Something has to be said about Oasis that people who idolise them need to note: they had their idols, but they didn’t try to be them. Oasis are very upfront about those who they were a fan of when they initially started making music, as they speak about the likes of The Beatles as being one of the primary reasons they even started playing music in the first place. However, The Beatles might be a big influence on them, but Oasis don’t sound like The Beatles.
What Oasis managed to do was be inspired by those who have come before them but lean heavily into a unique sound that separated them from others. Many people who are inspired by Oasis don’t take this lesson on board, as they end up writing music that sounds like an Oasis tribute instead of something unique inspired by Oasis.
The key is to be upfront about who inspired you to play music but separate what you make enough to have something different. If Oasis can look at The Beatles and want to make music because of them but then create something completely separate from what The Beatles made, that’s the true evolution of music and is what people should be aspiring for.
Their love for The Beatles is evident not only because they reference the band a fair bit but also because of how much they use them as a yardstick for success. This is seen in how they talk about many musicians who came after them, as they labelled one specific rockstar, who was also a musical pioneer, as the perfect blend between John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
When Kurt Cobain and Nirvana first burst onto the scene, their music was widely met with scepticism because it was so far removed from what people were used to. Grunge was completely separate from what fans of rock music and punk liked, but it ushered in a brand new movement in terms of music, subject matter and style. Their influence is undeniable, and Noel Gallagher agrees.
“The only person I have any respect for as a songwriter over the last ten years is Kurt Cobain. He was the perfect cross between Lennon and McCartney,” he said. “He belted it out like Lennon, but his melodies were so Paul McCartney. They were dead bouncy up and down-jolly melodies, but he was a miserable fuck at the same time.”
Gallagher went on to say that he often sees himself in Kurt Cobain. “A lot of people have likened my songwriting style to Kurt Cobain’s, which I tend to agree with most of the time. We both use basic chord structures, dead simple, no more than four chords,” he said. “What’s the point in fucking about?… If you were to write out the music in sheet form, some of Cobain’s songs would look exactly like mine, and vice versa.”
Artists don’t need to imitate their influences. While The Beatles were a significant influence on Oasis, they didn’t try to copy their songwriting style, but Gallagher admired the band and tried to find their influence in the music around him. He found it predominantly in Kurt Cobain, who, similar to Gallagher, could take from his influences but not replicate them, creating a new style of music in the process.
