(Authors: Far Out / YouTube Still)
If you’ve ever walked past a busker in any major UK city, you’ll already be fully aware of how deeply ingrained Oasis is in everyday life. From the soundtracks of TV commercials to the wardrobes of middle-aged men who have never seen fit to change their hairstyles.
Ultimately though, it all comes down to Noel Gallagher’s songwriting.
Noel was the final piece of the puzzle when forming Oasis in the early 1990s. They already had the attitude and indie-boy cool of Liam Gallagher, but they lacked any songwriting skills or direction – if you look at the band’s earliest demos, most of them sound like they were doing a bad impression of The Stone Roses. Fortunately, Noel was prepared to blast through numerous now-iconic anthems, often within just a few minutes.
Armed with songs such as ‘Live Forever’, ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, the Mancunian outfit’s rampant success at the top of Britpop seemed almost inevitable. At a time when grunge was steeped in angst and bands like Radiohead were knee-deep in existential bleakness, Oasis achieved something far more hopeful – and more importantly, universal. Not only did they take the Britpop scene by storm, but they also had undeniable mainstream appeal. And let’s be honest, few bands have managed to straddle these two very different worlds so effortlessly.
Thanks to the huge number of albums Oasis moved in the 1990s, the songs quickly became woven into UK culture, but the fact that today, three decades later, they still retain the same cultural relevance and popularity is pretty amazing. For Noel Gallagher himself, those early efforts mark a now-unattainable upper echelon of his songwriting, which has taken on several new lives since they were first penned.
In an interview, when Gallagher was asked about the influence of those legendary songs, he compared their fame to some other timeless classics. “‘Let It Be’ is one they songs,” he declared. “You know, ‘Hey Jude’ is one of those songs — I’m not going to put myself up there with The Beatles — ‘Satisfaction,’ all those songs take on a life of their own.”
Seemingly, once those songs were accepted into the global consciousness, along with Oasis, whatever the original songwriters intended for the piece suddenly became redundant; they mean anything to the listener. “At the end of the day, nobody knows what the song is about, but people are just waiting to go ‘na-na-na’ to ‘Hey Jude,'” Gallagher continued. “Nobody knows who Jude is or what it means. It won’t be. They become part of the social fabric.”
At this point, it’s worth noting that Jude in “Hey Jude” is actually Julian Lennon, and Paul McCartney wrote the song about his bandmate’s son. Still, Gallagher’s point remains valid. In any form of art, a work carries meaning years – centuries, even – after publication, when it takes on new meanings in the minds of each person who loves it.
Oasis may not be on the same level as “Hey Jude,” but some of Gallagher’s early efforts have certainly been accepted into the hearts and minds of millions since they hit the airwaves, and what the songwriter originally intended doesn’t matter as much anymore.
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