WHERE DO YOU MARK THE BEGINNING of Britpop on the intricate tree diagram of pop music history? Was it during the spring and summer of 1997 when Blur released Parklife in the April and Oasis Definitely Maybe in the August. Or was its year zero 1988, when the La’s put out their raggedy jangly debut, followed in 1989 by the Stone Roses' sugar-coated, jangle-rock classic.

We could go further back. Don’t the Smiths of the mid 80s, with Johnny Marr’s debt to the 1960s and 1970s and Morrissey’s bone-deep Englishness, also qualify? Or even further back, all the way to the late 1970s and the Jam who, we have argued elsewhere on State of Sound, came up with Britpop’s defining ethos.

And precisely where do we mark its end? Was it 1997, when Blur swerved left into American alt-rock on their self-titled album and Oasis released the flabbily overblown Be Here Now? Some would say it never really ended at all.

Given the conjecture, we have opted for the loosest of categorisations, from the Jam of 1977 through to today. Spreading our net so widely not only allows for the inclusion of two of Paul Weller’s most tender moments (from a time when he was widely considered to be Ray Davies’ angry spirit child), but also permits us to add some fine acoustic versions of Britpop classics, which have turned up in later years on deluxe reissues.