Noel Gallagher 90s Meme Magic

The power of persuasion.

Recently the topic of Oasis popped up, and I heard the familiar refrain of, "They just copied off the Beatles." It reminded me that, even now, most people don't understand how Noel Gallagher essentially memed his band to world domination in the nineteen nineties.

Back then, when Noel and Liam repeatedly stated that Oasis were 'the greatest band in the world', most people put it down to sheer arrogance. However, it was all part of a plan, as Noel Gallagher understood only too well the power of suggestion.

There's a passage from Tony McCarroll's book, Oasis: The Truth, that captures this quite neatly. The passage recalls a bit of in-band fighting, where drummer McCarroll mocked Noel's 'Masterplan' for success.

"It seemed that both [Alan] McGee and Noel sometimes had a low estimation of the average music-buying fan. Noel often called them 'sheeple'. I laughed and told him that good music was surely the most important factor. Noel shook his head and replied, 'All we've got to do is give them something they can relate to. If we keep telling everyone we're the best band in the world, sooner or later they're gonna believe it.'"

Given that McCarroll wrote the book after being sacked from the band the slightly bitter tone can be taken with a pinch of salt. The general gist seems fairly accurate though. Like with all good advertising, if you keep repeating something, often people will start believing it.

In fact, cynical though such manipulation can be, it can also actually add to the art. A similar example would be Muhammad Ali, with his "I'm the greatest" pronouncements. It adds to the showmanship, and when genuinely believed the ambition infuses the artistry. After all, if you don't believe in yourself why would you expect other people to. You do have to back the words up with the goods to truly pull it off though. Which, in my opinion, Oasis did.

Either way, no one can argue with the commercial success, and with Oasis looking like a bunch of football hooligans from a council estate it only added to the effectiveness. As no one suspected that beneath the unruly image there was a master strategy something akin to an Edward Bernays propaganda campaign.

The funny thing is, the people that hated Oasis were the people that fell for it the most. Taking us back to that original criticism, "..they just copied the Beatles."

The only reason people believed Oasis sounded like the Beatles was ..because Noel told them that.

If you listen to the music, instead of Noel's words, you can see (or rather hear) that they just don't sound like the Beatles. Of the early stuff Whatever sounded a little bit Beatlesy, but for the rest the true influences were quite different. Despite the nods and winks to the Beatles.

Definitely Maybe was a mix of things. People focus on the T-Rex riffs and whatnot, but the actual sound was something else. For a start, there is definitely the influence of early 90s indie guitar music (which makes sense, given they're a band from that era). Stuff like the Milltown Brothers springs to mind guitar-wise, though Oasis were obviously much heavier. Neil Young is also a massive influence. Something you'll hear from Noel if you get beyond the soundbites and listen to him in more conversational tone. Rockin' in the Free World or Hey Hey, My My - that type of stuff is definitely in there.

With Definitely Maybe there's also a strange, hard-to-pin-down, dance music influence. Again, that was the era too. It's subtle, but it's there. Songs like Columbia and Bring It On Down have something really different about them. Like they somehow captured a bit of the intense dance music spirit of the early 90s. I can't explain it, I can just feel it.

And with Liam the obvious major influence was not John Lennon, but Ian Brown. Though Liam has a very different natural singing voice.

One thing that highlights how unlike the Beatles they sounded, ironically, was their setlist cover of I Am The Walrus. It was, of course, a Beatles song, so it couldn't sound that un-Beatles-like, however, clearly it wasn't played in the style of the record. It was played in the style of Definitely Maybe. Much like when punk bands do cover versions of pop songs.

(What's the Story also had a distinct 'Oasis sound', though even more so, and harder to dissect.)

(Guigsy's arm, pointing like an arrow

towards the globe, that Noel had set his

sights upon)

It was a very clever strategy to associate the Beatles - the universally acknowledged greatest band ever - with Oasis in the public consciousness. It was a great example of positive association. Like putting a beautiful woman next to a packet of cigarettes or a sports car.

They repeated the association enough that even their biggest critics couldn't help but instantly think "Beatles" when they heard the name Oasis.