More than 50 million records sold worldwide, 8 UK number one singles, a plethora of big awards – that’s a pretty impressive CV for a band, almost as impressive as using plethora in a sentence. But then say that band is Oasis, and many people’s noses start to crinkle up, and a bad taste forms in their mouths, while others will rejoice and start worshipping the picture of Noel they have in their wallets.  Well, the new album is almost upon us with the pertinent question being are Oasis still relevant in today’s music scene?

In the early 90s they were at the forefront of the Britpop scene (with the Oasis vs. Blur rivalry played out in the media), but could the relevance of Oasis in music be related to something else entirely – the social disposition of the average male? Bear with me on this.

  

Let’s head back to 1994. A FIFA World Cup without England, a legion of frustrated young males, of which I was definitely one.  For a lot of young men, their lives revolve around sports and/or music, England hadn’t qualified for the World Cup – a void was left to be filled and then a new band comes along, oozing confidence, singing about drinking, smoking, and being a rock star in their debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ –  still a regular in every ‘best album poll’.  It quickly becomes the fastest selling debut album in UK history.  Songs like ‘Live Forever’, ‘Rock and Roll Star’, Cigarettes and Alcohol’ led to thousand of kids picking up guitars and beginning to walk with a lairy swagger. Instant cool. Around this time, For Him Magazine undergoes a complete makeover, changing to FHM and becoming ‘lad-centric’ to compete with the emergence of Loaded magazine. It just seemed as if the planets aligned, as the music seemed to fit the social movement of the time.

  

They followed it up with (What’s The Story) Morning Glory the album which was to give us ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’  and the near perfect end to an near perfect album in ‘Champagne Supernova’  Shoot me where I stand, but I honestly prefer this to Definitely Maybe. Following this album, they also played two nights at Knebworth, to a total of 375,000 people, a show that had the largest demand for tickets in UK history.

  

But then the social climate changed. The Britpop era was over and the main bands of the era struggled. Only Blur continued to succeed, but only by changing their sound to a more American one, at a critical time. Other bands took over in terms of popularity, such as Radiohead and The Verve. The era of the ‘lad’ was coming to an end as well. FHM magazine was moving more towards a ‘New Man’ image, TV shows such as Fantasy Football were being phased out, but the biggest, most important act in this era was three simple words.

  

Be

 

Here

 

Now.

  

The simple truth is that I don’t think ANY band in the world could have followed up the first two albums. Oasis had gotten too big too quickly. It’s a shame, because Be Here Now really isn’t THAT bad an album. It sold bucket loads, though reports showed that no-one bought an album and put it in a bucket to take it home. Reports did show however, that the band were doing enough drugs to keep a Colombian family in shiny shoes for decades. Which probably explains Magic Pie.

D’You Know What I Mean is a decent song, and Stand By Me and All Around The World are good enough to be classic Oasis songs. In contrast to Blur, their music had remained largely the same just not as good, and the music scene was shifting.

  

The main lesson learned from Be Here Now was overexposure. The follow up albums have been more methodical, and the music has come across as being more mature. And every album since has had Oasis-quality songs; Gas Panic, Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Little By Little, Let There Be Love, and The Importance Of Being Idle. But these songs are by nature slower paced as opposed to their earlier bombast. Maybe they have changed their musical style to a more mature one as they have matured themselves. They are now fathers with children after all. Maybe their style has matured as their fans have matured, as those who were teenage youths have grown up as well, possibly even parents themselves. A fellow Gobshouter recently said that Noel could become the father figure of British music once Paul Weller has retired to the wild wild wood, and British music would not be any poorer for that. I’m not sure where Liam would fit in, probably as the crazy uncle of British music.

 

 But are they still relevant? The answer is yes and no. New single Shock Of The Lightning would fit in well on Definitely Maybe, and having listened to the rest of the album on Myspace it is definitely well worth a listen. The truth is that they will never be as relevant as they were, and mean so much to so many people. But why should that mean they have to stop? They will still make albums and great songs. They will still tour and thousands will pay to come see them, and have a damn good time. But it is unlikely that they will be relevant to the youth of today, the frustrated young teenagers of today, for there are other bands and genres who can fulfil their needs. But maybe, just maybe, when these teenagers mature and broaden their musical horizons, they might stumble across a band called Oasis, who at one point were the best band in the whole fucking world.  

Posted In Features, Oct 01 2008. Words - Paul