It’s twenty years since the height of Britpop, but does anyone still care about it? YouGov has carried out some polling on the subject today. Although 35 per cent stated that they like or really like Britpop (compared to 20 per cent who dislike/really dislike), 44 per cent replied ‘don’t know’. There’s also a lot of indifference on whether music has been better or worse since. Nine per cent think better, 26 per cent worse, and 34 per cent stated they also don’t know.
At the height of Britpop, Oasis painted themselves as a working class band, the lads, in contrast to the perceived effete and posh boys of Blur. Based on this public image, one would expect Oasis fans to be natural Labour supporters (like Noel Gallagher, who posed in No.10 with Tony Blair) and supporters of Blur to more right wing (like Alex James, part of the Chipping Norton set). But according to the polling, 24 per cent of Blur fans vote Lib Dem — the largest minority — while a third of Oasis fans vote Labour:
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Interestingly, 30 per cent of Oasis fans also vote Conservative. Either those Tories who love Oasis don’t know where the band stands politically or, most likely, don’t care. Much like David Cameron’s love of The Smiths, their love for the music transcends mere party boundaries. I wonder how pleased Gallagher — who once said ‘we’ll party like it’s 1989 when Margaret Thatcher dies’ — will be about his split fan base.
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