Oasis
Formed around brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher in Manchester, Oasis rebuilt Beatles-scale melodic bravado into something loud, laddish, and made for terraces rather than art galleries, turning (What's the Story) Morning Glory? into one of the best-selling British albums ever. Noel's knack for an instantly singable chorus, paired with Liam's sneering delivery, made Oasis the definitive sound of mid-1990s Britpop excess and its accompanying tabloid war with Blur.
The British press labeled Oasis's devotion to the Beatles an outright obsession, and Noel Gallagher never really disputed it — the band's melodic instincts, string-laden ballads, and studio ambition all trace straight back to Liverpool.
listen forCue the Beatles' Hey Jude, then Oasis's Don't Look Back in Anger — both stake everything on a slow-building, mass-singalong payoff, right down to the piano-led opening.
Noel Gallagher has said Oasis's Live Forever was directly inspired by the Rolling Stones' Shine a Light, taking that song's slow-build, gospel-tinged uplift and rebuilding it as a Britpop anthem.
listen forPlay the Stones' Shine a Light back to back with Live Forever — the tempo and swagger differ, but that same rising, redemptive chord movement is unmistakably borrowed.
Alongside their Beatles fixation, Oasis's members have pointed to Never Mind the Bollocks and 1970s punk as formative listening, and it surfaces as a sneering, confrontational edge underneath the band's more polished melodies.
listen forPut on the Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the U.K., then Oasis's Bring It On Down — both snarl through a simple, driving riff with a genuine chip-on-the-shoulder sound the string sections never quite smoothed out of Oasis.