur's third album, ''[[Parklife]]'', made them arguably the most popular band in the UK in 1994.<ref name="British alt-rock" /> ''Parklife'' continued the fiercely British nature of its predecessor, and coupled with the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in April of that year British alternative rock became the dominant rock genre in the country. That same year [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]] released their debut album ''[[Definitely Maybe]]'', which broke Suede's record for fastest-selling debut album; it went on to be certified 7× Platinum (2.1&nbsp;million sales) by the [[British Phonographic Industry|BPI]].<ref name="British alt-rock" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/Search.aspx |publisher=[[British Phonographic Industry]] |title=Certified Awards Search |access-date=9 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604040853/http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx |archive-date=4 June 2011}}</ref><ref>Harris, pg. 178.</ref> Blur won four awards at the [[1995 Brit Awards]], including Best British Album for ''Parklife'' (ahead of ''Definitely Maybe'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brits.co.uk/history/shows/1995 |title=The BRITs 1995 |publisher=The BRIT Awards |access-date=4 December 2011 |archive-date=12 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112052136/http://www.brits.co.uk/history/shows/1995 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1995, Pulp released the album ''[[Different Class]]'' which reached number one, and included the single "[[Common People]]". The album sold over 1.3 million copies in the UK.<ref name="UK sales">{{cite web |first=Rob |last=Copsey |title=The biggest selling Mercury Prize-winning albums revealed |url=http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-biggest-selling-mercury-prize-winning-albums-revealed__20414/ |publisher=[[Official Charts Company]] |date=17 September 2018 |access-date=17 September 2018}}</ref>

The term "Britpop" arose when the media were drawing on the success of British designers and films, the [[Young British Artists]] (sometimes termed "Britart") such as [[Damien Hirst]], and on the mood of optimism with the decline of [[John Major]]'s government, and the rise of the youthful [[Tony Blair]] as leader of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].<ref name = britart>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=30NDj3_0wmMC&pg=PA53|page=53|title=The British Pop Dandy: Masculinity, Popular Music and Culture|author=Stan Hawkins|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|date= 2009|isbn=9780754658580}}</ref> After terms such as "the New Mod" and "Lion Pop"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m8w0|title=The Battle of Britpop : 25 Years On|website=Bbc.co.uk|access-date=3 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.shiiineon.com/blog/interview-cud/|title=INTERVIEW: Cud|website=Shiiineon.com|date=16 January 2018|access-date=3 September 2020}}</ref> were used in the press around 1992, journalist (and now [[BBC Radio 6 Music]] DJ) [[Stuart Maconie]] used the term Britpop in 1993 (though recounting the event in a [[BBC Radio 2]] programme from 2020, he believed it may have been used in the 1960s, around the time of the [[British Invasion]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m447|title=The Britpop Top 50 with Jo Whiley|website=Bbc.co.uk|access-date=3 September 2020}}</ref> However, journalist and musician [[John Robb (musician)|John Robb]] states he had used the term in the late 1980s in ''Sounds'' magazine to refer to bands such as [[the La's]], [[the Stone Roses]] and [[Inspiral Carpets]].<ref>{{cite news |title='I had no idea they would be so big' – John Robb on Manchester music, Britpop, and being the first to interview Nirvana |url=https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/people/i-no-idea-big-john-robb-manchester-music-britpop-first-interview-nirvana/ |access-date=23 June 2019 |website=Inews.co.uk}}</ref>

It was not until 1994 that Britpop started to be used by the UK media in relation to contemporary music and events.<ref>Harris, pg. 201.</ref> Bands emerged aligned with the new movement. At the start of 1995, bands including [[Sleeper (band)|Sleeper]], [[Supergrass]] and [[Menswear (band)|Menswear]] scored pop hits.<ref>Harris, pg. 203–04.</ref> Elastica released their debut album ''[[Elastica (album)|Elastica]]'' that March; its first week sales surpassed the record set by ''Definitely Maybe'' the previous year.<ref>Harris, pg. 210–11.</ref> The music press viewed the scene around Camden Town as a musical centre; frequented by groups like Blur, Elastica, and Menswear; ''Melody Maker'' declared "Camden is to 1995 what [[Seattle]] was to 1992, what [[Manchester]] was to 1989, and what [[Mr Blobby]] was to 1993."<ref>Parkes, Taylor. "It's An NW1-derful Life". ''Melody Maker''. 17 June 1995.</ref>