What did people in the UK think of this during the 1990s?

[Femusia]

If you were a young person during the 1990s when "Cool Britannia" was all the range as Britain's cultural rejuvenation with things like the Union Jack being fashionable again and Spice Girls and Oasis being cool; or even if you weren't young but remember it, how did you and other Brits at the time feel about Australia?

I have been doing some research into Australian attitudes at the time of the 1990s and I learnt how at the time they were at the tail end of their own cultural rejuvenation which began in the 1970s as they started asserting their nationhood and culture against Britain and stopped feeling British. They were rebelling against British symbols like the very Union Jack that Geri Halliwell had so famously made fashionable again with her Union Jack dress and were trying to abolish the monarchy and acting indifferent to British culture.

A quote from a sociological journal investigating Australian attitudes to Britain in the 1990s, "But Cool Britannia was too late to matter Australians. By then, Britain was a foreign country and not the best known one. The Spice Girls did not displace Seinfeld and the Simpsons and that was in place by the 1980. The 1970s was the last decade that British culture could have such an impact."

How did you as British people, especially British youth have such self-confidence, pride and enjoyment at the time if Australians were actively behaving as such, which surely delegitimised Cool Britannia because if they didn't care why did you? Or, were you just not thinking about them to start off with and Cool Britannia was an internal thing not concerned with the world and by the 1990s, Britain didn't care what the likes of Australia thought?

I just watched a 1997 clip of Coronation Street in which an 18-year old Leanne Battersby has a Geri Halliwell poster on her bedroom wall and is listening to Spice Girl songs, symbolic of youth at the time. This would likely not have been something an Australian teenager or young adult would've done because according to that article, "As late as 1990, Kylie Minogue found that Australians were not impressed or bothered about the fact that she had departed for London or adopted a British accent".

So, what do you think of this?

Berlin wall fell 1989

UK people were more interested in Europe than Australia (more remote) in the 90s

Oooh Round The Twist was Australian wasn't it?
And one where they lived in a shed by the beach and were super cool...can't remember the name.

Why would we have been concerned about what people in Australia were feeling or thinking?
We were out there being cool.

Not sure why we are helping op write this essay/article. It's so clearly in bad faith. Very one way and not from a friendly position. Prepare to be quoted, in a bad way.

Australia was trendy in the 80s when crocodile Dundee came out.

All we really had in terms of Aus culture in the UK was Neighbours and Home and Away which are obviously dross. Or Prisoner Cell Block H, in the 90s.

Australia seemed exciting though. Nice weather, plenty of attractive seeming, friendly, sporty people who didn't take themselves too seriously. Interesting wildlife! But also that it was so far away I'd probably never get to go there. That was my feeling about it as a teen.

I did think there might have been a few issues with racism. And treatment of indigenous people. And that groceries etc were really expensive? But again this was not from any first hand experience.

I don't think there is much of interest in any of it. No one cares on either side about whatever the "article" would be about. I am relatively sure the commonwealth is dead and we and Aus know we have more in common, like most of the world.

But that’s a bit embarrassing.

“plucky britain”?

A country that had been a superpower trying to show off its pride or trying to rebuild its confidence?

That’s usually what former colonies like Australia do. Not a country like Britain.

I doubt Americans in the 1990s would’ve behaved like that since they’d be so secure in their identity.

Did that not embarrass Brits?

But Australia didn’t think you were so cool hence them not emulating your youth culture?

What does it matter what Australia thought of us and if they didn't think we weren't cool? and why should Australia emulate us in any way?

I can't at all see what you're trying to achieve here. They're two different countries, 10k miles apart, albeit with a shared history up to WW2.

Something does feel a bit off about the OP’s posts, doesn’t it?

A really weird, niche question, trying desperately to create a tension between Australia and Cool Britannia that wasn’t there, and not understanding the responses that nobody actually cared.

I don't think you can really define countries in absolutes.
Not ALL of Britain or UK did any one thing or thought identically.
Same with Australia. I met loads of monarchists when I was there and felt a bit weird about it tbh! Some people from both countries would have loved all the flag waving, some wouldn't. It did happen 40 years ago too, so what people think now and then might be different still.

I didnt care then and I dont care now.

I don't think anyone cared what Australians thought of the UK, OP. Why would they?

Well, the same poster posted this in the early hours of the morning.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5582114-whats-your-thoughts-on-this-for-911

Disappointed at the response, OP?

There was no social media, so nobody spent their lives obsessing over who they hated/ whose side they were on. I spent a year in Australia on a WHV and had a lot of fun. When I lived in London, I met a lot of Australians on WHV who were having a lot of fun.

If there's one thing that I could choose as the best part of the 90s, it would be the lack of social media. What a fucking curse that's been.

I was this generation. Loved Cool Britannia as it was a popular cultural phase for young people at the time. It was linked to music and fashion, so not that deep really! Never thought about the Australians?! Not sure why many would?! Loved neighbours, home and away and Kyle!

So what? I mean seriously, who cares about this crap?

What is cool? To me it is not caring about what others think of you.

Most people were concerned about having a job, somewhere to live, paying bills & hopefully some spare money to live.

What was happening in Australia, was not on our daily radar

You don’t seem to get it. We don’t care.

They don’t either I’m guessing.

Round the twist was good.

I was young in the 90's and liked all things union jack and I loved the Spice Girls even after are all my friends had gone off them and they were no longer fashionable. My only knowledge of Australia came from Neighbours.

Very odd posts from the OP. Australia didn't cross my mind in any way during the 90s beyond how I'd feel about any country. I've certainly never thought of the UK as being the "mother country" in my lifetime. It's just another Western country on the other side of the world.

Were they meant to?