If the story of Wales in the 1990s was a movie plot, it would all seem so far-fetched. Thankfully, it was all true.
The 1970s and ‘80s were a bleak time for much of Wales: the closure of steel works and coal mines led to mass unemployment while the country’s culture and language was disregarded by politicians and the music industry alike. Some bands even travelled across the Severn Bridge to make sure their records arrived at the London offices sporting an English postmark.
The 1990s changed everything. While Wales was already known for Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Male Voices Choirs, but bands such as Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals exploded into the charts and showed the UK population the breadth of what this small but inherently musical nation could offer. Meanwhile, S4C – the Welsh-language television channel – became increasingly prominent and a new Welsh Assembly was on the horizon…
Featuring fresh analysis and new interviews, International Velvet charts the UK in a decade in which ‘Cool Cymru’ won over the masses and shows how it inspired the still-vibrant Welsh music scene into the 21st century and beyond.
Table des matières
Content NotesForeword by Rhys Mwyn
Preface
A Musical Backwater: The Welsh Scene Pre-1990s
Year Zero: Introducing the Welsh-Language Music
Revolution
Building Bridges, Not Walls: Venturing into Bilingualism
The Kinnock Factor: The Manics and Anti-Welshness
‘Million Sellers’: Exploring the Welsh Indie Scene
The New Seattle: Revisiting Newport’s Explosive
Underground Scene
Land of My Mothers: Alternative Takes on Welsh-
Language Music in the Mid-90s
Britpop vs Cool Cymru: Two Movements Go Head-to-Head
A Very Good Morning in Wales: Welsh Devolution in 1997
Every Day When I Wake Up, I Thank the Lord I’m Welsh!
The Nation’s Embracing of Welshness
Leaving the Twentieth Century: Wales at the Dawn
of the New Millennium
A New Wave of Confidence: Welsh-Language Music
in the Year 2000
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
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