Oasis Finally Sells Out (Stadiums)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/opinion/oasis-tour-america.html
Oasis always knew it deserved to be huge, and back home in Britain, it was from the start. It’s a rock ’n’ roll institution there, with the inconsolably volatile, eternally bickering brothers at the heart of the band, Liam and Noel Gallagher, aging (if not quite mellowing) into sage but profane pop culture elders. In America, however, Oasis never really broke big. Until now.
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Most critics think that Oasis made two truly great albums: “Definitely Maybe” and its follow-up, 1995’s “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” Gen Z, unspoiled by decades of exposure to critiques of Oasis’ five other releases, has embraced a number of the band’s lesser-known tracks. Spotify saw a significant rise in Oasis’ streaming numbers the first weekend of the band’s reunion tour, and the service reported that half of the 16.6 million new Oasis listeners are members of Gen Z.
I always loved Oasis for its unapologetic megalomania and the band’s genuine unfilteredness, confidence and willingness to provoke purely for laughs (“Pitchfork” has called them insult “artisans”), which definitely fits this cultural era for young people. Gen Z kids have grown up in a world where everyone everywhere is afraid of saying or posting or retweeting the wrong thing all the time. The enemies of rock ’n’ roll are self-consciousness and self-seriousness, and although the guys from Oasis take themselves and their band seriously — sometimes painfully so — they also get that this is supposed to be fun.
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The Gallagher brothers have always been sardonic, but they have never been ironic. Underneath the bucket hats, they are as romantic about rock ’n’ roll as it’s possible to be. There is no era as defined by the pose of the disaffected rock star as the ’90s, the ultimate age of irony. Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the defining song of the decade, is a literal satire of the rock ’n’ roll anthem. The opening track on Oasis’ first album is called “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star.” It’s an earnestly aspirational tribute to the glory of the rock ’n’ roll life and a mission statement the band has been allegiant to for over 30 years, even when the fans, at least in America, didn’t buy in.
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