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?

But none of us were giving a single thought to whether Australia thought we were ‘cool’ or not, why would we? It wasn’t something that was important to us.

I was a uk teen and young adult in the 90s. I never gave Australia a thought apart from watching neighbours and thinking the weather looked good.

Exactly. It is hardly as if British people at the time were gripped by some sort of angst about Australians no longer finding "the mother country" (sic) cool. For most of us, whatever the Aussies did or didn't think about the UK was mostly just an irrelevance.

I think as an analyst you almost always have to overthink these sorts of things to try to attach some sort of deep meaning to them in order to produce an essay.

I think around that time people bought into Aussie culture. They liked the soaps, a bit of the music, the beer. Walkabout pubs and shrimps on the barbie.

But it wasn't because their own culture wasn't good enough, or because they thought Australia was great. Or because of any other deep or meaningful reason.

It was because it was fun and people liked it, and added it to their own.

A lot of people liked Aussie culture and went in for bits of it. But they didn't really think much about why.

Unfortunately this 20 odd word sentence although closer to the truth would not fulfill a 10,000 word essay requirement.

Weird thread. I'm going with AI bot.

I was fully fledged at this point in time. At art school it was a very exciting time to experience the YBA movement, absolutely anything was possible. The world for young people like me, back then was very much a bit Del Boy, dream big, anything is possible. I think that is the key difference to young people now living in the 2020’s. There’s a huge dark cloud hanging over them with current global events, both political and with nature and climate change. I remember after graduating that banks were falling over themselves to give you loans without question. I made very unwise choices through just running on innocence, believing the hype and generally not thinking things through in adult terms and maturity. I was one of those that spent a year in Australia, during those golden years. POMMs was still hugely the friendly insult and has continued throughout latter visits. My only experience of the Britannia culture was at supermarkets, where I was told I sounded like the Spice Girls at the checkout. Otherwise being British in Australia was generally seen with distain. As with all newish, developed countries, the inhabitants all have a huge sense of their country being the bees knees. Somewhat true when you don’t have the positives and negatives of a very long history.
iInteresting question though. My experience of Australia was very positive and helped shape me through travelling the country. I didn’t feel weighed down which I think is the big factoring difference of young people today.
And I never said ‘when I was young’ 😂

I gave absolutely zero thought to Australia and Australians, much like I do now

I'm not so sure, given the equally ill-informed, 'trying to stir up controversy' thread by the same poster posted at 3 am trying to start a bunfight about US funding for Irish republican terrorism and 'meddling in NI' and 9/11.

The laboured tone, weird assumptions and inability to respond to other people's arguments or nuanced information remind me of another poster whose name I've forgotten who was always posting John-Bull-wrapped-in-a-St George's-Flag batshittery about how the British empire should never have allowed itself to be broken down, or allowed other countries to copy its Industrial Revolution tech, so it could have 'stayed strong' and dominated the world. Which suggested me me a lonely man with a tiny penis sitting alone in his bedroom.

No, it was fun, a much-needed party after a difficult few years.

I’m not going to explain British pluck, quiet pride, self-deprecation or support for the underdog to you. More research needed on your part there. Maybe watch The Italian Job for a ‘60s version of similar, it’s fun.

On Geri’s union flag dress, pp made a really important point about this being internal pride at reclaiming our flag from the racists; the National Front etc. The sensitivity of that choice is easy to forget, because it paid off. The England flag remains sensitive.

If you want to know what the self-proclaimed cool people (men mostly) thought about Britpop, the Spice Girls and Cool Britannia, read NME and Melody Maker of the time. You might find them in your university library, on microfiche.

Ok, our turn now, @Femusia

1. What’s your reason for posting?
2. What’s the reason you have - somewhat high-handedly, I suggest - actively disattended to the questions about your reason for posting?
3. Are you a bot? Are you AI? If yes, who are you working for?
4. Does it bother you that you’re not really having an organic, responsive, flowing conversation with the folk on the thread, you’re acting like Jeremy Paxman interrogating a studio audience and just low-key putting our backs up?

