Let's Talk Too Much About Britpop

New Rhodes, "From The Beginning"
The Harrisons, "Out Tonight"
Fans Of Kate, "I Don't Know What To Do With My Hands"

It started innocently enough: I'd get my allowance and head on down to the Regulator in search of something to waste it on. In a crucial matter of months, at least once a month that "something" was invariably the newest issue of CMJ. At first, it was just a matter of bang-for-the-buck economics; I needed a reliable consumer guide, I wanted a steady stream of new music, and CMJ provided me with both by including a CD compilation of random songs seemingly plucked from the ether with every issue. But by the time I nagged my parents into getting me a subscription for either my birthday or Christmas, the magazine itself was an afterthought; even when the CD sucked hog ass (not uncommon), that first tour through it was always something worth anticipating, a little monthly reminder about the simple pleasure of hearing something completely for the first time.

Of course, it helps to keep in mind that my CMJ years fell between 1994 and 1996, undeniably the last time that magazine could ever possibly be great. The 90s may have been bookended by simultaneous fits of equally crass commercialism and anti-commericalism (and most likely the most significant artistic achievements of the decade), but holy cow, the middle - I mean, Beck and Fiona Apple coming out of nowhere! All that weird-loud-n-proud pop music from Ben Folds Five and the Squirrel Nut Zippers! The Bends! You'd Prefer An Astronaut! All that still-good third-wave ska - y'know, back before No Doubt had to go all No Doubt on us! And mother of fucking, Britpop!

It's probably not a surprise that I was pretty heavily into Britpop back in the middle of the decade, although looking back it's actually pretty surprising to me. I mean, yes I was into Oasis a lot, but then again everyone I knew was either into Oasis or aggressively Not Into them; the only people I knew who resisted buying (What's The Story) Morning Glory all eventually gravitated towards Tool or Toby Keith by the time all was said and done. And yes I was aware of some of the lesser Britpop lights like Supergrass or (stateside, at least) pre-"Song 2" Blur, but that's more a tribute to MTV's misguided commitment to Britpop (a mistake they would repeat once more with "electronica" before deciding to jettison the idea of committing to a sound alltogether) than any actual cache the music itself had over me. This was just the music England had available for export - it didn't feel any more representative of a "movement" than all the Gin Blossoms and Better Than Ezra stuff we were probably foisting on them at the time.

But that was just it - by the time anything Britpop hit our shores, it was dead in the water by its own hand. The big hook to Britpop, and you can extend this back to the Beatles, is that at its best, it's music that happens now; it's music that creates its own news, polarizes as it occurs, lives on the edge of its own sword - all of which was at least six months in the past by the time it started showing up in our stores and on our televisions. It hardly seems coincidental that now, most of the Britpop that still has a hold over me came by way of CMJ CDs - Elastica may have been The band making music seemingly specifically for me in the 90s, but that point comes across a hell of a lot differently on a monthly "here's something new" mix disc than it does on a soundtrack.

You would think that mp3 blogs would be ideally suited for the purpose of getting the word out about today's Britpop - and you better believe it's in full effect - but so far I've found it to be quite the opposite. The thing about the CMJ CDs is that they were always clearly just a teaser, things which by their very nature couldn't take the place of getting the actual albums they drew from. That's not really the case with the Internet; loving an mp3 is such a different process from loving a song on a CD that the one doesn't necessarily mean you'll make the leap to the other. So it feels kind of like I'm ripping a band like New Rhodes off by posting two of their singles in a week and a half's time (even if the first one seems to be out of print and the second one, posted above, REALLY IS A LOT OF FUN TO LISTEN TO Y'ALL). Worse yet, what do you do with bands like the Harrisons or Fans Of Kate, bands clearly making music which could wreck a club or a chart in a more perfect world but, by virtue of drawing from different influences than the leaders of the zeitgeist, probably won't have a very substantial impact when all is said and done? Am I fighting the conservatism at the heart of this latest surge of Britpop which puts a dated premium on physically owning a piece of the moment, or is my enthusiasm for this music leading me to help kill it off?

I hope not; this shit is what I listen to, limitations and all, and it's what I think other people might want to give a shot as well, so it'll get posted whether I like it or not. It's just troubling, really - right now, I probably get the same sense of doom about the continued viability of Britpop that a lot of Paul Anka fans were getting back when the Beatles broke. I mean, things become obsolete all the time; it's just that this is the frontline of obsolescence for something I've been following since, if not The starting point, certainly A starting point, and that's more than a little sobering.

(Click here to buy the singles for New Rhodes' "From The Beginning" and Fans Of Kate's "I Don't Know What To Do With My Hands" from Moshi Moshi, or click here to buy the Harrisons' "Wishing Well" single from Rough Trade.)