Are Pulp Britpop?
Short Answer:
Yes. They had the best moves too.
Long Answer:
Yes, Pulp are Britpop. Not the loudest voice, but definitely the sharpest. While Oasis dealt in swagger and Blur in satire, Pulp brought in the awkward truths. Their version of Britain was more stained carpet than union flag, and all the more vivid for it.
His 'n' Hers put them in the frame. Different Class sealed it. Wry, seedy, brilliant. Jarvis Cocker did not write lyrics so much as eavesdrop. He captured what the others missed. The self-consciousness, the boredom, the queasy sex behind the corner-shop romance. Songs like Common People did not offer escape. They pulled the curtain back on the whole fantasy.
Musically they were hard to pin down. Disco one minute, string-laden misery the next. There was glam in the bones, but it was always cut with a kind of northern unease. Jarvis half-sang, half-confessed, like he had just remembered something he should not be telling you. There were no big choruses to belt in a pub garden. But you remembered the lines. You still do.
So yes. Pulp were Britpop. Not the blueprint. Just the bit that actually understood what was going on.
