History Main / Blur

* {{Music.Blur}}, a {{Britpop}} band.
* {{VideoGame.Blur}}, a driving game.

* MotionBlur, a trope about using blurring to show speed.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blur_1_8547.jpg]]

Not to be confused with [[{{Game/Blur}} the video game]].

Blur are an AlternativeRock band from Colchester, England (though more often associated with London), chiefly existing in TheNineties. Partial founders of the {{Britpop}} movement. Consisted of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James, and drummer Dave Rowntree.

Debuted in 1989 on the Shoegazing scene as Seymour before signing to Food Records under the condition that they change their name to Blur (and, according to fan legend, that drummer Dave Rowntree stop wearing pyjama pants on stage). Soon after released their first album ''Leisure'' to moderate success, followed by the [[BritPop very British]] "[[TropeMaker Popscene]]" single and a tour of America [[AmericansHateTingle to predictable results]]. Achieved great success with ''Parklife'' a couple of years later, did SomethingCompletelyDifferent every couple of albums later until eventually dissolving after ''[[TheBandMinusTheFace Think Tank]]'' sometime around 2004. The original lineup, with Graham Coxon in tow, reunited in 2009 to [[{{Understatement}} much anticipation]] and released a new song, "Fool's Day" in the Spring of 2010.

[[AC:Discography]]
* ''Leisure'' (1991)
* ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' (1993)
* ''Parklife'' (1994)
* ''The Great Escape'' (1995)
* ''Blur'' (1997)
* ''13'' (1999)
* ''Think Tank'' (2003)

