Last updated: 10/20/98

Blur ARE Britpop. They have influenced the scene and brought their style of music to an all time high, and effectively to the mainstream. In America, Blur are known for Girls And Boys and NOW Song2 while in England, Country House and Beetlebum went as far as no. 1 at it's time of release. Blur's music is comprised of various types of instruments, from the basic guitar to accordians and string sections. Blur started out as a typical indie band, following the influences of the Stone Roses and other bands in the early 1990's. With Modern Life is Rubbish the real Blur would appear as art school dropouts who wrote songs about Modern day England. Their songs contained situations in English life that celebrated being English, hence the term Britpop which mainly Blur shaped. Other bands such as Pulp and Elastica would be labeled as this simply because of their british pop sound, unlike anything else in the world. The label will not leave them, even though they've gone to a much more complexed, distorted insight of making music. In their latest album, Blur are Blur, yet they've mixed their songs up a bit, trying to shake the label of britpop. Even though distortion is heavy in the album, Damon Albarn's cockney English accent is so distinctive and can be heard throughout. The singles Beetlebum and Song 2 represent the diversity in Blur's music these days. Beetlebum is something you'd expect from Blur while Song 2 is something you might hear from an american alternative band (very Pixies-like). Having seen Blur on their tour in 1997, it seems to me they don't want to be associated with The Great Escape too much, having only performed Stereotypes and an excellent the Universal . Their set was full of energetic songs including Bank Holiday from Parklife and Chinese Bombs from the new album Blur . Damon Albarn said Britpop was officially dead, but to many people who look to Blur as the influence of it all, it will never die until Blur dies. Expect the next album to be different from the self titled, rumours are circulating that it will be more dance influenced with maybe William Orbit producing. Some new songs were performed at Glastonbury with mixed reviews which are usually inconsistent.