Are Gorillaz Britpop?
Short Answer
No. Gorillaz were formed from Britpop’s ashes, not part of its fire.
Long Answer
Gorillaz were formed in 1998. That tells you everything you need to know. Britpop was already coughing up blood by then. Be Here Now had bloated the genre to bursting. Cool Britannia was being repackaged as Tony Blair's press kit. Damon Albarn, who’d spent the last five years fronting Blur like a man being slowly buried under Union Jacks, looked around and thought: maybe cartoons would be less exhausting.
Gorillaz wasn’t a continuation. It was a coping mechanism. Sonically. Politically. Culturally. It was the anti-Britpop. No laddishness. No flag-waving. No Camden smugness. Just post-millennial paranoia dressed in hip-hop beats, dub echoes and virtual avatars with dead eyes. It was what happened when the guy who wrote Country House realised the house was probably empty, overpriced and built on lies.
So yes, the DNA’s there. Same voice. Different soul. Britpop was Saturday night. Gorillaz was Sunday afternoon with the curtains drawn and the news on mute.
