The thing about Oasis is (was?) that not only did they make lazy commonsense music but they also inspired lazy commonsense journalism, like this John Harris piece. They were the perfect band for listeners to switch off and party to (no bad thing, though they weren’t the soundtrack I’d have chosen), but we don’t pay journalists to switch off and party, we pay them to think a bit, and judge a bit, and write something interesting at the end of it.
The hidden story of Oasis is the story of how the British music press caved in to lairy populism – when the band’s second album came out it got lukewarm reviews and everybody bought it. So what, you might have thought, you could say the same for the Robbie record. But with What’s The Story, the press lost their nerve, about-turned their opinion, and for a couple of horrible years Oasis were critically untouchable. The flatulent hosannas which greeted Be Here Now probably did more to kill off the UK music press’ reputation than a million silly Romo movements.