Who Really Coined Britpop?
The Britpop Origin Debate
It’s the early 90s. America’s grunge scene, led by the brooding sound of Nirvana, has made combat boots and flannel shirts the new religion, leaving UK music on the back foot. But then, rising from the smoky pubs and overcast skyline of Britain, comes a cultural kickback. Enter Britpop. This was no mere genre; Britpop swaggered in, Union Jack in hand, crooning about mundane suburban life, while laughing at the angst-filled playlists from across the pond.
But who really coined "Britpop"? Who lit the match that set this cultural explosion ablaze? The answer isn’t as simple as it seems, and like everything Britpop, the story is messy, confident, and gloriously contested.
Grab your headphones and settle in; today, we’re peeling back the layers of this chaotic debate, exploring the claims of Stuart Maconie, John Robb, and even earlier breadcrumbs that point to the Sex Pistols and… Playboy magazine?
The Stuart Maconie Claim
Journalist Stuart Maconie is often namechecked as the person who officially put "Britpop" on the cultural map. His groundbreaking April 1993 article in Select magazine, with Suede’s Brett Anderson glowering from the cover under the headline "Yanks Go Home!", was a defiant rallying cry. It celebrated British style, wit, and irony while giving grunge a snarky two-finger salute.
The article lovingly crowned bands like Suede, Pulp, Saint Etienne, and The Auteurs as the fearless front line of this so-called new movement. Maconie, with a wry grin, framed Britpop as a cheeky two-finger salute to the dreary, angst-ridden miasma of American rock, opting instead for a world of crimplene and unapologetic glamour (because who doesn’t love a bit of sparkle with their rebellion?). "Britpop" quickly stuck, as both audiences and journalists, desperate for a tidy label, latched onto it like a lifebuoy in a sea of cultural chaos. And honestly, who can blame them?
Yet Maconie himself has been oddly reluctant to lap up credit. Referring to himself as the “Dr Frankenstein of Britpop,” he’s joked about accidentally unleashing monsters (shoutout to Cool Britannia’s over-commercialisation). Maconie also speculated in a 2020 interview that "Britpop" might actually predate his 1993 piece.
Did Maconie cement Britpop’s place in history? Without question. But was he its first wordsmith? Hold on to your anoraks, we’re just getting started.
The John Robb Argument
Now here’s where the plot thickens. Musician and journalist John Robb has an earlier claim to the title. Writing for Sounds magazine in the late 1980s, Robb says he used “Britpop” as a tongue-in-cheek reference to "britcore,” a punk subset celebrated in Sounds. He’s adamant that “Britpop” was bandied about well before Maconie’s 1993 landmark article.
Robb obsessively championed emerging UK acts in his fanzine Rox, using "Britpop" as shorthand to describe melodic guitar-driven bands with a British essence. He credits other writers, like David Stubbs, with picking up the terminology and keeping it alive in UK subcultures like the baggy and pre-Britpop scenes.
According to Robb, it wasn’t so much that he “coined” it, but that it organically evolved through scenes he was documenting. His frankness is refreshing amidst the clashing egos of music journalism, but still, his claim muddies the waters further.
Pre-1980s Uses of Britpop
Now here’s the twist that makes this true Britpop chaos. "Britpop" existed long before the 90s. Traces of "Britpop" go as far back as 1977, when NME journalist Charles Shaar Murray used it in an interview to describe the Sex Pistols during a Swedish tour. Yes, the very punk movement Britpop later disavowed seems to have worn the badge first. The Oxford English Dictionary backs this up, citing Britpop in the 70s as more of a loose adjective than a scene-specific noun.
Fast forward to 1986, and Playboy magazine casually drops "Britpop" to label Feargal Sharkey. Why Playboy decided musicians were equally worthy of its pages is unclear, but it complicates the notion that John Robb or Stuart Maconie came up with it first. It appears "Britpop" was a mutating linguistic entity, lying dormant while waiting for a movement worth embodying.
Who Truly coined Britpop?
The debate over who "coined" Britpop mirrors the movement itself. It’s messy, self-assured, and anything but straightforward. Stuart Maconie gave it mainstream resonance, John Robb nurtured it within grassroots scenes, and earlier uses suggest it slithered through pop culture before seizing its final crown in the 90s.
But here’s a thought to ponder over your next Pulp vinyl spin. Maybe Britpop’s origin is best left deliberately fuzzy. After all, no single act or journalist can embody what Britpop symbolised. It was a collective rebellion, an “enough of this already” shout reverberating through smoky gig venues and dingy rehearsal rooms.
And while the debates rage on, one thing’s for sure. Whether you’re team Blur or Oasis, Suede or Pulp, Britpop belongs to all of us who screamed “Parklife!” at least once unironically.
Now, here’s your invitation to join the debate. Who truly coined Britpop? Does it even matter? Share your thoughts below, champion your favourite band like the unapologetic devotee you are, and for the love of crimplene (and all that’s holy in Britpop), give Rialto the credit they’ve been scandalously denied for far too long.
