British rock group Oasis were the most adept exponents of Britpop, which energised the British music scene in the mid-1990s. Like NIRVANA in the U.S., Oasis brought a fresh, vigorous approach to guitar rock, pushing it back into the mainstream after a decade when it had seemed increasingly irrelevant.
Oasis were originally a four-piece band consisting of Liam Gallagher (b. 1972), lead vocals; Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs (b. 1965), guitar; Paul McGuigan (b. 1971), bass; and Tony McCarroll (b. circa 1971), drums. However, McCarroll was fired by the band in 1995 and replaced by Alan White (b. 1972). Oasis were just another Manchester band going nowhere until Liam’s older brother, Noel (b. 1967), joined the band in 1993. Noel insisted on full artistic control over the band, and his drive and determination, music business contacts (from his time as a guitar technician with fellow Mancunians the Inspiral Carpets), and awareness of rock music history quickly accelerated the group’s progress.
Creation Records signed Oasis in 1993 and the band’s first single, “Supersonic,” reached No. 31 in the British charts. They quickly followed up this with “Shakermaker”—which borrowed heavily from the New Seekers’ hit “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”—and their first Top 10 hit, “Live Forever.”
Oasis’s first album, Definitely Maybe (1994), was powered by searing guitar lines and Noel’s lacerating lyrics. The songs’ rock lineage could be traced back to the British glam rockers of the 1970s, the SEX PISTOLS, and the BEATLES, Noel’s musical heroes. Lyrically, Oasis often dealt with means of escape from British blue-collar life and unemployment through cocaine, liquor, or, in the song “Rock’n’Roll Star,” the dream of being in a band. It was the directness of the message and music in songs such as “Cigarettes & Alcohol” and “Live Forever” that was most essential to Oasis’s appeal.
With their excessive, often drug-fuelled behaviour and constant arguments, the Gallagher brothers soon became fixtures in the British tabloid press. A recording of one of the brothers’ arguments was released surreptitiously, entitled “Wibbling Rivalry,” and other band members claimed to have lost count of the times that one or other of the Gallaghers had quit the band. Despite this, Oasis continued to prosper.
Their powerful debut created great anticipation for the follow-up album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995). By 1997, the record had sold 12 million copies worldwide (2 million in the U.S.) and it became the fourth best-selling album of all time in Britain. Fast-paced singles such as “Roll with It” retained the directness that had made the group so popular.
Elsewhere, Noel led the band into experimentation, such as on the seven-minute long closing track “Champagne Supernova,” but the experiment generally failed. The songwriter never concealed his desire to emulate John Lennon and Paul McCartney. However, it took the Beatles nine albums and six years to progress from the raw harmonisation of “Please Please Me” to the sophisticated whimsy of the White Album. Noel tried to bridge the gap with one album in one year.
Oasis toured extensively in the U.S. in an attempt to repeat their British triumph and, in 1996, the band finally made a breakthrough in the American market. Their first two albums charted in the Top 10, as did the single, “Wonderwall.”
Oasis’ third album, Be Here Now (1997), sold 6 million copies in the year following its release, a disappointing figure compared to previous albums. It left the members of Oasis thinking long and hard about their future. However, no matter what happens to the group, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? will remain one of the landmark albums of the 1990s.
Graham McColl
SEE ALSO:
BRITPOP; PUNK ROCK; ROCK MUSIC; ROCK’N’ROLL.
FURTHER READING
Krugman, Michael. Oasis: Supersonic Supernova (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997);
Wilson, Mike. Oasis (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Definitely Maybe; (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?