| Product: |
Awesome 2 |
| Date: |
08/02/08 (148 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: spice girls, oasis, more blur
Disadvantages: the many britpop copy cats which followed
"Popscene" is a song by British rock band Blur which represented a change in musical direction for both Blur and the nation. BritPop had arrived. At its release on the 30th March 1992, nobody acknowledged it either critically or commercially. It was a song which attacked the musical tastes of the fans it was trying to preach to, labeling them 'clones absent from a way of life'. Indeed the early 90s rave, grunge and shoe gaze did dominate the charts back. But quite simply, it wasn't British enough for Blur.
Its lackluster performance in the charts (32 UK) cemented Blur's eventual belief that Britain did not deserve 'Popscene'. Even though it was as catchy as 'Girls and Boys' and as anthemic as 'Song 2', the song never appeared on the corresponding 1992 album Modern Life is Rubbish, nor on any of the future compilations- including Blur: Best of.
Little did the country know that they'd be craving 'Popscene' equivalents from the likes of Pulp, Suede, Oasis and Blur come 1995. That year the band's first single release charted at Number 1. You have to ask yourself that if you bought Country House, why didn't you buy Popscene?
Aside from the context of the song, musically it was like a wasp had got caught in a blender. Imagine the sound and you have it. Graham Coxon's swamping guitar rifts begin before being disclaimed by masses of sliding bass and brass brought to us by the cheese making Alex James. Damon then begins on his rant ("A fervoured image of another world is nothing in particular now"), branding the nation loonies for settling on grunge and what not, before emphasizing his message with the metaphorical lyrics "Just repeat this again and again...and Again". Without time to sit down and read your NME, Damon then yelps out his ball of Britpop bombardment with the half second long chorus 'Hey Hey, come out tonight. Hey Hey, come out tonight...popscene...ALRIGHT?!' It's a monstrous call of irony. Coxon's solos then filter through the next milli second or two as Damon takes a breath, before rambling on again about his problems ("My lack of natural lustre now, seems to be losing me friends") and finishing with another rich serving of 'hey hey...Popscene!!'. Its two and a half minutes of densely packed madness.
Its failure as a song should not be looked upon today as a sign of its quality, more a sign of the music 'popscene' which surrounded it, namely rave and dance. Ironic the song later became, as by 1997 British music had become swamped by 'chrome covered clones' of bands like Blur and Oasis. They were swimming in a sea of awful music. Albarn and co set about to change the music industry by creating their own manifesto to add a little more diversity to the charts. What they didn't know, was that the rave goers of 1992 would soon pick up their guitars and copy acts like Oasis, leaving Britain in a situation identical to that of the age Blur was urging us to leave. Only the Spice Girls would eventually take us away from it...for better or for worse.
Summary: popscene...alright
|
|
