As was often the case in rock music, the most publicized phenomenon was also the least artistically interesting. "Brit-pop" became a derogatory term, one associated with ephemeral and dubious acts that speculated on facile melodies and trivial arrangements. If the British Invasion of the 1960s had at least revitalized the USA scene, the "Brit-pop" invasion of the 1990s... was hardly an invasion at all. The Brit-pop bands were all terribly similar and terribly... tedious. In the end, only a few of them managed to have one or two world-wide hits, and most of them added very little to the history of rock music (other than yet another proof of the aberrations of its industry).

In 1990 Brit-pop had not materialized yet as a "fad", but the seeds were already being planted by bands such as Lightning Seeds, with their retro' classic Cloudcuckooland (1990), and La's, with La's (1990), specializing in sculpting memorable and unassuming melodies. Teenage Fanclub produced one of the best imitations of Big Star with Bandwagonesque (1991).

Heavenly (2) inherited the Primitives' passion for melodious simplicity. Fronted by former Talulah Gosh's singer Amelia Fletcher, they resurrected the age of Petula Clark, the girl-groups and bubblegum music on Heavenly Vs Satan (1991). Their romantic and naive approach to the pop tune evolved with Le Jardin De Heavenly (1992) and Decline And Fall (1994) into a new form of revisionist art, one that transformed Britain's perennial Sixties revival into an international language.

Pulp, fronted by Jarvis Cocker's out of fashion dandy style, were the quintessence of glam, retro` and kitsch on albums such as the erotic concept His 'N' Hers (1994) and singles such as My Legendary Girlfriend (1991), Babies (1992), Common People (1995).

Scotland's Eugenius, the new project by former Vaselines' guitarist/singer Eugene Kelly, Dodgy, and Ireland's Frank And Walters, also predated the 1994 explosion.

But the massive Brit-pop phenomenon began in earnest with the bands destined to rule the world (according to the British press of the time): the Boo Radleys (1), who turned "retro" with Giant Steps (1993), Blur, who attained stardom with Parklife (1994), and Oasis, the band (or the "bluff") that best personified the fad, from the exuberant Definitely Maybe (1994) to the multi-million seller Morning Glory (1995).

The most stunning feature of these bands was their absolute lack of imagination. They continued a British tradition, dating from at least the Beatles, of pop musicians who had nothing to say but said it in a sophisticated manner.

Then it became a race to produce ever more predictable music. Each "next big thing" hailed by the British press was merely a copy of a copy of a copy of something that was not particularly exciting even the first time around. Love Split Love, the new band by Psychedelic Furs' singer Richard Butler, and Ash in Ireland were typical.

If nothing else, Suede (1), featuring guitarist Bernard Butler and vocalist Brett Anderson, offered an original take on glam-pop on Suede (1993), one that inspired bands such as the Super Furry Animals, with Fuzzy Logic (1996), and Placebo , with Placebo (1996).

The Smiths were a strong influence on the Sundays, Echobelly, Gene.

The exceptions to the rule of mediocrity were few. Former Microdisney's guitarist Sean O'Hagan, proved his stature as a Brian Wilson-style arranger on the first two albums by the High Llamas (1), Gideon Gaye (1995) and especially the ambitious and monumental Hawaii (1996). Supergrass sounded like the heirs to the Buzzcocks, at least on I Should Coco (1995).

One "next big thing" led to another "next big thing", and soon England was attacked by a revival of the "mod" culture of the 1960s (read: the Who and, more recently, the Jam). Pioneered by Ocean Color Scene, particularly with Moseley Shoals (1996), this school yielded Menswear, These Animal Men, Wildhearts, perhaps the most energetic and blasphemous of the pack with Earth Vs The Wildhearts (1993), and, much later, Comet Gain, that resurrected the idea on more hysterical works such as Tigertow Pictures (1999).

Inspired by the new wave of the 1970s, bands such as Low Pop Suicide, led by former Gang Of Four's and Shriekback's bassist Dave Allen, Elastica, fronted by Justine Frischman and harking back to Blondie's and the Cars' disco-punk sound of the 1970s on Elastica (1995), Sleeper, also relying on a female voice (Louise Wener) on Smart (1995), offered a less trivial kind of commercial rock.

The ultimate product of Brit-pop were the Spice Girls, as hyped and as inept as the Mersey-beat groups of 30 years earlier.

The second half of the decade saw a rapid decline of Brit-pop, although Catatonia, another Echobelly-wannabe with International Velvet (1998), Mansun, with Attack of The Grey Lantern (1997), Stereophonics, with Word Gets Around (1997), and Scottish bands such as Adventures In Stereo, with Alternative Stereo Sounds (1998), and Embrace, with The Good Will Out (1998), tried to keep the flame alive.

Trembling Blue Stars, the project of former Field Mice's frontman Bob Wratten, that continued Field Mice's "bedroom-pop" on a more personal basis with Broken By Whispers (1999), a parade of elaborate and sumptuous ballads dwelling halfway between Lycia's gothic depression and the Cure's somber existentialism.

