A genre of music that inspires my song writing is 1990′s Brit pop. Here is an essay I wrote about the genre. How the guitars sound, the aspects of composition, and who the genre appealed to.
A genre I listen to regularly is Brit pop, which came about during the 90’s predominantly from 1993-1997. The genre consisted of bands such as Elastica, Oasis, Blur and pulp plus many others. Britpop was the sound of various British bands influences mixed together such as the Kinks, The Jam, The Clash, The Stone Roses and The Who to name just some. The first Britpop album is said to be modern life is rubbish by blur, the band had began an American tour and quickly became very homesick, as they returned home the music scene in Britain was predominantly controlled by American grunge music which had gained mass popularity since the overwhelming success of Nirvana. Feeling fed up about this the band hatched a plan to write songs that were about Britain, the culture, the sites and the traits of the people. The album was not a commercial success but it succeeded in starting a scene that was quickly gaining fans, and inspiring other Britpop bands, the genre didn’t become fully mainstream until 1994 when Oasis released their debut album which is regarded as one the best debut albums ever, and Blur released Parklife their biggest album success to that point, with bands such as pulp writing antemic songs with very British lyrics like common people and disco 2000. Although the genre broke into the mainstream it was originally indie music and social groups that associate themselves with that genre were the first people to get behind the movement. Stylistically the genre was mainly led be bands, so consisted mainly of guitars, bass, drums, vocals and keyboards. Also some bands incorporated strings and brass into some songs, for example blurs the universal and Oasis’s Wonderwall.
Guitars were one of the main instruments in Britpop bands, often the guitarists wrote pop guitar riffs that were memorable and melodic such as the song Parklife and cigarettes and alcohol.
Most guitarists opted for distorted guitars that gave them more power and helped make the songs more anthemic. Pedals were used widely throughout the genre such as delay pedals which guitarists often self osculated to create a psychedelic wall of sound. For more British sounds the guitarists cleverly mixed flange and vibrato to create a wobbly more jolly, melancholic sound that seemed to give off a very British sentiment. A good example of this is in the song chemical world which was a memorable melodic riff and uses vibrato and flange pedals expertly. Many Britpop songs had a very anthemic major key feel, but also contained some more melancholic minor key songs. Structurally the songs were made of very melodic catchy choruses predominantly in a four four time signature, with quite standard structures such as verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus outro. Some Britpop songs gained intensity towards the end of the song gaining power to a massive climax, an example of this is live forever by Oasis. Harmonies were mainly incorporated into the songs in the chorus to further lift them. As the movement was influenced by punk the songs were often fast and had a strong energy to them.
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