ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the musical links between 1990s Britpop and the rock music of the 1960s and 1970s. It reveals the shifting meanings that result when apparently similar messages are articulated at differing historic junctures, and raises questions about Britishness and Englishness in popular music. Englishness in music is not an easy quality to define; there are no equivalents of the Irish jig or Highland reel to act as convenient stereotypes of national musical character. The English songwriter Henry Russell influenced the development of the parlour ballad in America; later in the century Gilbert and Sullivan influenced the development of American musical comedy; and British music hall influenced vaudeville. Blur's The Sunday Sunday Popular Community Song CD points to another activity associated with Britain's musical past. The sound of 1990s Britpop is that of the guitar-based band, and its musical structures typify the rock song.
