Brit-Pop Is Over Because NME is Annoying

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While the Flavorpill crew is dangerously divided on the weight to give anything uttered by NME (“OMG, this random, garage-y Brit band is like totally bigger than the Beatles… but I still like Blur better!”), we have to give them credit for ironic self-awareness. In a recent piece entitled “It’s Time to let Brit-Pop Die With Dignity,” writer Mark Beaumont argues that Brit Pop has “become such a dirty word.” I couldn’t agree more: Brit-Pop is annoying, and it’s because of NME.

While I definitely hold a place in my heart for bands like Blur, Suede, Oasis, NME’s decade-long, tabloid-style obsession was bound to cause a backlash. As Beaumont says:

…think ‘Britpop’ and the Union Jack guitars, Blur/Oasis feuds and Jarvis arse-waggles are obscured by the detritus. You think of Sleeperblokes and lad mags, the Good Mixer and Chris Evans, Geri’s dress and The Girlie Show”.

Interesting that he thinks that the “Jarvis arse waggles” and Blur feuds that his mag report are somehow less a part of the infuriating media blitz than “lad mags” and Gerri’s dress. Dude! It’s all part of the same, shamelessly over-blown cycle!

He goes on to argue that a new genre-spanning box-set is the real death-knell of movement:

CD1 hints at the problem by including Britpop precursors that had little to do with the movement besides a timely overlap – Black Grape, The Stone Roses, James. By CD2 a rot is beginning to set in; between true Britpop classics such as ‘Common People’, ‘Alright’ and ‘Chasing Rainbows’, creep an army of Britpop pretenders. Northern Uproar? Kula Shaker? Ocean sodding Colour Scene?

Yeah, totally. I mean the problem couldn’t possibly be that the NME and it’s more hardcore advocates are so specific and exclusionary that new, revitalizing Brit-pop bands haven’t been able to break in. After all, this week’s garage rockers are waiting to be over-hyped.

Read the entire article if you interested. I’ll be listening old-school Oasis.