Rock’s new conformism?

Brendan O’Neill skewers what he says is a new breed of rock stars who suck up to politicians, avoid drink and drugs, and generally have evacuated rock music of any trace of rebelliousness:

When Noel Gallagher of Oasis visited Downing Street in July 1997 to congratulate the incumbent New Labour regime on its stunning victory, it was the end of Britpop as we knew it. The sight of this Mancunian rocker — the bad boy of Britpop, who together with his brother Liam had injected some much-needed laddish abandon into a music scene dominated by skinny art students and millionaires’ daughters — taking tea with Tony and nibbling canapés with Cherie …well, it was too much for some to take. A friend of mine even threw out his Oasis CDs in disgust (though he bought them all again a couple of weeks later). What kind of working-class hero is it, we wondered, who takes part in an official orgy of brown-nosing for a Prime Minister as unhip and illiberal as Blair?

Now, however, I am almost willing to forgive Gallagher. For today’s stars of British indie rock have committed a treason far graver than his. Never mind chatting to Blair over champers; this new generation of Britpoppers is made in Blair’s image — they look like Blair, sound like Blair and think Blair is ‘BRILLIANT’. And they espouse every mealy-mouthed prejudice of the Blairite age, taking a safety-first, shrink-wrapped approach to life, love and politics that would have been anathema to the punks and grunts of yesteryear. From Coldplay to Keane, James Blunt to Franz Ferdinand (the band, that is, not the assassinated Austrian archduke), the independent music scene is dominated by the most insufferable, middle-class, non-smoking, anti-drugs, safe-sex-observing bunch of Blairite bores and arse-kissers you could ever have the misfortune to clap eyes on. We’ve gone from Britpop to Blairpop. The kids, I’m afraid, are not all right.