Oleg Vostyakov wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 7:00 am
Can Oasis really be considered the successor of the Beatles in the 90s-00s? Or is it far-fetched marketing? What do you think about that?
Well I think the first thing that needs to be said is that Oasis is actually the Gallagher brothers. They could have swapped the other three guys with any musos from down the pub and you wouldn't have noticed any difference.
I love Noel's bravado. He's a funny guy and it tempers his outrageous boasting. Liam is not funny and so his arrogance can be very tedious. Noel wrote some really catchy songs and is a frigging fantastic guitarist in the sense that he can make it roar and growl but still do a decent solo. He's head and shoulders above those guitar hero types of the 80s and the grunge guys who could only play chords with one finger and a detuned E string. His guitar sound and Liam's voice are an unbeatable combination, so even with some half decent songs they were bound to be successful.
Their popularity in England was very different to anywhere else though. In the US and Australia, guitar bands had never gone away and there were loads of great live acts. In England it was more about house music at that time and Oasis suddenly appeared out of nowhere playing loud guitar music. They also roade the crest of the New Ladism movement of the early 90s. They were the idols of all the blokes who had felt emasculated and pushed aside by the dance music and political correctness of the late 80s/early 90s.
Also, in the UK The Beatles were still household names and national treasures, so a band that openly paid homage to them to the point of openly imitating their look and lyrics was not seen as a rip-off but something to be proud of.
In most other places, they were seen as a Beatles lookalike group who played melodic pop in the same vein as a lot of other indie bands. We all couldn't understand why Oasis thought they were so different. The songs were good and catchy, but their vain boasting and hooliganism just alienated a lot of people when divorced from its cultural origins. I think at the time, the first two albums were equally popular as the Nirvana and Greenday stuff. Then after that, everybody completely forgot about them. When they were mentioned, it was like "Oh, you still listen to them?"
30 years later I'm more of a fan than I was then, but Liam still annoys me a lot and I actually prefer Noel as a solo act. But I also still like all the other grungy independent stuff from that time so I don't think it is because Oasis are special in any way.