Britpop and the English music tradition

Britpop was the UK's headline musical phenomena during the 1990s û just at the point when devolution suggested that the UK may be breaking down. This edited collection doesn't merely describe the sights, sounds and aesthetics of Britpop, it also explores and explains its political, economic and cultural contexts. The fact that it does this with a critical edge means that it is not only essential reading for popular music students, but also a significant contribution to our understanding of a peculiarly important moment in recent musical history.-Dr Stuart Borthwick, Principal Lecturer in Popular Music Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Britpop and the English Music Tradition is the first study devoted exclusively to the Britpop phenomenon and its contexts. The genre of Britpop, with its assertion of Englishness, evolved at the same time that devolution was striking deep into the hegemonic claims of English culture to represent Britain. It is usually argued that Britpop, with its strident declarations of Englishness, was a response to the dominance of grunge. The contributors in this volume take a different point of view: that Britpop celebrated Englishness at a time whe