Editing Britpop (section)

==Peak and decline==
[[File:Liamg.jpg|thumb|right|Oasis playing live. ''[[NME]]'' states, "as ''(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'' emerged to colossal sales, it became clear that while Blur had won the battle, Oasis were winning the war."<ref name="Chart Battle"/>]]

In the months following the chart battle, ''[[NME]]'' states, "Britpop became a major cultural phenomenon".<ref name="Chart Battle"/> Oasis's second album, ''[[(What's the Story) Morning Glory?]]'', sold over four million copies in the UK – becoming the [[List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom|fifth best-selling album]] in UK chart history.<ref>[https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uks-biggest-studio-albums-of-all-time__24431/ "The UK's biggest studio albums of all time"]. OfficialCharts.com. 13 October 2018. Retrieved on 7 December 2018.</ref> Blur's third album in their 'Life' trilogy, ''[[The Great Escape (Blur album)|The Great Escape]]'', sold over one million copies.<ref>[http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx BPI Certified Awards Search] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924015932/http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx |date=24 September 2009 }} [[British Phonographic Industry]]. Note: reader must define "Search" parameter as "Blur".</ref> At the [[1996 Brit Awards]], both albums were nominated for Best British Album (as was Pulp's ''Different Class''), with Oasis winning the award.<ref name="BRITs">{{cite news |title=1996 Brit Awards: winners |url=https://www.brits.co.uk/history/shows/1996 |access-date=19 September 2019 |website=Brits.co.uk |archive-date=21 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021165008/http://www.brits.co.uk/history/shows/1996 |url-status=dead }}</ref> All three bands were also nominated for Best British Group and Best Video, which were won by Oasis.<ref name="BRITs"/> While accepting Best Video (for "Wonderwall"), Oasis taunted Blur by singing the chorus of the latter's "[[Parklife (song)|Parklife]]" and changing the lyrics to "shite life".<ref name="Manning"/>

Oasis' third album ''[[Be Here Now (album)|Be Here Now]]'' (1997) was highly anticipated. Despite initially attracting positive reviews and selling strongly, the record was soon subjected to strong criticism from music critics, record-buyers and even [[Noel Gallagher]] himself for its overproduced and bloated sound. Music critic Jon Savage pinpointed ''Be Here Now'' as the moment where Britpop ended; Savage said that while the album "isn't the great disaster that everybody says", he commented that "[i]t was supposed to be the big, big triumphal record" of the period.<ref name="liveforever" /> At the same time, Blur sought to distance themselves from Britpop with their [[Blur (Blur album)|self-titled fifth album]],<ref>Harris, pg. 321–22.</ref> assimilating American [[Lo-fi music|lo-fi]] influences such as [[Pavement (band)|Pavement]]. Albarn explained to the ''NME'' in January 1997 that "We created a movement: as far as the lineage of British bands goes, there'll always be a place for us{{nbsp}}... We genuinely started to see that world in a slightly different way."<ref>Mulvey, John. "We created a movement{{nbsp}}... there'll always be a place for us". ''NME''. 11 January 1997.</ref>

As Britpop slowed, many acts began to falter and broke up.<ref name="Harris, p. 354">Harris, pg. 354.</ref> The sudden popularity of the pop group the [[Spice Girls]] has been seen as having "snatched the spirit of the age from those responsible for Britpop".<ref name="Harris, p. 347–48">Harris, p. 347–48.</ref> While established acts struggled, attention began to turn to the likes of [[Radiohead]] and [[the Verve]], who had been previously overlooked by the British media. These two bands – in particular [[Radiohead]] – showed considerably more esoteric influences from the 1960s and 1970s that were uncommon among earlier Britpop acts. In 1997, Radiohead and the Verve released their respective albums ''[[OK Computer]]'' and ''[[Urban Hymns]]'', both widely acclaimed.<ref name="Harris, p. 354"/> [[Post-Britpop]] bands such as [[Travis (band)|Travis]], [[Stereophonics]] and [[Coldplay]], influenced by Britpop acts, particularly Oasis, with more introspective lyrics, were some of the most successful rock acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.<ref>Harris, pg. 369–70.</ref>