The link between decline of Oasis and loss faith in British politics

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

Last month, the Financial Times stated: 'Nostalgia for the 1990s is everywhere in the UK right now'. The paper, whose strapline used to be 'No FT, no comment', was spot on with this comment.
So, what has happened to make this happen?
Battle of the bands
The most obvious change concerns the revival of interest in the music of the 1990s.
Oasis was the biggest band on the planet back then. Though they did not beat Blur in the so-called 'battle on the bands' in the summer of 1995 to reach the top spot in the singles chart, they won the war by selling far more albums than Blur.
Oasis had a swagger about them that epitomised a new sense of popular self-confidence and self-belief.
On the back of the reforming of Oasis to conduct a worldwide tour (now that the warring band of brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, are back on speaking-terms), this new nostalgia for the nineties is now in very much vogue.
Oasis play at Murrayfield this coming weekend. Some 200,000 will see them over three nights. Fashion has always closely chimed with music so it's no surprise that bucket hats are back in, along with animal prints, cargo pants and parkas – not all of which are necessarily associated with Oasis.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, was only born in 1996. But this did not stop him getting into hot water last September when he was revealed to be online in a queue to buy Oasis tickets during a panel discussion on Alzheimer's disease at the SNP's party annual conference.
But it's not just Oasis that have had new life kicked into them. Pulp have reformed and released a new album this year, going straight in at No. 1 in the album chart. The group, Sleeper, is touring again, as are boy band, Five, and Fairground Attraction.
The 1990s really were better
Nostalgia as a wistful recollection of an imaginary golden age is said to be just that – more to do with imagination than reality.
But the rub is the 1990s really were better than the decade we're living through right now in so many ways.
Long before calls for independence became a clamour, and might have made many nationalists queasy, Oasis and Blur amongst others were part of the zeitgeist 'Cool Britannia' phenomenon. 'Cool Caledonia' could not much compete.
Noel Gallagher attended a soiree at No.10 Downing Street on 30 July 1997 as Tony Blair tried to hitch his 'New Labour, New Britain' bandwagon on to the coattails of 'Cool Britannia'.
But the 1990s being better than this current decade has much less to do with the music though. It's just it feels that way as people remember the mood of the times reflected through the music they liked.
The Thatcher effect
But the added twist is that this rub holds only a partial truth. First, the beginning of the 1990s was not so great. Second, things began to go astray towards the end of that decade.
Margaret Thatcher's defenestration by her own party in November 1990 made the beginning of the decade seem like a dark cloud was finally being lifted off our heads. It was then something of a shock that the Tories won the 9 April 1992 general election (albeit with a much-reduced majority of 21).
Neil Kinnock's overconfidence at a Sheffield Labour rally on 1 April turned out not to be an April Fool so much as a fool's errand. On 11 April, The Sun proclaimed on its front page, 'It's The Sun Wot Won It', for the Tories.
Nonetheless, it then became clear from early 1993 onwards that the Tories were on the way out. Labour's polling lead was never less than double digits from the summer of that year. So, there was a sense of hope around.
After the Sterling crisis of 'Black Wednesday' in September 1992, eventually the 'green shoots of economic recovery' that John Major kept on promising did come true.
But they were not to his and the Tories' benefit. In 1997, Labour achieved an historic victory with a 179-seat majority. As the D:ream song used in the Labour election campaign stated: 'Things can only get better'.
Read more by Gregor Gall
Some even sang 'Tony Blair walks on water' as he entered Downing Street for the first time. Certainly, with the right political will, anything could have been done with that parliamentary majority. It was but not necessarily for the better.
An expanding economy meant wages rose as did standards-of-living. Increased tax receipts allowed more government spending. Labour was the beneficiary of the business cycle.
All this compares to a currently stagnating economy, cuts in welfare and a cost-of-living crisis that keeps on going.
On top of that, we had the 'yes' votes in the devolution referendums, giving a sense of more change to come.
But within a few years, the pace of change was not quick enough for many as social inequalities increased.
Though Labour still won the 2001 general election with a 166-seat majority, turnout was down from 72% to 59%, and Labour's vote fell from 13.5m to 10.7m. The 2005 general election accelerated this decline, with only a 66-seat majority and 9.5m votes.
Nostalgically or not, the best of the 1990s were the years 1993 to 1996. There was hope in Labour that had not yet been soiled by the experience of it being in government.
Oasis's decade of decline
This pretty much matches Oasis's decade of decline.
Its first two albums from 1994 and 1995 form the vast bulk of the crowd pleasing set now being played live. While the third album in 1997 was the then fastest ever selling album, by Noel Gallagher's own admission, it was substandard.
The subsequent four albums in the 2000s might have sold well but they were often poorly received by critics, showing the band's artistic well had started to run dry.
Then, in August 2009, Oasis folded when Noel Gallagher walked out of the band. Eight months later, Labour lost the 2010 general election.
Professor Gregor Gall is a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow