The Battle of Britpop
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The Battle of Britpop is the unofficial title given to the chart battle of 1995 which took place between leading Britpop groups, Blur and Oasis.
[edit] The "Battle"
The intense rivalry peaked in the summer of that year, when the groups singles were released within a week of one another, Oasis' "Roll With It" being released on 14 August, and Blur's "Country House" released a week later, in 21 August. However, when Damon Albarn heard the release dates of the songs, he decided to move Blur's a week backward so that both singles would be released on the same day. This sparked off a great deal of commodity in the press, who began to dub the whole affair Blur vs. Oasis or rather The Battle of Britpop. On the day that the charts were announced, 20 August, the BBC reported that millions tuned in to find out the victor. In the end, Blur won the battle by a large margin of 58,000 sales.
[edit] September 1995 and onwards
In September 1995, Blur released their album The Great Escape, which soared to the top of the album charts. Blur looked to be generally accepted as the "kings" of Britpop. Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher famously said after Blurs #1 success that he wanted "Damon and Alex to catch AIDS and die". He immediately retracted the comment however. The following month, Oasis' acclaimed album (What's the Story) Morning Glory was released and became the 3rd best selling UK album of all time.[1]. The album sold over 20 million copies and went Platinum 18 times, to Blur's 3; Blur had won the battle but Oasis had won the war.
