2025 will mark an incredible three decades since Blur and Oasis released their landmark albums, The Great Escape and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? It wasn’t just these two bands that defined the biggest movement in UK guitar music since Beatlemania however. In this tutorial I’ll be taking a brief look at the playing, technique and songwriting traits behind the 90s UK guitar movement.
Star-spangled Hammer-ons
From Reef and Shed Seven to Blur and The Lightning Seeds, the influence of Jimi Hendrix is far-reaching throughout Britpop’s short history. Try using hammered-on shapes, partial chords, inversions, melodic breaks and diads to add a bit of flair to simple chord progressions.
The Dance Music Connection
Britpop is a direct descendent of the Madchester baggy scene, so think of bands such as the Stone Roses and their seminal album Fools Gold. The title track features the most famous example of loop-based drums courtesy of Clyde Stubblefield’s Funky Drummer. The droning open E and B strings add a slightly psychedelic slant to basic major and minor chords (the F#7add11 is a prime example of this) and overdubbed funky wah rhythms are almost ubiquitous in this style.
The ‘Wonky’ Note Approach
Bands such as Ash and Radiohead took a leaf out of so-called ‘wonky’ guitarists such as Robert Fripp and David Byrne. The emphasis was very much on a left-field approach to soloing, with dissonance and rapid tremolo picking featuring in tracks such as Burn Baby Burn and Just. Another throwback to Jimi Hendrix, maybe? Draw out the unison bends in bars 1 to 3 to really milk their clashing sound. This idea also features a really interesting trem-picked A Whole/Half diminished scale (used to great effect in Radiohead’s Just).
Simple Blues-rock Lead Lines
Try your hand at one of Noel Gallagher‘s favourite repeating pentatonic lead tricks, which you can hear in tracks such as Don’t Look Back In Anger. You can trace the lineage in lines like this back to Clapton and Lynyrd Skynyrd, so whilst not the most original of ideas, it’s certainly very effective. Also take a listen to Manic Street Preachers for simple but effective lead licks in Enola/Alone and If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next.
