In the year 1995 the Britpop movement reached its zenith. The famous "Battle Of The Bands" found Blur and Oasis as prime contenders for the title "Kings of Britpop". Spurred on by the media, the "Battle" was headed by two groups - Oasis' brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher representing the North of England, and from Blur, Damon Albarn and Alex James representing the South. This "Battle" was epitomised when, after some back-handed marketing, Oasis' Single "Roll With It" and Blur's "Country House" were released in the same week. The event caught the public's imagination and gained mass media attention - even featuring on the BBC News. While this battle raged on Pulp took the spots with the magnificent single "Common People" and Suede with their "Trash" and "Beautiful Ones".
Kings of Britpop - Blur vs OasisIn the end, Blur won, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 and the songs charting at number one and number two respectively. However, in the long-run, Oasis' album (What's the Story) Morning Glory won the popular vote over Blur’s The Great Escape, outselling it by a factor of 4 or more. In the UK, What's the Story spent a total of three years on the charts, selling over eighteen million copies and becoming the second best selling British album of all time. Oasis' second album is widely considered to be the definitive Britpop album capturing the essence of the attitude and the Cool Britannia movement.
(In Britain and Ireland it became popular for a time when asked "What's the story?" (lit. "How are you?"), to answer with "Morning glory".) The media went even further, branding the movement "Third British Invasion", because of it massive popularity at the time and because acts represented particular musical influence or movement in their music, which led to more or less media-generated conflicts between the bands, as was the case with previous bands and movements.
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