Blog Post 1 of the BritPop Summer Blog

Doses of Gen X Wonder, Whimsy and Wisdom From A British BritPop Era Gen Xer

As Oasis stirs the Gen X BritPop revival into a frenzy of nostalgia and parkas, I'm going to bring you some stories from 'Cool Britannia', the period which birthed not only Oasis but also the whole BritPop era. And there wasn't just one look to this, because that's not the way Gen X has ever worked. However much Millennials have tried to rebrand it, if you're the same age as the band members, and you were living your 20s in Britain in this era, you'll know it pulled in everything from The Verve's blend of shadow and sunshine, to the nuclear explosion of sparkles that was The Spice Girls.

The old structures and hierarchies were challenged with punk-level cheek, while the peace and love message of the 60s wove through guitar melodies inspired by The Beatles. 

While American Gen X were marked out by Nirvana, which was much admired in Britain, Oasis and other aspects of the BritPop movement were in part a reaction against the darkness of that. 

For instance, Live Forever was a response to suicidal ideation within Nirvana's music. Noel wanted to give a different perspective to Gen Xers, who'd been through a lot and had a tendency towards the shadows as it was. So he sang about Living Forever. More on this in another blog, but it shows the distinction between Gen X culture in America and that in Britain, because there's a tendency by the boom generations (Millennials and Gen Z) to assume that what happened in one place simultaneously happened elsewhere too. That's borne of Millennial Gossip Girl High School and College experiences, not Gen X for whom email was new tech. The Oasis albums were advertised using flyers on telegraph poles. The culture in America and Britain during this time were different, and Britain was THE cool place to be for a minute. 

I didn't fully appreciate this until I went to America once it had spread to there (the '2nd British Invasion') and everyone was talking about Britain.  

Why Champagne Supernova Tells You To Stop Being Perfect

If you put in prompts, an AI will spit out a perfect song. But human minds don't work like that. Random 'happy accidents' lead us to wonder, whimsy and wisdom. In this case, Noel Gallagher was watching a documentary about champagne. 

Supernova? He misheard 'Bossanova', the name of The Pixies' album. 

What are you 'failing at' that could be art? 

Fail forward. Fall forward. That's how you walk. I made a song on this. I'll drop that here, along with Champagne Supernova. Listen to both while you scribble your imperfect plans for your dreams. 

You can do this!

Rebecca Bardess

P.S. Want a BritPop OG Britishing in your ears about how to live an aligned life, full of wonder, whimsy and wisdom? Hit me up.