Britpop's Common People – National identity, popular music and young people in the 1990's Claudia Lueders Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Royal Holloway, University of London 18th November 2016 Declaration of Authorship I (Claudia Lueders) hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 | P a g e Britpop's Common People – National identity, popular music and young people in the 1990's Abstract: The thesis discusses the significance of Britpop’s representation of British identity for British youth and their attitude towards British identity in the 1990’s. Taking issue with the dominant academic critique of Britpop as an ‘assertion of white, male, heterosexual Englishness’ (Bennett and Stratton, 2010, p.6; Percival, 2010; Hawkins, 2010; Whiteley, 2010) the thesis argues that Britpop’s representation of national identity was more complex and ambiguous than previously suggested by academia and that Britpop’s positive attitude towards Britain and its nostalgic image of British identity needs to be interpreted as a cultural critique of social, economic and political changes in the United Kingdom in the 90s. The concepts of ‘Imagined communities’ (Anderson, 1983) and of ‘Banal nationalism’ (Billig, 1995) are used as a starting point to explore the significant role of young people and popular music for the construction and reproduction of national identity. Drawing on a qualitative textual analysis of Britpop lyrics, album reviews, and mainstream media coverage alongside data collected from qualitative interviews/surveys with musicians, PR agents, journalists, and fans, it also discusses how national identity is constructed and maintained through cultural references in popular music and related media discourses. The results of the empirical research which is focused on research categories such as British lifestyle/suburbia, ethnicity, gender and class show that Britpop’s heavy use of cultural references created a strong sense of nostalgia and played a significant role in Britpop’s mainstream success in the UK as it deliberately connected the contemporary culture of the younger generation with the cultural heritage of older generations which strengthened Britain’s image as a nation of great pop music and was celebrated in the 2012 Olympic games open/closing ceremonies. Finally, the thesis argues that in contrast to the British Invasion bands who were selling British pop music/identity abroad, Britpop bands were selling British pop music/identity back to the British people. 3 | P a g e TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration of Authorship Abstract Acknowledgement Table of Content List of illustrations 1. Introduction 9 1.1. Theoretical framework 12 1.1.1. Why national identity? Why popular music? 12 1.1.2. National identity, popular culture, the everyday life of ordinary people 14 1.1.3. British Cultural Studies, Culture, Popular Culture, Popular music, Youth 16 1.1.4. Why British national identity? Why Britpop? 18 1.2. Methodology 20 1.3. Chapter Plan 22 2. Literature Review 24 2.1. National Identity, popular culture and the everyday life of ordinary people 29 2.2. British Cultural Studies 36 2.3. British identity and Britpop 47 3. Historical Chapter 60 3.1. Post-War Consensus (1945-79) 60 3.1.1 Social, political and economic context 60 3.1.2 Cultural context 62 3.2. Britain under Conservatives – Thatcher and Major (1979-1997) 64 3.2.1 Social, political and economic context 64 3.2.2 Cultural Context 65 3.3. Britain under New Labour (1997-2007) 67 3.2.1Social, political and economic context 67 3.2.2 Cultural Context 69 4. Methodology 71 4.1. Discourse Analysis – key concepts and key terms 71 4.2. Research categories 75 4.3. Time period 75 4.4. Britpop bands and their albums 76 4.5. Music journals and album reviews 81 4.6. Newspapers and articles 82 4.7. Interviews, Surveys, and Participants 83 4 | P a g e 4.7.1. Musicians 84 4.7.2. PR agents/ Journalists 84 4.7.3. Fans 84 5. Empirical Chapter on British lifestyle and suburbia 88 5.1. Introduction 88 5.2. Britpop’s coverage of British customs and traditions/food and drinks – Sunday Roast/British Tea 90 5.3. Suburban life – Britpop and the everyday life of ordinary people 92 5.3.1. Suburbia in Britpop - the separation of work and private life - Commuter Lifestyle 94 5.3.2. Suburbia in Britpop - the private life, social relationships and generational Gap 95 5.4. Suburban youth in Britpop 98 5.4.1. Suburban youth and the lack of activity and the lack of possibility in Britpop 99 5.4.2. Suburban youth and the dream of escape- drugs, rock- ‘n’-roll, the city in Britpop 101 5.5. National, regional and cultural References 108 5.5.1. National