The Tindersticks (1) deployed elegant quasi-orchestral arrangements, that relied mostly on the delicate polyphony of guitar, keyboards and violin, on Tindersticks (1993). Its songs were the ideal soundtrack for brothels packed with philosophers. Stuart Staples' voice (a Chris Isaak soundalike) was lost in the labyrinth of his own visions, haunted by the giant shadows of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. But the subtlety of that work drained away as the band (a "big" band) opted for orchestral pop and lounge music on Tinderstick (1995) and Curtains (1997).

Scotland's Usurei Yatsura were unusual in that they embraced Pavement's lo-fi approach on We Are (1996). The Delgados (1) turned to sumptuous orchestral pop with The Great Eastern (2000).

Retro futurism 1991-98

Brit-pop begot other melodic sub-genres.

Stereolab (12) were not the first and were not the only ones, but somehow they came to represent a nostalgic take on Sixties pop music that employed electronic rhythms and arrangements. Built around the collation of keyboardist Tim Gane (ex-McCarthy) and French vocalist Laetitia Sadier, i.e. the juxtaposition of hypnotic, acid instrumental scores and surreal, naive vocals, as refined by their early EPs Super 45 (1991) and Super-Electric (1991), Stereolab walked a fine line between avantgarde and pop. As they continued to fine-tune the idea on Peng (1992), echoing the trance of the Velvet Underground, Neu and Suicide, while increasing the doses of electronic sounds, Sadier's voice became a sound and an instrument, contributing more than catchy refrains to the allure of the mini-album Space Age Batchelor Pad Music (1993), the aesthetic manifesto of their chamber kitsch. Stereolab probably reached their zenith with the singles of John Cage Bubblegum (1993) and Jenny Ondioline (1993), that inspired the stylistic tour de force of Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements (1993). Stereolab had coined a new musical language, as austere as classical music and as light as easy-listening. New keyboardist Katharine Gifford contributed to the elegant and smooth sound of Mars Audiac Quintet (1994), their most accomplished fusion of nostalgy and futurism, although not as innovative as the previous album. Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996) was even more impersonal, pure sound for the sake of sound, pure abstraction of kitsch music. Stereolab injected Soft Machine's progressive-rock, Terry Riley's minimalism, Neu's robotik rhythm, Pink Floyd's atmospheric psychedelia into the fragile melodic skeleton of British pop music.

"Retro futurism" was pioneered also by Saint Etienne (2). Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs bridged Depeche Mode's synth-pop, the Sixties pop revival, sensual disco-like vocals (Sarah Cracknell) and almost neo-classical arrangements on the sophisticated production exploits of Foxbase Alpha (1991) and So Tough (1993). They were unique in crafting a celestial, effervescent and ghostly fusion of jazz, funk, lounge and house music. Tiger Bay (1994) achieved pure nirvana, pure ambience, pure style. At their best, it felt as if a Broadway star of the 1950s was backed by Giorgio Moroder on electronic keyboards and by an orchestra conducted by Ennio Morricone.

The genre soon became one of the most abused musical lingos of the 1990s: State Of Grace (1), who matched Saint Etienne's achievements on Jamboreebop (1996), Space, with Spiders (1996), and finally Broadcast (1), whose stylistic evolution led to new step in space-age pop: the cubistic remixes of pop stereotypes of Haha Sound (2003).

These bands laid the foundations for the success of Add N To X (12), a British trio on analog keyboards whose retro-futurism was inspired by Tangerine Dream, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, Kraftwerk and Devo. On the Wires of Our Nerves (1998) evoked a dark, claustrophobic, teutonic fantasy of mechanical monsters gone mad. It wasn't electronica, the way Led Zeppelin's was not blues. They discovered a rougher and deeper dimension of electronica, just like Led Zeppelin had discovered a rougher and deeper dimension of blues. They discovered "hard electronica" just like Led Zeppelin discovered "hard rock". Avant Hard (1999), instead, put aside the uncompromising sonic onslaught for a more mature symphony of tones and textures; whereas the poppy, danceable, electronic rock'n'roll of Loud Like Nature (2002), drowned in an orgy of digital cacophony, heralded a new form of post-industrial decadent futuristic punk cabaret.

Japanese Kitsch 1990-97

Japanese bands excelled at this parodistic and futuristic approach to kitsch and muzak.

Pizzicato Five (1), who had turned supermarket muzak into a sub-genre of synth-pop on Couples (1987), became one of the leading retro' bands when they enrolled eccentric vocalist Maki Nomiya, the ideal alter ego of electronic keyboardist Yasuharu Konishi. The single Lover's Rock (1990), possibly their masterpiece, and the album This Year's Girl (1991) celebrated their passion for icons of the Sixties (James Bond soundtracks, hare-krishna chanting, novelty numbers, silly dance crazes), whereas later collections such as Bossa Nova (1993) and Happy End Of The World (1997) experimented with a format closer to orchestral disco-music.

