Mad fer it! The young musicians flying the flag for Britpop

Artists from Dua Lipa to Nia Archives are tapping the boisterous power of mid-90s music – and even embracing the union jack. Can they avoid the genre’s laddish lows?

For some, Britpop was a high point for British guitar music: that point when Blur, Pulp, Suede and Oasis thrilled the world with wit and brio. Others argue it has aged worse than Loaded magazine: blokey, beery, conservative and still clogging up the charts. Certainly, there’s perhaps something a bit dismal about the truth that James and Shed Seven have both had No 1 albums in 2024.

However, a crop of younger artists are turning to the power and iconography of mid-90s Britain for inspiration. The jungle artist Nia Archives, 24, wears a stunning union jack on her tooth for the duvet of her debut album, Silence Is Loud. “No one’s really making Britpop in the meanwhile,” she advised the Face in February, “but I've a feeling 2024 is gonna be the yr.” Dua Lipa has stated she was “wanting by way of the music history of psychedelia, trip-hop and Britpop” while making her new album, Radical Optimism, adding that Britpop “has all the time felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and angle is a sense I took into my recording periods” – though you’d be pushed to note the influence on the brand new singles she has launched to date.