Back to 90s : Brit Pop, a Nostalgia of The Post-Nirvana Era

A couple days ago I found this super fun post about Cadillacs and Dinosaurs by @freddbrito (read his post). That was a fantastic post about fantastic game. It was my favorite game. I’ve spent too many weeks on the arcade center to play that game. Heck, I even downloaded the rom of this game to play on my retropie.

While I was reading that post, my mind wandered to the past. To the good old time when rock music was shapped into a new form. Yeah, if there is a time machine, I would certainly use it to fly back to 90s era. Well, not that 90s where NKOTB rulling all the pop charts, or when Milli Vanilli was caught in the lip-syncing scandal... In case you don’t remember these names, or you’re too young, here is one song by NKOTB:

^{Wow, Joey McIntyre’s vocal was already great at that time. And Jordan Knight’s falsetto was nice.}

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The 90s I would love to go back is the era after that sad & shocking news of Kurt Cobain. The post-Nirvana era. I always think that Nirvana and their grunge gangs (Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, Mudhoney) was succesfully paving the way for alternative music to have bigger wave through the mainstream media. After Cobain died, I believe there was a vacuum state in the mainstream rock. No one could imagine that after the glorius heavy distorted messy hair of grunge rock fans would go back to the glamour hair-rock, hell, even Bon Jovi had cut his hair shorter. The times when Radiohead start to explore more unthinkable modern rock music rather than Alternative rock formula, and Pinky & The Brain try to take over the world! Narf!

Back in that 90s era, I remember the excitement of listening to Brit Pop. There was something really fun about british pop music.

I don’t know where to start this nostalgia story, but, how about we start from The Stone Roses. These Madchester gangs was my first love to those Jangling guitar picking. So, yes, I was into The Stone Roses before I know The Smiths. I was a only a kid who really want to learn guitar. When I heard the song Sally Cinamon, I said to myself “hey, this chords is brilliant. Simple, but briliant”. I spent my days try to copy John Squire’s technique. Then I stepped up a little bit with ‘Waterfall’. Another cool song from them with more fun bassline.

^{Waterfall - The Stone Roses}

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Those jangling guitar picking was a basic root--at least for me—to understand Brit Pop sounds. It was very distinctive sounds than the heavy distortion of grunge. It has more clean sounds, yet raw. Many people would say that indeed Brit Pop was a movement to answer Grunge. I tend to agree.

The love of those jangle guitar continues. I love the bright sounds they were using. And then I discovered Suede. This band has a very “British” accents. I’m not really good at English, so I could not relate to the lyrics, I just care about their music and style. They look so... different. Their vocalist had a rather annoying nasal sounds, but I like it. Their tune was hard to diggest at first. It was bright, fun, but gloomy at the same time.

^{Suede - Animal Nitrate}

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If I recall, Suede was the first Band that we called as Brit Pop band. Not Blur nor Oasis, but Suede. I don’t really remember the timeline, but seems like Suede was in fact the first Brit Pop band that heavily aired in our radios. (I should add, in the 90s, we didn’t have any internet connection. Even a PC was a rarity).

I don’t remember correctly how exactly the radios started to bring those Brit Pop music to our ears. After Suede, we then get familiar with names such as: Boo Radley, Dodgy, The Bluetones, Superfurry Animals, Ocean Colour Scene, Vapor Trail, Elastica, The verve, Sleeper, Menswear... and some cool boys started to keep their shaggy hair, covering their eyebrows. Maybe they think they were as cool as Richard Ashcroft, and started to purchase fashion of Dr Martens boots, denim, and Fred Perry polo shirt.

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All of those names I mention above was gradually gone, because soon after, the radio stations and MTV started to give their airtimes to several acts only: Blur, Oasis, and some Pulp (thanks Jarvis Cocker for the weird fashion and funny controversy), and some Supergrass (thanks to their super catchy anthem “All Right”).

“Wonderwall” was heavily played to an extent that Oasis die-hard fan would rather to play another song from their earlier record. Same goes with “Don’t look back in anger”. I personally prefer Blur. Their music was changing a lot from time to time, and Damon Albarn is a genius. Gorillaz was the prove. “Parklife” was so anthemic. “The Universal” was so epic. “Charmless Man” has some unique guitar melodies. And “Song 2” was so Pavement influenced... :)

Ah, what a really nice sounds they have, those Brit Pop era. Life was so simple, everything was cheap, the music was good. And then the brit film Industry also offered their best material: “Trainspotting”, and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”. Damn, that was a really great time for pop culture.

I will pick several songs to close this nostalgia rants. I hope you like it :)

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^{I still think that ‘Alright’ is the best anthem for the 90s :D}