I am listening to a podcast about Euro 96 and what was happening in Britain during those years. Oasis Gig in London 1994, Ireland Away 1995 Combat 18, Labour landslide victory, Blur Girls and Boys, Country House TOTP 1995, Morning Glory, Cool Britannia, Trainspotting, High Fidelity, "Inside London, the Coolest city in the World", the reclaim of Union Jack, Noel Gallagher's painted Guitar at Maine Road, The Battle of Brit Pop etc etc.

Spice Girls released their single in late 1996, right? Was the Brit Pop magic over after The Euro 96 tournament and after Spice Girls?
[Edited 6/20/21 13:02pm]

More like it paved the way for teen pop

alphastreet said:

More like it paved the way for teen pop

Uhhh, teen pop has been around since Motown. Even Perry Como, etc. were pop idols of their day.

It's funny because some of the groups like Backstreet Boys or Nsync were having success in Europe before ever hitting in the U.S. So that timeline doesn't really hold up.

You also can't forget groups like New Kids On the Block, which were a full decade or more before BB and Nsync, etc. Mariah was the pop princess of her day before the Britneys and Christinas showed up. Even The Monkees has a revival around that time, too.

As far as Brit Pop, it was always subjective. Robbie Williams was big as hell over there. But in the U.S., I can think of two songs that hit; one more than the other. "Rock DJ" and "Let Me Entertain You." I don't know what it is about British pop music, but honestly - some of it just sucks. You can't put some of it up against American pop and it stand a chance of survival.

I've tried to listen to Robbie in the past, and it's just god awful music. It's like Maroon 5 in every conceivable bad version of themselves, times 10.

Was the Spice Girls the beginning of the end of something? Nope. I think it was a British act that actually made sense globally, made fun, catchy songs, and created some inertia that still endures today. Bands like Oasis and Radiohead reached across the pond to with a type of music that appealed to many people.

You sorta get the same thing with an Aussie like Kylie. She's huge all over, but has never had longlasting or huge success in the U.S. It's been hit n' miss. She has a fanbase here, but it's really small. But you put someone like Madonna in any country on the globe, and people flock to her shows. George Michael could sell out Madison Square Garden, but Robbie could barely fill a 4000 seat theatre.

"Britpop" and "British pop" are two different entities, Spice Girls fall under British Pop but not Britpop. Arguably both categories fall under the larger category of Cool Brittania, although the Spice Girls being considered cool... yeah I dunno about that. Britpop was also something that came from the British music papers and the Spice Girls were straight to tabloids. I'd maybe argue that the end of Britpop was in sight when media coverage of the Britpop bands started coming from tabloids rather than music papers so maybe there's a crossover in the reasoning there?

As for the rest, most British pop is regional and often the best stuff comes from bands trying to emulate American pop, failing, but stumbling onto something new. TrivialPursuit is quite right that when he says that many British bands don't stand much of a chance in the USA, but he's wrong to think this is some mark of quality. There's always been just as many US acts who could never cross the waters in the other direction.

Traditionally British pop rewards oddballs and doesn't take itself too seriously while US pop rewards perfection and is incredibly serious about what it does. Both approaches are good in their own ways and it's a shame that all the charts are pretty much just the worldwide Spotify/Apple Music top 10 now.

[Edited 6/21/21 8:58am]