Beginning as just another Brit-pop band with promise, Blur has exceeded all expectations. Their debut release showed a flair for catchy guitar-based tunes, their next three effectively channeled various British music traditions to create an eclectic …

On its debut in 1995, the Oxford, U.K. trio Supergrass belied its youth with a precocious knowledge of British pop trends both past and present. Were they the new Small Faces or the British Monkees? The answer came two years later with the release of…

Radiohead burst onto the Britpop scene in the early 1990s with a clamorous, post-U2 take on guitar rock, buoyed by the hit "Creep." They subsequently developed their songwriting and production skills on THE BENDS and achieved iconic status with their…

Born in the early 1980s out of the ashes of U.K. post-punk pioneers Joy Division, New Order became one of the first electro-pop bands to find mainstream success in the US. Their single "Blue Monday" was a landmark in dance music, and subsequent recor…

Formed in 1996, and hailing from Scotland, Belle & Sebastian are a musical collective with a penchant for ellipticism, declining to have their pictures on album covers or in the press, shying away from interviews, and never listing their individual n…

Led by depressive pop prince Robert Smith, the Cure have taken their legions of fans on a journey from post-punk to gothic to new wave to art rock, stopping only for refills of hairspray along the way. An amazing band both live and in the studio, the…

Following in the footsteps their idols The Beatles, Oasis became a phenomenon in their home country in the 1990s. Taking the Fabs' template as a model, they added a thick wall of Pete Townshend-influenced guitars and stood at the vanguard of the mid-…

Pair a disciple of Oscar Wilde (Morrissey) with an innovator of the electric guitar (Johnny Marr) and you have the most clever cult band of the 1980s, the Smiths. Though they made some of the most effortlessly catchy music of the era, the tension bet…

Led by Black Francis (AKA Charles Thompson), this Boston band reveled in the raw, loud energy of punk, but harnessed it in service of catchy melodies laced with bizarre lyrics. Their 1989 album, DOOLITTLE, is widely considered to be one of the best a…

Equally influenced by glam and punk, the Manic Street Preachers came barreling out of the gate with enough narcissism and nihilism for both movements combined. Surviving even the mysterious disappearance of their guitarist, the Manics were Wales's bi…

The mercurial David Bowie is the original pop chameleon. He's been everything from inoffensive pop singer to glam icon to white soul man to art-rocker and more in the course of his long, prolific career. Although Bowie's first hit was 1969's "Space O…

The initial hype suggested that Manchester's Stone Roses represented nothing less than the new Beatles. Hyperbole, to be sure, but the fact that the group's 1989 debut record turned out to be brilliant, timeless, and influential certainly counts as s…

The 1987 breakup of the Smiths saddened legions of fans, but it led to a fruitful solo career for lead singer and lyricist Morrissey. The Smiths were very much a singles band, and VIVA HATE, Morrissey's first record, continued in the Smiths vein with…

Although often overshadowed by fellow Brit-rockers Oasis and Radiohead, The Verve was responsible for some of the best and most well-crafted rock to come out of England in the 1990s. While the band perfected their pop songwriting as time went on, it …

Since their beginnings as a neo-psychedelic group in the late 1980s, Primal Scream has traveled a twisting path, with stops at indie rock, blues rock, dub, dance, and techno. Though mainman Bobby Gillespie (formerly of the Jesus and Mary Chain) and h…

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into th…

In the early 1990s, Polly Jean Harvey's music was a bracing post-punk battle cry, staking out new territory for female alt-rock artists without resorting to didactic feminism. Over time, Harvey has grown more subtle and moody, embracing a more expans…

Championed initially by Morrissey of the Smiths, James signed with their hometown record label, Manchester's Factory Records, in 1983. Their early singles, "What's The World?" and "Hymn From A Village", and the EPs JimOne and James II, were acclaimed…

Joy Division virtually defined the term "post-punk." They combined punk's rawness and iconoclasm with an artier sensibility that encompassed poetic lyrics, existentialism, and a dark moody mix of guitars and keyboards that was a major influence on go…

In 2002, the Libertines' passionate, melodic, punk-inspired sound made them critical favorites in the UK. Their debut album, UP THE BRACKET, bore strong echoes of the Clash, early Jam, et al, and was produced by none other than Clash guitarist Mick J…