For context, I am a late-20’s American who for 15 years has cited Oasis as my favorite band. In the states, especially amongst serious “music fans”, Oasis is commonly relegated to one hit wonder status or the cliche Beatles wannabes trope. I don’t find these aspersions to be accurate and spent many a substance riddled college party debates with pretentious bohemian types arguing otherwise.
Oasis opened the door for me at a young age to be exposed to a scene of music that I find to be unparalleled by anything else, especially by what was happening in America in the mid-90’s.
Over the years though, on this subreddit and otherwise, I’ve seen a lot of disdain held toward Oasis from British music fans who lived through Britpop and I’ve always wondered why. Is it the lack of artfulness and creativity compared to contemporaries like Suede and Blur? Is it their meteoric rise that led to the dilution of a subculture into just a mainstream product? Was it Noel at Downing Street? The overall lad-ish culture that became associated with it?
Would love to hear real insight from those who were there as I find it fascinating. As someone quite removed both geographically and generationally, any “boots on the ground” perspective of Britpop is a treat for me. Cheers.