It started with vinyl, then flip phones, and now it’s Oasis. More than three decades on from the release of their first album Definitely Maybe, which made Britpop the soundtrack of a generation, Oasis are back — not just with a comeback tour but also with the love of Gen Z. Across social media, teens and twenty-somethings are wearing the band’s iconic outerwear of the parka, blasting Champagne Supernova and declaring that the real golden era of music has already happened.
On TikTok, fan edits of vintage Oasis gigs acquire hundreds of thousands of views, while on Depop, original merch is being resold for high prices. Despite their hiatus in 2009, the band have remained a part of popular culture since, and new generations are joining the party.
Though, it is not just nostalgia that keeps the culture relevant. Oasis, along with fellow 1990s icons such as Blur and Pulp, are riding a broader cultural wave where the lines between eras have become blurred. While millennials are dusting off old playlists, Gen Z is embracing Britpop through their social media and Spotify rotations. On Spotify, Wonderwall still pulls in over 900,000 streams per day. The UK Albums Chart is currently housing three of the band’s albums, with Time Flies – 1994-2009 sitting firmly at number one. Shortly behind it is What’s the Story Morning Glory at number two, while the genre-defining Definitely Maybe is comfortably sitting at number four. Now many of them who were too young to have ever seen the band during their peak are getting the chance to see them live. Now the crowds are full of Gen Z’s repping Britpop fashion.
Where the music begins, fashion follows. At festivals this summer — from Glastonbury to TRNSMT — parka jackets, mod haircuts, and Adidas trainers are still everywhere you look. Vintage Oasis t-shirts have become hot property on secondhand apps such as Depop. High street retailers Urban Outfitters are known for their 1990s revival clothing, which includes Harrington jackets, oversized jumpers and dungarees.
Part of the band’s appeal is due to their refusal to be polished. In an age of curated perfection, Oasis represent authenticity. Their public fallouts, brash interviews, and famous nonchalant attitudes are contrasted against the average media trained celebrity. The lyrics, too, strike a surprisingly emotional chord, with songs such as Live Forever and Don’t Look Back in Anger coming out of the working-class suburbs of Manchester, but still resonating in their themes of resilience, escape, nostalgia today.
The Gallagher brothers legacy is now being celebrated more than ever in the comeback tour Live 25′ but they have always been around, through fashion, fandom, and the unpredictable trends of the internet.