If you listened very, very closely on August 27, 2024, you might have heard a sound echoing across Britain. As Oasis — rock legends, Manchester lads, mortal enemies made good — announced their comeback tour , the lid on the coffin of Britpop cracked down the middle. And it’s about time, isn’t it? We had our Brat Summer , a hot, wet season modelled after Charli XCX’s messy party girl album, which cast a shadow over everything from TikTok dances to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Brat Summer was more of an ideological trend than a fashion one too, although there was certainly a lot of neon green, and white tank tops . Ms XCX herself decreed it as ‘over’ on Instagram once autumn rolled around. The conditions are optimal for a Britpop replacement: the Oasis tour, the colder weather, football season's on.
Thirty years is just the right amount of time for nostalgia to creep back in (and for Zoomers to romanticise bad behaviour). And, sure, we mean musically — post-announcement, “Wonderwall”, “Live Forever” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” all joined Sabrina Carpenter in the top 10 charts, courtesy of geezers blasting their favourites in celebration — but more than that, we mean fashion-wise. The incoming Britpop takeover is affecting fashion in a tangible way, pushing sales and searches through the roof, and (the real proof in the pudding) appearing, miraculously, at your local pub on weeknights.
Britpop jolted awake in the UK and hit its strid.