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!!This band provides examples of:
* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: For instance, Song 2's refrain (it has more lyrics than '''[[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein WOO-HOO]]''') goes "When I feel heavy meTAL / And I'm pins and needLES".
* AffectionateParody: The song "Song 2" parodies {{Grunge}}, while sounding better than most songs in the genre.
** It was intended to be an affectionate parody of Damon Albarn's favorite band at the time, {{Pavement}}. The lyrics might be, the music certainly isn't.
* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' in "For Tomorrow"
* AttractiveBentGender: Alex James in the "Parklife" video.
* TheBandMinusTheFace: Fans of Coxon saw ''Think Tank'' as this.
* BankHolidays: "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Bank Holiday]]", [[SarcasmMode weirdly enough]].
* BilingualBonus: "To The End" has {{Stereolab}} singer Lætitia Sadier speaking French between the lines of the verses.
** "Yuko and Hiro" features backing vocals in Japanese.
** "Girls and Boys" has a bit of GratuitousGerman.
** Also, a b-side to "Girls and Boys" called "People in Europe" contains lyrics in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Swedish, all with some embarrassingly bad pronunciation.
* BlackSheepHit: "Song 2" and, to a lesser extent, "Girls and Boys" in America.
* BlueBishonenGhetto: ''Oh yes.''
* BreakupSong: Most of ''13''.
* CallAndResponseSong: "Parklife", with the spoken lines done by [[EastEnders Phil Daniels]].
* ConceptAlbum: ''Modern Life is Rubbish'', ''Parklife'', and ''The Great Escape'' form a loose trilogy about the lives of the Working, Middle, and Upper classes in Britain, respectively.
* CreatorBacklash: in later years Albarn would disown ''The Great Escape'' for being artifical and slick, and the band are especially unkind about the big brass-band knees up "Country House" (their first number one).
* CreatorBreakdown: Most of the darker lyrics on ''13'' were directly inspried by Damon's breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Elastica singer Justine Frischmann, ''especially'' "Tender" and "No Distance Left To Run".
* DarkerAndEdgier: Their first few albums were bright and bubbly, but their albums gradually got darker and melancholy as their sound progressed, with the subject matter of ''13'' mainly being that of Damon's split from his girlfriend, having a very eerie and somber feel to it. ''Think Tank'' introduced African influences.
* DrugsAreBad: "Beetlebum" is about negative drug experiences that Damon Albarn had with the aforementioned Justine Frischmann.
** Bassist Alex James admitted to spending £1,000,000 on cocaine during the band's mid-90's heyday, a decision he regretted after becoming clean. After Blur broke up and he became a farmer and journalist, James went on assignment for the BBC to Columbia for the 2008 TV documentary ''[[http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/292/cocaine-diaries-alex-james-in-columbia.jsp Cocaine Dairies: Alex James in Columbia]]'', [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped about the horrors of the Columbian cocaine trade]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: "Death Of A Party" was originally recorded in 1992 as an acoustic demo, but not released. The band forgot about it until they rediscovered it in 1996 and released it on CD as that years fan club release. They liked it so much they decided to rerecord it for their 1997 album Blur. Remixes were commissioned, but it didn't make a full single.
** The same is true of the song "1992" which was written and home demoed in the year it's named after, but but was deemed too dark and depressing. That is, until 1999, when Blur made their dark and depressing album 13 on which it fit perfectly. The demo of "1992" has never been released. What is interesting about the 1999 version is that guitar effects are used which Blur hadn't used since their unreleased 1992 album (compare about 3:40 in "1992" to those at the end of "Into Another").
** "I Got Law" is an early demo version of the Gorillaz song "Tomorrow Comes Today". "I Got Law" is so obscure (it only appears as a bonus track to the Japanese version of ''13'') that it isn't known whether Damon actually wanted to release it.
* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Damon, especially around the Britpop years.
** The whole band, during the Britpop years. Damon and Alex were drop-dead gorgeous, Graham was very handsome, and Dave was attractive and looked Hollywood-ugly only when compared with the other three. This caused a backlash from many males, who compared Blur to boy-bands the likes of New Kids on the Block or Take That. This got to the point that the male fans (and some of the female ones) who respected the band talent and appreciated their music were immensely bothered that the girls swooned so much about the band members' looks, instead of focusing on their music. It is curious that as age has taken its toll, many people who didn't appreciate the band started to think their music was good.
* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench: "To The End," with an alternate version recorded entirely in French.
** As mentioned above the original featured French spoken word backing vocals by Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab. The all-French "La Comedie" version features vocals from Françoise Hardy.
* ExecutiveMeddling: One of the good examples. The band's label disliked what was to be their second album that they asked them to go back and start over again. Then when the band delivered that album to their label, the label claimed that it needed two more single-worthy songs. The album that resulted, ''Modern Life is Rubbish'', is considered one of the band's best albums. The two "singleworthy" songs, "For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World" were two of the band's biggest (at the time) and most popular songs. The already recorded first-try album was instead released as b-sides to the three singles from the new second-try (the third single being "Sunday Sunday"). those now-B-sides are decent, but are not considered to be stronger than the material on ''Modern Life is Rubbish''.
** An unfortunate example, from the same period is the track "Turn It Up" which the band hated but the American record label thought it would do well there, and was added to ''Modern Life is Rubbish'' at the expense of "Young And Lovely", which the band liked (that song became the B-side to "Chemical World").
* GenreShift: From shoegaze-pop to Britpop to blatantly {{Pavement}}ish to melancholic electronica to whatever the hell Think Tank was.
* GreatestHitsAlbum: Two: ''The Best of Blur'' (2000) and ''Midlife'' (2009), though ''Midlife'' wasn't much of a greatest-hits as a plain old retrospective, as it purposely excluded a few key singles like "There's No Other Way" and "Country House" (not because the band didn't like them but because [[ExecutiveMeddling their label]] wanted to market them as a Serious 90's Guitar Band) in favor of obscure album tracks like "Blue Jeans" and "Strange News from Another Star".
* HeyItsThatVoice: Damon also does vocals for {{Gorillaz}} (and The Good, The Bad, And The Queen, which has never been as well-known). Parklife, of course, had Phil Daniels in the speaking role.
* HoYay: The boys kissed on stage. [[YaoiFangirl Yaoi fangirls?]] You may now rejoice.
* IndecipherableLyrics: With some regularity, especially when distorted vocals become their norm
* LastNoteNightmare: Sing
* LoopedLyrics: "We've Got A File On You" is... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin well... just that.]] And nothing else. "Jets," as well.
* MurderBallad: "I'm Just A Killer For Your Love", [[IndecipherableLyrics if you can understand it]].
* MusicVideoOvershadowing: "Coffee and TV". That video with the walking milk box.
* NewSoundAlbum: The lesser half of them: ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'', ''Blur'', and ''Think Tank''.
* NonAppearingTitle: Anything with the word "Song" in it and pretty much nothing else. One of the very few other examples is "Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club".
* OneHitWonder: "Song 2" in America[[hottip:*:The song was actually never released as a single in America, so it wasn't able to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of its popularity comes from frequent airplay on rock radio stations]], although Blur are [[{{Understatement}} much bigger]] in Britain and the Commonwealth countries.
* PeekABangs: Alex, sometimes.
* RevivalByCommercialization: "Song 2" tends to get this a lot.
* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: The premise of "Crazy Beat"
* ShoutOut: The video for The Universal is a shout out to Stanley Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange.
** The video for "To The End" is a shout out to LastYearAtMarienbad.
** The "Parklife" video is a homage to TinMen.
* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: Song 2 goes "WOO-HOO."
* SignatureSong: Guess.
* SpellingSong: Top Man and B.L.U.R.E.M.I
* SpokenWordInMusic: Parklife, most notably.
* TruckDriversGearChange: B.L.U.R.E.M.I.

