Manchester and beyond: Oasis, identity and performance.

Call for book chapters

On the occasion of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory’s 30th anniversary and the band’s phenomenal 2025 reunion, multidisciplinary contributions within the fields of cultural studies, literature, history, musicology, linguistics, and political science (among others) are sought for an edited volume examining Oasis’s place in British popular culture. 

As the music industry has been rocked by successive crises – from the digitisation of music consumption to post-Brexit restrictions on exports and touring – Oasis’s successful reunion raises questions about the evolution of practices and consumption patterns in popular music and culture in general. 

The band’s lasting success since the 1990s also warrants an analysis of their songs and their ability to reflect British society in general, its political and cultural developments in particular, over a long and tumultuous period. 

Particular focus needs to be brought on individual mechanisms of identification which seem to be at the heart of many fans' affection for the band. 

Moreover, Oasis have often been assigned several adjectives, such as Mancunian, northern, or working-class, but what to make of such labels when it comes to an artistic enterprise that is subject to the changing perceptions of a particular audience? 

Contributions on, but not limited to, the following topics will be particularly welcome:

• Working-class identity / a working class voice?

• Regional identities (Manchester, northernness) and national identities (Englishness, Britishness, Irishness)

• Gender identities and masculinity in the band’s work, especially in the context of lad culture but also in the post-#MeToo world

• Commercial success and international perception (especially Morning Glory’s success in the United States)

• Influence on post-Britpop pop and rock music

• Political dimension of the band’s work, musicians’ political stances (from New Labour to Brexit)

• The band’s adaptation to the music industry’s crises.

Proposals (300-word abstract along with a short biography) should be sent to the organisers: aurore.caignet@univ-rennes2.fr, guillaume.clement@univ-rennes.fr, and david.haigron@univ-rennes2.fr  by 30 March 2026.  Best regards, Aurore Caignet, Guillaume Clément & David Haigron.