Remember the era when everyone was obsessed with the Union Jack? There was a time not long ago when people around the world decorated their walls in British memorabilia, and it’s because (shockingly) of the government. Let’s get into how.
Back in the late 90s and early 2010s, the British government’s funding into the arts led to a huge growth of independent artists born out of Britain. This led to Britpop, a movement in music characterised by fun, alternative rock, famously carried by “The Big Four”: Oasis, Blur, Suede, and Pulp.
In the late 90s when Britpop was at its pique, Prime Minister Tony Blair even aligned Labour with the movement in the hopes of winning votes from young people. Basically, it was big.
Arguably it was Labour’s landslide win in 1997 that boosted the music genre Britpop into the cultural phenomenon we know as Cool Britannia.
Cool Britannia captured the zeitgeist in Britain in the late 90s, and was characterised by stuff like the infamous British club Ministry of Sound, iconic girl group the Spice Girls, the Euros 1996 which was hosted in England, and alt rock bands like Oasis.
Think ripped tights and striped tops, Noah Gallagher’s Union Jack guitar or Gerri Halliwell’s dress, Austin Powers, or even Hugh Grant in “Notting Hill”.
The miniature resurgence of Cool Britannia in the early 2010s, carried by the likes of One Direction and Adele, was nothing compared to the original. But it gave us a taste of what it was like back in the 90s, and a lot of us are still chasing that high.
With Oasis reuniting next summer, maybe Cool Britannia is finally making a resurgence. Unless the Gallagher brothers break up before then.
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