The Bridge: The Sun Never Set on the Britpop Empire
Our producer tells us about his Britpop cover, and Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine traces the music’s roots.
[This edition of my Hit Parade—“The Bridge” bonus series is available to Slate Plus subscribers only. A link to the episode show page is below. To sign up for Plus—and tell Slate that Hit Parade sent you!—visit slate.com/hitparadeplus.]
In this mini-episode of Hit Parade, host Chris Molanphy first sits down with our podcast producer Kevin Bendis, whose band Diary usually has an ’80s-style indie sound but recently covered the ’90s Oasis hit “Supersonic.”
Then, Chris is joined by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Senior Editor at Xperi, whose database of music information is available at Allmusic.com. Tom says Britpop did have sonic signifiers, many of them throwbacks to earlier waves of British rock; and that it’s fair to call Radiohead’s mid-’90s music Britpop even if they wanted nothing to do with the movement.
Next, Chris quizzes a Slate Plus listener with some music trivia, gives her a chance to turn the tables with a question of her own, and previews next month’s full-length episode. Slate Plus members can sign up for a chance to be our trivia contestant on a future episode here.
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.