Introduction

Hello you. Make a cup of tea, put a record on. Welcome to The A to Z of Britpop, your introduction to the bands, music and characters that defined the most exciting genre of the 1990s.

In this article we discuss Blur. The art-school agitators who skewered suburbia, dodged clichés, and made chaos sound clever.

This, as always, is then.

Blur - Origins & era

Formed: 1988, London
Active Years: 1988–2003, 2009–2015, 2023–present
Associated Genres: Britpop, indie rock, alternative rock, art pop, pop rock, art rock
Record Labels: Food, Parlophone, Virgin, Warner

How it started

Blur formed in London in 1988 under the name Seymour. They signed to Food Records in 1990 and, wisely, changed the name.

Their debut single "She’s So High" barely landed. "There’s No Other Way" got them on the radio, in the charts, and reluctantly lumped in with the tail-end of Madchester.

Their first album Leisure (1991) chased scenes rather than shaped them. That changed with their next move.

Band members

Damon Albarn – Vocals, keyboards
Graham Coxon – Guitar, backing vocals
Alex James – Bass
Dave Rowntree – Drums

Definitive lyric

“He gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons”
– Parklife

Signature sound & style

Blur were sonic shapeshifters. Indie-dance one minute, Kinks-obsessed chroniclers of British mundanity the next. Then came art rock, lo-fi fuzz, and melodic noise.

Albarn brought the arched eyebrow and cultural commentary. Coxon delivered guitar tones sharp enough to slice through plastic. James did the pretty-boy media circuit. Rowntree just kept it all vaguely on track.

They didn’t invent Britpop, but they bloody well styled it better than most.

Defining moment

August 1995. The “Battle of Britpop”. Blur’s "Country House" vs Oasis’s "Roll With It".

Blur won the battle with a smug, silly single. Oasis won the war by writing better songs. Either way, Blur ended up all over the tabloids and in the nation's living rooms.

Full album discography

Leisure (1991)
Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)
Parklife (1994)
The Great Escape (1995)
Blur (1997)
13 (1999)
Think Tank (2003)
The Magic Whip (2015)
The Ballad of Darren (2023)

Essential listening

Girls & Boys (1994) – Brash, camp, and knowingly grotesque. The sound of Britpop stumbling out of a club at 3 a.m. with glitter in its teeth.

What the press said

“When listening to Blur’s exploration and celebration of Englishness set against the perils of modernity and the McDonaldisation of our culture, try as one might it’s impossible not to think of The Kinks as people (amongst others) who’ve not only covered this ground before but made it so much their own.” – Sid Smith, BBC

Where are they now?

Albarn didn’t stop. Gorillaz, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, monkey operas, you name it.

Coxon went solo, did soundtracks, and eventually returned. James leaned into the celebrity lifestyle and cheesemaking. Rowntree turned into a councillor and a barrister.

They reunited in 2009, released The Magic Whip in 2015, and came back again in 2023 with The Ballad of Darren. It wasn’t embarrassing, which is a win at this stage.

Blur in a sentence

The band that made British ennui sound like an art form and turned chart battles into a piss-take.
See you on down the road.

Blur