The Last Party. Britpop, Blair and the Decline of English Rock

In the mid-1990s, a phenomenon known as «Britpop» emerged in the British music industry: bands adhering to a purely British aesthetic, primarily drawing on the work of British artists from the 1960s, reclaimed the top spots in the pop charts from American grunge bands.

At the same time, there was a return to power of the Labour Party on the political scene. Both of these phenomena marked a vibrant cultural moment of national optimism, embodied in the slogan «Cool Britannia». 

John Harris, drawing on interviews with the leading bands of this movement (primarily with the «big four of Britpop» — Oasis, Blur, Elastica, and Suede), as well as with music journalists and producers, concludes that the peak moment of the cultural influence of British music marked the beginning of its decline.