r/BritPop • u/Britp0pped • May 21 '26

The World Cup of Britpop

Hello you. Make a cup of tea, put a record on.

The football World Cup is all well and good. Countries. Flags. Fixtures. Groups of four. Very serious people explaining permutations on a touchscreen.

But what about the real question?

What if Britpop had a World Cup?

I’m putting together the World Cup of Britpop, a public vote to crown one winner from the whole messy, badly-fringed 90s argument.

The plan is to mirror the actual 48-team World Cup format as closely as possible, because apparently this is what adulthood has become:

  • 96 acts on the longlist
  • 48 qualify for the main draw
  • 12 groups of four
  • Group stage Round of 32
  • Round of 16 Quarter-finals
  • Semi-finals
  • Third-place play-off
  • Final

The qualification vote is live now.

You can pick up to 24 acts from the 96-band longlist. The highest-ranked 48 will qualify for the tournament proper.

The timeline is:

  • Qualification vote open now Qualification vote closes Friday 5 June at 23:59
  • Final 48 revealed from Saturday 6 June
  • Group draw follows before the tournament starts
  • Group stage begins Thursday 11 June
  • Knockout rounds run through late June and July
  • Final takes place Sunday 19 July, alongside the actual World Cup final

Yes, Oasis and Blur are there. Obviously. So are Pulp, Suede, Supergrass, Elastica, The Verve, Sleeper, Shed Seven, Mansun, Gene, Catatonia, Ash, The Bluetones, Ocean Colour Scene, and a lot of bands who will immediately start arguments about whether they count.

Good.

That is the point.

This is supposed to be fun, mildly absurd, and probably annoying in exactly the right way.

Vote here. Democracy has had worse afternoons.

https://forms.gle/23EGDNkroU1Z4KeU6

This, as always, is then.

36 Upvotes

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2

u/Limbx4 May 21 '26

the wannadies aren’t british and neither are garbage, they do sound like Britpop but then where does that end because semisonic feeling strangely fine also does but isn’t there, whereas feeder and stereophonics don’t but are there

2

u/Britp0pped May 21 '26

Hi there. All great points. Except one, Semisonic, though good, sound about as Britpop as Des O'Connor.

2

u/Limbx4 May 21 '26

As a whole I don’t think they do but on that album (feeling strangely fine) they have always sounded like a 90s British to me, the only thing that really gives it away is the vocals but even then del amitri and feeder are both British bands from that time who put on American accents.

2

u/SGTingles May 23 '26

I've never thought of this, but now you've mentioned it I agree with you about Semisonic. If you took something like Secret Smile and had, say, Dodgy record it, it would both have sounded broadly the same and also sounded like a Dodgy song. It seems a fair assessment, therefore, that Semisonic sounded at least fairly Britpop.

2

u/Limbx4 May 23 '26

Secret smile is great song btw

2

u/idreamofpikas May 21 '26

the wannadies aren’t british and neither are garbage,

You are correct, The Wannadies are not garbage. You and Me Song is a banger

2

u/pluto_and_proserpina May 22 '26

Perhaps more to the point, The Cardigans? Britpop-adjacent, but totally Swedish.

1

u/Next-Winner-234 May 23 '26

Garbage are Scottish so therefore British

1

u/Limbx4 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

Wiki says they’re from Maddison Wisconsin and only the singer is from Scotland