‘Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now...’
There have already been so many books, podcasts and films about the Britpop era that its difficult to see how anyone could possibly find something new to say about it all. What most of the previous attempts to analyse that era are perhaps missing, however, is a consistent view from someone who was embroiled in it at the time. Many of the books already published in this area were written by people who were coming of age in the heady period between the first Suede album in 1993 and Oasis’ sprawling disasterpiece Be Here Now in 1997, but none of them were written by someone with the same level of involvement as Miranda Sawyer. As a journalist for Select, Smash Hits and Time Out, Sawyer was right at the epicentre of the youth movement, interviewing everyone from Noel Gallagher (his infamous ‘I hope they both die of AIDS’ comment about Damon Albarn and Alex James came from an interview conducted by Sawyer) to Thom Yorke and beyond. This gives her a unique insight into what was an era defining youth movement (no matter how many people have tried to disparage it since then).
Subtitled: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs, Uncommon People (not to be confused with a book with the same title by David Hepworth) examines Britpop through the lens of the songs that defined it. The bands chosen (Suede, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Elastica, Oasis, Pulp, The Verve, Sleeper, Garbage, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Tricky, Edwyn Collins, Stereolab, Ash, Cornershop, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, Supergrass and The Prodigy) may stretch what one could reasonably define as ‘Britpop’ (in Sawyer’s defence, she does say ‘…and beyond’ in the title), but nobody could argue about the cultural impact that all of this music had (personally, I’d love to see Sawyer publish a follow up with another 20 songs).
Having grown up in the ’90s myself, I was old enough to adore the music that these acts were putting out, but not old enough to put them into any kind of cultural context, or to measure their impact in any metric beyond what was on Top of the Pops, Radio 1 and the tape decks of older siblings. Uncommon People does that in a way that is superior to any other Britpop book out there. I was expecting lots of rehashed anecdotes and well worn stories, but Sawyer, having not just lived through but actively been a part of it, offers a fresh insight into the ’90s – not just as a journalist, but also as a woman. Her writing is always interesting, often funny, and totally accessible. As a result of this, Uncommon People works as both an introduction to the genre for the uninitiated, but also as something that experts can read and still find nuggets of information they haven’t heard before – particularly about the many exciting British acts of the era that don’t normally fall into the ‘Britpop’ bracket (PJ Harvey, The Chemical Brothers, Tricky etc).
Personally, I would recommend the audiobook of Uncommon People because Sawyer’s conversational style makes for such an easy listen, but whichever format it comes in, Sawyer’s book is essential reading for music fans everywhere. If you’re going to buy one book about Britpop, make it this one.