Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

The cool thing about music is that it's a renewable resource. It can also be very good at recycling.

Trends and fads and sounds and styles come and go all the time. We're into some and others, not so much.

But every once in a while, we end up with a perfect cultural storm, where musical, social,

political, and demographic conditions all come together at exactly the right time.

The result is a trend and sound and style that captures everyone's imagination, and it can be

really, really exciting. These storms tend to last about six years. The first two are the buildup.

Then there's the frenzied peak that lasts, I don't know, 12 to 18 months. And finally, we have the

long, slow denouement when the party breaks up, leaving the stranglers

passed out on the floor.

Think of the Beatles from 64 to 70.

Think of punk rock from 76 to 82.

Think of grunge from 90 to 96.

And now think of Britpop, an error when the sun once again never seemed to set on the empire.

That party ran from about 1991 to 1997. London was swinging again. British acts were selling tens of millions of albums

the world over. It was fresh and fun and cool, and then it was over. Cool Britannia collapsed under the weight of over-exposure, boredom, and drugs.

And let me tell you something.

There were lots and lots of drugs.

Let's take a look back to see how this all happened.

This was Britpop.

This is the ongoing history of new music podcast with Alan Cross. Hello again, I'm Ellen Cross, and if you're of a certain age, you might remember

...