I live in the NYC area. Bands like Oasis, Blur, Bush and a few others were very popular, especially on alt. and college radio stations... and MTV also.
Because Brit-Pop was a music movement that emphasised Britishness mainly. Was not only big in US, was not big in anywhere except in the UK. Only Oasis and to a lesser extent Blur got made big impact outside the British Isles.
Oasis sold out Madison Square Garden as recently as 2005 (I was there!). They had some success in the US, but it didn't last very long. Blur made some inroads over here too ('Song 2' got a lot of airplay, that's for sure).
Blur began to achieve some kind of popularity in USA (self-titled album) when they americanized their sound, influenced by American indie bands such as Pavement.
My personal experience being in college at that time was that people were still into grunge and classic rock. Everyone was talking about the Eagles getting back together and would Zeppelin do the same. MTV showing Soundgarden and Green Day on what seemed like an hourly rotation. The Indy rock station would occasionally play oasis and blur but that’s really all. Myself? I heard Supersonic the first time my local station played it and I was hooked. Found a Select magazine with the Gallaghers on the cover. Read it all. Started buying all the CDs I could find of all the bands in the magazine. Bought Q magazine. Wash. Repeat. All this time later I’m still obsessed with those bands. Oasis, Pulp, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Elastica , Catalonia , and Ash, who I still don’t understand why they never made it big. Tim Wheeler is such an amazing tunesmith
In the case of Oasis, acting like absolute, complete spoiled brat d*ckheads, along with openly denigrating American music and audiences didn't help. Their whole immersion in soccer and "working class" culture, with all its trappings, didn't translate well, either. I can't speak for the other Britpop bands since I can't recall ever hearing them on MTV or the radio. Even for Oasis, I just remember hearing "Supersonic" and "Live Forever" and then promptly forgot about them for fifteen years. Definitely Maybe is still the best album of the 90s, though.
America was in the grips of the grunge movement at the time. Much prefered Britpop, Pulp in particular. But for the most part, Britpop never lived up to the British Invasion, Punk or Post-Punk. There were a lot of bands like Oasis or Blur that I wanted to like more than I did. I think the Smiths spoiled it all too, bands just couldn't compare.
I’m not even sure most of us had an awareness there was something being called “Britpop” in the ‘90s. We just knew Oasis and Blur as “alternative” bands from the UK that played alongside other “alternative” music on radio stations and MTV. It was the age of “alternative” somehow being a genre, despite a lot of different kinds of music apparently qualifying...
Too British - in the exact same way that some *very* American bands (The Grateful Dead, for example) never made it big in the UK.
I bought all of it after hearing 'Creep' by Radiohead(who ironically was Not Brit-Pop and neither were Spiritualized, Mogwai and the Manic Street Preachers). I read the UK Music Magazines(NME, Melody Maker, Select, Q, Mojo, Uncut, etc.), so read reviews of all New Releases. I was hooked on Suede after reading they were Glam-Rock, and I had just gotten into Bowie around 1993, so also was exploring his Glam-Rock Period. I only was into a few US Bands(and I live in the US) like NIN, RHCP, Afghan Whigs, Dandy Warhols, Sublime, Ben Folds Five, Beck to name a few of them, but bought 90% of my CDs that were frm UK Music Artists(whether Brit-Pop or Not) and loved it all: Radiohead The Stone Roses Suede Spiritualized Porcupine Tree Boo Radleys James Morrissey(Post Smiths Solo Career) Paul Weller(Solo Career) Manic Street Preachers Pulp The Verve Portishead Blur Oasis The Charlatans(UK) Stereophonics Placebo Gene(Their Debut Album, 'Olympian' Out Smiths the Smiths to me) Mansun(Wow-what a Great first 2 Albums) Mogwai Elastica(ok ripped off the Music of Wire) Catatonia Spacehog Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds I am sure that I am leaving out several other UK Music Artists '90s Albums, who I have as part of my CD Collection. It all came to a crashing end with Lameplay, errr. Coldplay.
Funnily enough Bush were never that big over here. I tend to view them as a bit of a grunge leftover. And while Blur vs Oasis was the big media story back in the mid 90s, I'm not so sure that view has really endured, and Blur maybe more than Oasis have faded into obscurity. I'd take Pulp and Supergrass any day over either of those two.
I won’t disagree, but I think it might mean that Britpop wasn’t getting programmers excited enough to play the music. Hip hop was solidifying it’s place, the Northwest grunge thing was still in vogue. I don’t think there was a real appetite for Britpop, because it just wasn’t enough of a change. I don’t think the North American scene was particularly better...I think it just wasn’t excited by the Britpop option.
I think Britpop has always done well in US.... several Oasis songs received a lot of rotation on mainstream radio
Oasis was actually extremely popular 1995-1996-1997 in America. They had two #1s on the Billboard modern rock chart (Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova). They remained a fairly popular alternative band in America right up until their breakup. If they reunited right this minute, an American tour would be a huge success. As others have said, most Britpop was just extremely British and that was never going to translate into massive mainstream popularity in America. Oasis worked because, despite the band members being extremely British (Northern to be exact), Noel Gallagher wrote universally appealing songs with big hooks and lyrics that didn't constantly and specifically reference British culture the way Damon Albarn or Jarvis Cocker did. And before someone talks crap about Noel's songwriting...every album the man has ever released has gone to #1 in his native country and 'Wonderwall' will outlive us all. He's proven his worth and ability to connect with millions.
I can’t imagine anyone is surprised that a group as arch and fey as Pulp didn’t come across in North America. I mean, when Shatner does a superior cover of arguably your key song...
