If I recall correctly,I got into Britpop mostly because of the influence of Smash Hits magazine, which I had begun buying because I was madly, deeply in love with Take That (still, in my mind, the world's greatest boy band).

And while on that topic, I also remember feeling utterly devastated on my way to my dental appointment on Februry 14 1996 when I heard the news that TT were disbanding.

How embarrassing.

Remember the first time
August 12 2005
The Guardian

Without Britpop, would we have had hit guitar groups, stadium anthems or rock stars on Newsnight? Ten years on, John Harris looks back on how Blur, Oasis, Pulp and co changed the face of UK music

"Towards the end of my time with McGee, we pull apart one last theory about Britpop's legacy: the idea that, three months after the Blur-Oasis battle, when the latter group released Wonderwall, the rules of British music were decisively changed. From hereon in, the lighter-than-air ballad became obligatory, and the leather-trousers era of rock'n'roll was over. When Chris Martin plays his rapturously received songs of plodding redemption, or Snow Patrol deliver yet another mid-paced example of their anodyne craft, you can hear echoes of the song that made Oasis ubiquitous - can't you?

"'No, no, no,' McGee protests. 'I would defend Wonderwall to the hilt. It's an amazing song. None of those people will ever write a song like that in their lives. Ever, ever, ever. They could try for the next 50 years, and they wouldn't do it.'

"You can pin all kinds of epochal changes on the Britpop generation - but there are, it seems, limits. 'I don't think you can blame Noel Gallagher for Coldplay,' says McGee. He suddenly looks slightly horrified. 'And you can't blame him for Athlete.'"