This is one of the odder threads I’ve read on Mumsnet, and I’ve been here a LONG time. 🤔

To engage with your spirit though OP.

Cultured Australians thought we were cultured. All the best ones emigrated here or to the US to escape Oz’s cultural desert. That was always my impression.

Saved us needing to pay any attention to the parochial perceptions of the folks left behind. Convenient really.

Cool Britannia was a marketing ploy, along with New Labour and all that. I never thought much of it and I'm not surprised that neither did Australians.

@Femusia I think it’s because the UK is Australia’s mother country so the UK is like a special, mysterious country in the eyes of Australians which they have to define themselves against to prove they are independent.

This must be one of the most bizarre paragraphs I've read on MN. You are clearly neither Australian nor British or you would know you were spouting a load of old cobblers.

We didn't do it for you.

You aren’t actually reading or comprehending the replies here @Femusia

It never crossed our minds what Australians thought about us. It didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter now. We don’t give a shit. And we absolutely don’t expect Australians to give a shit about what we are doing.

It was ever thus @BlettingMyMedlars (re your last sentence).

I’ve never forgiven Australia for David Campese.

Is that what you were after?

Round the Twist was GREAT though.

Exactly this! I don’t know what sort of answers you are seeking but you aren’t going to find them. I had family in Australia in the 70s and I have more there now but it makes no difference to my perception of Australia. We all just get on with our lives. Apart from tv shows like Neighbours and Round the Twist, and Kylie Minogue most people didn’t think of Australia at all! We certainly didn’t care what they thought of us, or considered what they might think. It’s a very ponderous question. As for the “mother country” language I think that disappeared pre-WWII if not WWI. From what I know of Australians they certainly don’t think of UK all the time as something to measure themselves against and vice versa. Your question is based upon a spurious assumption

Oh the other thing I remember is poor Peter Falconio and his partner who (as women seemed to in those days) was immediately deemed guilty of his murder because she didn't cry enough or something. Thankfully they got the fruit loop who did that.

It's interesting the decades OP seems to be interested in because all I see now on these decades is the True Crime shows which highlight corrupt cops in cities from 70s onwards, alongside a massive drugs problem and anti-gay violence. I don't know if he thinks those were halcyon days!

Too busy being pregnant and getting my MA.

I also didn't have a tv in whole of the 1990s.

Ohhh, is it the word Britannia that’s confused you OP? You’ve found ‘Cool’ and ‘Rule’ and falsely conflated the two?

That would explain your pre-WWI empire-steeped outlook.

“I’m really enjoying the 90s. We have some of the best music in the world, good telly, fun fashion trends and the economy is booming.

The only thing is, I’m concerned about what the Australians think of us. I’ve never been to Australia and it’s possible I never will, but what if they’re not enjoying our music and culture as much as we are? What if they don’t think we’re cool?”

Said no British person ever.

I never gave Australia a thought. Cool Britannia was a vibe, mixed in with the New Labour hopefulness. I liked it, albeit cringey to see posh suits pretend to be all edgy.

Good luck with your coursework.

No why would it?
Nobody really cared as i recall.
Neughbours and Home and Away were hugely popular in the late 80s and early 90s and earlier soap operas shown in the afternoon sons and daughters ,young doctors etc but other than that i dont remember being at all bothered by what Australians thought of the Uk.

Listen OP you're frankly sounding a bit weird here, and less like you're genuinely interested in people's opinions rather than determined to hear us say we all found the whole thing embarrassing and are devastated to learn Australians weren't into Cool Britannia. Is this actually for research? Your whole deal is a bit odd.

From most of the responses nobody gave a shit either way. We were busy with our lives and had no idea whether people on the other side found a brief moment in our popular culture either cringey or inspiring.