CAUGHT BY THE BUZZ!

Every generation gets the music epoch it deserves whether that's psychedelia, glam, punk, new pop, Madchester... In the 90s it was the turn of Britpop. For a period, there was a range of activity under that banner, most notably from the colossally popular likes of Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Supergrass and Elastica, but also from the lesser-known likes of Marion, Menswe@r and My Life Story... Over the next 12 pages we reacquaint ourselves with some of Britpop's stars, Joel Mclver looks at Britrock and Joe Muggs at Brit-dance to affirm the era's rampant eclecticism, Wesley Doyle recalls life in a band on the scene and meets the next generation of Britpoppers, we reassess the era's best albums and the "runners-up", consider the notable singles, remember the Blur-Oasis rivalry, David Stubbs offers an Alternate View Of Britpop, and John Coleman compiles a hefty Oasis discography.

- John Coleman

While it's hard to define exactly what Britpop was, or when it started and ended, you can't deny the 90s was a thrilling time for British music.

It was certainly a successful time for the guitar bands most closely associated with the term. But it was also a period when all kinds of artists who might have otherwise been cult successes suddenly found themselves in the mainstream, swept along in the general excitement. There was a seeming rush of great singles and albums released every week, the boom time for £15 CDs enabling the music industry to take chances on new acts to sign with all those sales.

When Oasis headlined Knebworth in 1996, the support bill included The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, The Chemical Brothers and Dreadzone. Immediately below Pulp on the Pyramid Stage when they headlined Glastonbury in 1995 were Orbital, Jamiroquai and PJ Harvey. None are names typically associated with Britpop, yet all flourished in its wake.

When Select magazine published its era-defining cover of Suede's Brett Anderson wrapped in a Union Jack in April 1993, the first wave of Britpop was already established: The Auteurs, Saint Etienne, Pulp and Denim were namechecked below a headline declaring: "Yanks go home!" If such a provocative statement sounds a bit strong 31 years on, certainly there was a reaction fomenting against the earnestness of American grunge. This first wave of Britpop provided an arty antidote to Pearl Jam et al: certainly, Suede and co were more glam than the Fred Perry, Kangol and Ellesse-clad hordes of the genre's commercial peak, a more streamlined guitar-pop style minted by Oasis.