The Battle of Britpop
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The Battle of Britpop is the unofficial title given to the 1995 chart battle between popular Britpop groups, Blur and Oasis.
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[edit] The Origins
The differing styles of the bands, Oasis being gritty, working-class, and Northern, and Blur being art rock, middle-class, and Southern, coupled with their prominence within the Britpop movement, led the British media to seize upon the supposed rivalry between the bands. Both factions played along, with the Gallaghers taunting Blur at the 1996 Brit Awards by singing a rendition of "Parklife" when they collected their "Best British Band" award (with Liam changing the lyrics to "Shite-life"). However, it was Noel who proved the most aggressive. Much banter was exchanged between the bands (including Albarn threatening to "twat" Noel), but in a 1997 interview Gallagher maintained "I've got nothing against him… I just think his 'bird' (Justine Frischmann) is ugly." Gallagher maintains that the rivalry was conceived by the magazine NME and members of Blur's entourage as a ploy to raise their respective profiles on the back of Oasis' success, and that since this point he has had no respect for either party. However, Albarn has suggested the roots of the feud were much more personal.
[edit] The "Battle"
Things came to a head when Oasis and Blur decided to release a single from their highly anticipated albums on the same day, August 14, 1995. This event caused a media sensation that extended beyond the music industry to the point where the bands were regularly mentioned on the evening news. Oasis' "Roll with It" would be 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 forward so that both singles would be released on the same day. This sparked off a great deal of commotion 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. The challenge was dubbed "The Battle of Britpop" and was considered a fight between the gritty, working class Oasis and the arty, middle class Blur. Blur's "Country House" single sold 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 copies of "Roll with It".
[edit] September 1995 and onwards
In September 1995, Blur released their album The Great Escape, which soared to the top of the album charts with much critical acclaim. Blur appeared to be generally accepted as the "kings" of Britpop. Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher famously said after Blur's #1 success that he wanted "Damon and Alex to catch AIDS and die". He immediately retracted the comment.
The following month, Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, was released and became the 3rd best selling UK album of all time.[1]. Far more successful than The Great Escape, it spent three years - three times as long as The Great Escape- on the UK charts and outsold Blur's album fourteen times platinum compared with three times platinum. The reason for this sudden change may possibly be due to the media's emphasis of Oasis being working class, hence favourable to a majority.
However, Oasis proved unable to replicate Morning Glory's success for future releases, whilst blur maintained a simular rate of success.
