A SUMMARY OF THE INTERVIEWS

Popscene contains three interviews, from journalist Cliff Jones, PR manager Jane Savidge and Guitarist Jon Stewart. I wanted to create a holy trinity, of the artist, the press and their PR to try and gain an understanding of how they viewed the media during the Britpop years. With Cliff and Jane I asked very similar questions as their lines of work were different sides of the same coin, so to speak. With Jon I aimed to ask questions that focussed on his time in Sleeper and attitudes he noticed, being in a band. One of the stark contrasts I found between Jane and Cliff’s interviews is their opinion on the tabloids. Jane was of the opinion that they were an inevitable hurdle when a band became famous, but she hated them. Cliff on the other hand believed that without the tabloids Britpop would never have been as all encompassing and for that reason he has no problem with them. I think these are both interesting stand points and personally I think it boils down to what angle you’re approaching the question from. My opinion is that Jane, who has approached from the perspective of PR, would be more so focussed on getting positive media coverage and that wasn’t something that was guaranteed with tabloids. Whereas Cliff, being a journalist and an artist, uses tabloids as a measure of fame and in turn success.

I find it interesting how both Jon and especially Cliff, drilled in the fact that Britpop was heavily inspired by British music of the 60s. Listening to it, it is quite obvious, but I guess at that time American music had been dominant for so long, it was refreshing to see British music that sounded like it came from Britain. They both note that the press saw it as a chance to reposition the cultural sphere and to focus the music scene back on the UK. I think it’s is important to note that Jon and Cliff are on the opposite sides of the ‘holy trinity’, with one being a journalist (or at least interviewed for his experience as a journalist) and the other being a musician. I think this makes it quite clear that both musicians and journalists saw this as an opportunity to refocus the spotlight on their ‘local scene’. Jon also touches on how the people in positions of power at the time, were children of the 60s and grew up with this music that Britpop bands referenced. This implies that the bands that were referencing the 60s, got pushed to the top of the pile as the label bosses, not necessarily the general public, liked their music. Indicating that this was potentially forced on to the public.

Both Cliff and Jane acknowledged that the vibe changed when Oasis entered the scene. It became more aggressive and Jane said it caused bands to change they way they presented themselves. You could read that as, “the working class became cool”. Damon Albarn for instance started to change his accent and become more laddish according to Jane. However Cliff disagreed with this and said Damon wasn’t being inauthentic but was slipping between the social classes trying to find out where he fit in. In my opinion I think it was a bit of both, I think Damon realised that appearing working class could be enjoyable and boost his image, but I do think he probably felt a disconnect for a period of time with the middle class image he was previously portraying. I think the fact that Blur changed and evolved musically, Damon, and to an extent, the rest of the band were evolving alongside it.

All three interviewees said that they thought Britpop kind of faded out, that the artists became disillusioned with it and turned to different genres of music for inspiration, Pulp’s This is Hardcore and Blur’s 13, being key examples. I think it’s clear to see that the bands involved in the scene just followed a natural path of evolution and that took them away from what was described as Britpop. Jon states that another factor was a new generation of people wanted their own music. If it is to be believed that music impacts people the most during their late teenage years and into their early twenties, then the fact this movement lasted almost 6 years carries a generation from the ages of 17 to 23. It was probably time for something new to happen. It was probably a combination of, no-one wanted Britpop and no artists were making it.