ABSTRACT
Britpop in the mid-1990s, according to journalist and cultural commentator John Harris,1 rapidly came to represent a peculiarly English form of Britishness in UK contemporary popular music. In this chapter I argue that there were two reasons for this. Firstly, Britpop despite its apparent openness to regional groups (Oasis from Manchester and Pulp from Sheffield, for example) was in reality London-centric and deeply exclusivist, particularly as mainstream crossover success transformed alternative sounds into significant record sales.2 Secondly, a combination of the ‘movement’ being mainstream and its overwhelming Englishness meant that indie scenes in Scotland and Wales were simply not interested in associating themselves with ‘Britpop’.3 It is also important to frame any discussion of bands working outside of the Britpop milieu as not simply being a ‘response’ to Britpop. This has implications of a passivity clearly not present in 1990s Scottish and Welsh rock and pop.
