The Beatles established a long-running British tradition of tuneful, guitar-driven pop bands, a tradition that was refreshed and updated every so often by new musical movements. Britpop, however, refers to the legion of '90s bands who drew more consciously from that tradition than ever before. Although the movement originated in the U.K. indie scene, Britpop was unabashedly commercial - its bands prized big, shiny, catchy hooks, as well as the glamour of mainstream pop stardom and the sense that they were creating the soundtrack to the lives of a new generation of British youth.
