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Noel Gallagher apologises for "ruining dance music"
Indie | Tuesday 25th September 2012 | Osh
Usually when talking about a member of Oasis putting his arrogant foot in his over-sized mouth, the responsible brother is named Liam. However, Noel Gallagher’s announcement that his band was responsible for the death of good dance music is one that has put a lot of his brother’s past statements to shame.
The High Flying Bird has declared that due to the rise of Oasis in the 90s, which supposedly led to the escalation of guitar music in Britain at the time, dance music was steadily phased out as the scene became less popular.
Talking to Q Magazine, Gallagher recounted how he came to this realization: “We were up till seven o'clock in the morning, listening to those classic house tunes, going, 'Why did music have to change? Why couldn’t it have stayed like this?' Then someone said, It’s because of you! And I was, 'Yeah, sorry about that'."
It is certainly fair to suggest that the rise of Brit-pop in the 1990’s helped to move popularity away from house music to the more guitar-based styles of Oasis and their contemporaries, such as Blur, Pulp and The Verve. Personally, I have no problem with this, but for Gallagher to suggest that his band were solely responsible, seems a little far from the mark. Firstly, if anyone could be said to have affected change in this way, you would think Blur would get the blame more than Oasis. The band’s mix of thumping guitar lines and chanted chorus’ seems more suited to taking over from dance music than Oasis’ whiny vocals and Beatles-esque style.
Then there’s also the fact that, arguably, dance music didn’t particularly go anywhere as the 1990’s progressed. Some of the smaller producers who appealed to the party crowds took their talent abroad to Paris, L.A. or Ibiza, but artists such as The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Fat Boy Slim continued their work in the big beat genre, and charted well. The fact that these artists are still performing to thousands today when Oasis isn’t also adds a certain satisfying irony to Noel Gallagher’s statements.
For Noel to not only believe that his band “ruined the dance music scene”, but to feel so responsible that he must give a public apology is sadly a sign that he believes far too much in the success of Oasis. Yes, they were big back then, but as they were not even able to confidently defeat Blur throughout the decade, its difficult to believe they could defeat an entire genre. And if they could, why couldn’t it be boy bands instead?
Listen below to see what would happen if dance music took over Oasis instead.
By David Pratt
