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?

I was 15 in 95, a lot of us grey up watching Neighbours/Home & Away. Kylie Minogue had been popular in the charts since the 80s. I know a few people who went travelling there & some family had emigrated there. A strong/positive cultural presence I think.

It used to keep me awake at nights...🙃

I got the impression Brits were coming out of a time of drudgery & the the excessive 80’s, living in bedsits and being a bit poor & depressed.

the music revival, huge party/rave/club scene, gave a young Brits (mid 20’s) a new feeling of “dammit we’re ok, life is good, let’s party & celebrate”.

I went to Australia several times during the 80s/90s, mainly on stopovers when visiting my sister in NZ. Over time, the stopovers got longer than the NZ visits and at one point I seriously considered moving to Perth. I can't say the Aussies seemed "colonial" or even "post-colonial" then and they were definitely Australian not "ex-British". The Kiwis were more inclined to tell you their dad came from Lancashire (or wherever) and expect you to care.

I think it's reasonable to suggest that most sane Brits have never cared what people on the other side of the world (or just on the other side of the Channel) think of them, any more than the French do.

The Spice Girls were NOT the epitome of feminism and female empowerment. Nor was 90s UK culture. That was the era of 'the ladette' - the idea that women's 'empowerment' was being like 'one of the lads', i.e. defined in terms of aping male behaviour and oh-so-handily fitting in with male needs.

It's a bit like what is called 'cool girls' now - the ones whose performance of liberation has a close eye on what the men value.

It was crammed with the attitudes and abuses that the #Metoo movement was a reaction against - pressuring women to want sex on male terms and positioning them as wrong or somehow old-fashioned if they wanted the space to let their sexuality express itself on its own terms.

I assume you are an Australian sociology undergrad, @Femusia based on the time you’re posting and the structure of your responses to posters.
Would it be too much of a stretch to use manners, you know - please and thank you?
I have plenty to say on the subject you’re asking about but frankly your attitude isn’t going to get a word from me.

Never remotely interested in Cool Britannia and didn’t have a clue what Australia were thinking or doing. Spice girls were just a flash in the pan short term pop group who had a few decent songs - hardly influential nor ground breaking except maybe for a small teenage demographic group who may have been over invested in 5 average singers put together by a record production firm.

I was a teen in the 90s and can quite honestly say I don’t think I ever thought about Australia at all, and certainly never in the sense of being a ‘mother country’. I did watch Neighbours though.

Please say you’re not writing an article with such a strange, naive viewpoint.

There were loads of people travelling both ways. You didn’t have to look hard in London anyway to find an Aussie. In Australia, many were born in theUK or had a parent/ parents who were.

Australia never crossed my mind unless I was watching neighbours. sure we envied the blond fit teenagers and their outdoorsy ways but that’s about it

What do YOU think?

I read somewhere that the whole Brit Pop thing was a reaction to the Grunge import from the U.S. as a Seattle based grunge scene and what they were singing about, especially the introspection, naval gazing, depressive tone didn't resonate culturally with your average teen from London living in New Malden for example! I loved grunge early nineties but I was only first years of secondary school, we all ditched that not so much for 'Brit Pop' but good alternative or indie bands. Where I went to school Blur was popular as I was in London and actually, yes, songs like 'Park Life' could be culturally understood. In terms of what Australia thought, I don't think anyone I knew tbh had any notion of that being relevant to their life.

Australia was mostly TV - Neighbours, Home & Away, Flying Doctors. Then soap stars releasing records - Jason Donovan, Kylie, Natalie Imbruglia, even Craig McLachlan and Stefan Dennis.

They were good at sport.

Didn't think about Australian politics at all.

We had Blur and Pulp and Oasis.

Well the bars were full of hot young Australian men in the 90's, loads of them travelled here back then and worked as bar staff.
My friend ended up marrying one and moving to Australia! I may have shagged one or two 😂

We didn’t have the internet. We didn’t think much about Australia, or anywhere further or more exotic than where we were likely to go on holiday.

I was 13 in mid 1997, things just felt optimistic new labour, Brit pop was everywhere people had jobs and homes were affordable, I was also 13 so not fully in touch with the world but it felt like a great time to be alive. It also coincided with a career change for my mum and a promotion for my dad, so we also went from being on the bones of our arses and the electricity meter cutting out, to actually going on a plane for the first time ever (we were still broke by MN standards but that was huge to me and my brother) and we actually got a car (a very old one) and didn't have to bus and walk everywhere. Not relevant to the cultural Zeitgeist but definitely to my experience of that time

ETA didn't think about Australia at all unless I was off school and watched Neighbours

No one in the UK in the 90s gave Australia a second thought 😂 Honestly, outside of watching Neighbours and Home & Away I very much doubt any of my family if friends even remembered it existed most of the time.

So in short - no one gave a toss OP.

DH and I were singing the Round the Twist song yesterday

This. I was in my 20s, having a great time in London, a good income for the first time, enjoying the fashion & music, discovering a whole new world of food and art and travel.

I don't remember giving Australia a second thought because there was the whole of Europe to explore.

Very odd thing to start a thread about.

In the 90s in the UK I never thought about Australia as a country other than 1. Neighbours (but I never watched it) 2. Kylie 3. There were a lot of Aussies living in London. Some worked in pubs or as au pairs & they hung out a lot in Earls Court.

I did visit Australia in the 90s on a work trip. I was there for 3 weeks (Sydney) so long enough to form an opinion & found it culturally backward compared to the UK at the time, with more traditional attitudes.

@Femusia I think you are massively over thinking this and I can't work out whether it's for an article.

But to me as a teen in the UK "cool Britannia" wasn't really a thing. I liked the bands and music but even I could see the "cool Britannia" nonsense was just press hype.

My primary identity was European not British. I travelled to Europe a lot and had friends from countries across Europe

Oh yes, and cricket

I was a teenager in the 90s. I remember watching Steve Irwin and thinking he was absolutely crazy, until I realised what he was doing was for animal conservation. I then developed a deep admiration for him. Towards, the late 90s, I thought Neighbours and home and away was really naff (although, I enjoyed it in the late 80s and early 90s). I remember the cool Brittania phase, but I never owned any union Jack's and don't recall it being a big deal amongst my friends, other than loving Britpop. As far as I was concerned, Australia was it's own independent country, that the UK was friendly with and I didn't give any more thought to what they thought of us. I would say American culture had a bigger impact on the youth in the 90s UK than Europe or Australia.

Australia was largely thought of as a place where young backpackers came from to Europe, to see European culture. It was a country of kangaroos and neighbours and dame Edna everadge. Muriels wedding and Priscilla queen of the desert informed Brits about modern Australia.
It wasn't an aspirational country culturally for Brits. Those who wanted to move there wanted sea, sun and swimming pools.

I have never given Australia a second thought. I was in my early 20s in the era you describe. I don't really understand your question.

The1990s. When students / young people could afford a gap year or overseas experience (terminology depending on country off origin).

There was a lot of crossover in the touristy places. Sydney, Manly, Byron Bay was full of Brits, Shepherds Bush and Cornwall full of Aussies.

UK has lots of Australian TV. Neighbours, home and away and the Australian pop stars that came from that scene. Australian film stars and films were doing well too. Australia had British TV, film and pop music too.

Happy days! Both countries were doing well.