Cibo Matto (1), the duo of Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda, specialized in musical satire inspired by junk food and implemented via a casual assembly of jazz, hip-hop, funk and dissonances. Viva La Woman (1996) performed a clownish postmodernist massacre of stereotypes.

Fantastic Plastic Machine (1), the creature of producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, debuted with Fantastic Plastic Machine (1998), a collection of ultra-hip, glamourous cross-cultural tunes composed via a montage of cliches of western pop music.

Buffalo Daughter (1) wed both a retro' and a progressive ideology. Captain Vapour Athletes (1996) and especially New Rock (1998) delivered ebullient, quirky synth-rock for electronic keyboards, turntables and samplers.

Multi-instrumentalist Cornelius (1), born Keigo Oyamada, composed "pop tunes" by overdubbing "found" samples and stereotypical music, achieving on Fantasma (1997) and, partially, on Point (2002) a kind of eclectic postmodernist nonsense. The most creative aspect of his compositions was how elements of "musique concrete" (found noises that were sampled, looped and refined) got to be integrated with the rhythmic and melodic infrastructure of the songs without sacrificing the aural appeal of the song.

Ooioo (1), the side-project of Boredoms's drummer Yoshimi "P-We" Yokota and a few of her female friends that began as an exercise in hyper-deconstruction of kitsch, juxtaposed all sorts of musical debris in the suites of Feather Float (1999) and Taiga (2006), vaguely reminiscent of the aesthetic ambitions of progressive and psychedelic music but insanely playful.

International Kitsch

Outside Britain and Japan, there were other significant acts of "futuristic kitsch".

French duo Air (1), Nicolas Godin and Jean Benoit Dunckel, indulged in the retro' sound of vintage analog keyboards on Moon Safari (1998), a work marked by a zany campiness that exuded Pink Floyd's psychedelic majesty, jazz's subdued ambience, random quotations from the history of soul, funk and disco music, and more than a passing mention of Burt Bacharach's and Ennio Morricone's scores.

While not as successful as Air, April March (Elinore Blake) in Los Angeles, with the eclectic and campy And Los Cincos (1998) and Chrominance Decoder (1999), Mocket in Seattle, with Fanfare (1997), and Komeda in Sweden, with What Makes It Go (1998), pursued similar routes to disorienting pop muzak.

Germany had a crowded scene of its own.

Stereo Total, the project of Berlin-based vocalist and electronic wizard Brezel Goering, concocted a goofy, anarchic, exuberant, multi-ethnic (and multi-linguistic) fusion of new wave, punk-rock, disco music and synth-pop, bridging girl-groups, funk, Giorgio Moroder and the Ramones, which turned Monokini (1997) into the sonic equivalent of a Marx Brothers movie.

Beanfield (1998) proved that the heart of Munich-based Michael Reinboth, better known as Beanfield, was in jazz fusion, but his subconscious was still entangled in the genres of his childhood.

Le Hammond Inferno, the project of Berlin-based producers and disc-jockeys Marcus Liesenfeld and Holger Beier, copied Pizzicato Five on Easy Listening Superstar (1999).

Post-pop 1993-98

Radiohead (2), the most hyped and probably the most over-rated band of the decade, upped the ante for studio trickery. They had begun as third-rate disciples of the Smiths, and albums such as Pablo Honey (1993) and The Bends (1995) that were cauldrons of Brit-pop cliches. Then OK Computer (1997) happened and the word "chic" took on a new meaning. The album was a masterpiece of faux avantgarde (of pretending to be avantgarde while playing mellow pop music). It was, more properly, a new link in the chain of production artifices that changed the way pop music "sounds": the Beatles' Sgt Pepper, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Michael Jackson's Thriller. Despite the massive doses of magniloquent epos a` la U2 and of facile pathos a` la David Bowie, the album's mannerism led to the same excesses that detracted from late Pink Floyd's albums (lush textures, languid melodies, drowsy chanting). Since the production aspects of music were beginning to prevail over the music itself, it was just about natural to make them "the" music. The sound of Kid A (2000) had decomposed and absorbed countless new perfumes, like a carcass in the woods. All sounds were processed and mixed, including the vocals. Radiohead moved as close to electronica as possible without actually endorsing it. Radiohead became masters of the artificial, masters of minimizing the emotional content of very complex structures. Amnesiac (2001) replaced "music" with a barrage of semi-mechanical loops, warped instruments and digital noises, while bending Thom Yorke's baritone to a subhuman register and stranding it in the midst of hostile arrangements, sounding more and more like an alienated psychopath. Their limit was that they were more form than content, more "hype" than message, more nothing than everything.

Radiohead inspired the "post-pop" generation of 1997-98: Six By Seven, whose The Things We Make (1998) was basically a neurotic version of the "Madchester" sound of the Stone Roses; Coldplay, whose Parachuttes (2000) was mainly a display of dynamic and emotional ranges; Travis; Dream City Film Club; etc.