References 109 5.5.2. Regional 110 5.5.3. Cultural References: 115 5.6. The retro versus new debate in the music media 118 5.7. Youth and Nostalgia 121 5.8. Conclusion 122 6. Britpop’s Common People - Empirical Chapter on British class division and class tourism 125 6.1. Introduction 125 6.2. Class in Britpop, media discourse and interviews with musicians, journalists and Fans 126 6.2.1. British middle class 126 6.2.2. British working class 128 6.3. The British Heavyweight Championship between Blur and Oasis in 1995- Class division in Britpop and its related media discourse 132 6.3.1. National and cultural references 133 6.3.2. Class, regional and cultural references 138 6.4. Pulp’s Common People 1995- Class tourism in Britpop 146 6.5. Conclusion 158 7. Britpop – An assertion of white, male, heterosexual Englishness? - Empirical Chapter on Ethnicity And Gender 159 7.1. Introduction 159 7.2. Ethnicity in Britpop, media discourse and interviews with musicians, journalist and fans 161 7.3. Gender in Britpop, media discourse and interviews with musicians, journalist and fans 170 7.3.1 Masculinity in Britpop and its related media discourse 170 7.3.2 Femininity in Britpop and its related media discourse 175 7.4 Conclusion 182 5 | P a g e 8. Conclusion 184 8.1. Theoretical reflections 185 8.2. Methodological reflections 186 8.3. Concluding comments on my empirical chapter 187 8.3.1. British Life and suburbia 187 8.3.2. Class 187 8.3.3. Ethnicity and gender 188 8.4. Recommendations 189 8.5. Final Autobiographical reflection 189 9. Bibliography 191 6 | P a g e List of illustrations Fig 1 British Image 1 & British Image 2 13 Fig 2 Select Magazine cover April 1993 26 Fig 3 Oasis Definitely Maybe album cover 115 Fig 4 Cultural references in Britpop 116 Fig 5 NME Magazine cover August 1995 132 Fig 6 Album Front/Back covers: Blur, Suede, Pulp, and Oasis 170 Fig 7 British Image 1 & British Image 2 171 Fig 8 Music journal covers 1993 173 Fig 9 Music journal covers 1994 173 Fig 10 Album covers: Echobelly and Elastica 175 Fig 12 Representation of Britpop bands on music journal covers, 1993-1995 176 7 | P a g e Acknowledgement My primary debt of gratitude is to Prof Chris Rumford for supervising me throughout my research. It makes me really sad that after all these years he will not be able to see the final version of my thesis. I am also very grateful for Dr Julia Gallagher’s help and support after Chris sudden death. I would like to thank my fellow PhD students Billur, Dennis, Alistair, Nora as well for being so inspirational and supportive throughout my studies. In addition to that, I like to thank John Oates and Laura Christie for their English language support proof-reading my thesis. I would especially like to thank my flatmates Emily, Pete, Jack, Annie, Julia, and Maya as well as my friends Jana, Tomy, Loan, Mahir and Sandra for being so supportive through all those years and being there for me during all the ups and downs of my PhD. I also like to thank my fellow co-workers at Kensington Palace for their kindness and interest in my work. Special thanks go to my family, my grandma, my brother and his family Enrico, Susie, Florentine, and Henrike, and to my parents Margit and Joerg Lueders for all their love and support throughout my life and this particular part of my life. In memory of Prof Chris Rumford And in dedication to my family. I couldn’t have done it without you! 8 | P a g e 1. Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role of young people and popular music in the construction and reproduction of national identity. Particular attention is paid to analyzing how national identity is constructed and maintained by young people and their use of cultural references in popular music (musicians/fans) and related media discourses (PR agents/journalists). Furthermore, it explores the relationship between national identity and other collective group identities such as ethnicity, gender, and class. My thesis discusses the significance of Britpop’s representation of British identity for British youth and their attitude towards British identity in the 1990s. Taking issue with the dominant academic critique of Britpop as a representation of ‘white, male, heterosexual Englishness’ (Bennett and Stratton, 2010, p.6; Percival, 2010; Hawkins, 2010; Whiteley, 2010) the thesis argues that Britpop’s representation of national identity was more complex and ambiguous than previously suggested by academia and that Britpop’s positive attitude towards Britain and its nostalgic representation of British identity needs to be interpreted as a cultural critique of social, economic and political changes in the United Kingdom in the 1990s.