** An unfortunate example, from the same period is the track "Turn It Up" which the band hated but the American record label thought it would do well there, and was added to ''Modern Life is Rubbish'' at the expense of "Young And Lovely", which the band liked.

** An unfortunate example, from the same period is the track ''Turn It Up'' which the band hated but the American record label thought it would do well there. Blur wanted to put the song ''Young And Lovely'' on there instead which is considered one of their best albums.
** ''Crazy Beat'' may well be executive meddling for a single as it doesn't fit in with the rest of Think Tank at all, as well as the fact the band hate it. It may have been intended to appear later in the album but was bumped up so the album could be more marketable.

* CreatorBreakdown: Most of the darker lyrics on ''13'' were directly inspried by Damon's breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Elastica singer Justine Frischmann, ''especially'' "Tender", "No Distance Left To Run" and "1992".

** The same is true of the song "1992" which was written and home demoed in the year it's named after, but but was deemed too dark and depressing. That is, until 1999, when Blur made their dark and depressing album 13 on which it fit perfectly. The demo from 1992 has never been released. What is interesting about the 1999 version is that guitar effects are used which Blur hadn't used since their unreleased 1992 album (compare about 3:40 in 1992 to those at the end of Into Another).
** I Got Law is an early demo version of the Gorillaz song Tomorrow Comes Today. I Got Law is so obscure (13's Japanese bonus track only, never a B Side) that it isn't known whether Damon actually wanted to release it.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Death Of A Party was originally recorded in 1992 as an acoustic demo, but not released. The band forgot about it until they rediscovered it in 1996 and released it on CD as that years fan club release. They liked it so much they decided to rerecord it for their 1997 album Blur. Remixes were commissioned, but it didn't make a full single.
** The same is true of the song 1992 which was written and home demoed in the year it's named after, but but was deemed too dark and depressing. That is, until 1999, when Blur made their dark and depressing album 13 on which it fit perfectly. The demo from 1992 has never been released. What is interesting about the 1999 version is that guitar effects are used which Blur hadn't used since their unreleased 1992 album (compare about 3:40 in 1992 to those at the end of Into Another).

An AlternativeRock band from Colchester, England (though more often associated with London), chiefly existing in TheNineties. Partial founders of the {{Britpop}} movement. Consisted of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James, and drummer Dave Rowntree.

Debuted on the Shoegazing scene as Seymour before signing to Food Records under the condition that they change their name to Blur (and, according to fan legend, that drummer Dave Rowntree stop wearing pyjama pants on stage). Soon after released their first album ''Leisure'' to moderate success, followed by the [[BritPop very British]] "[[TropeMaker Popscene]]" single and a tour of America [[AmericansHateTingle to predictable results]]. Achieved great success with ''Parklife'' a couple of years later, did SomethingCompletelyDifferent every couple of albums later until eventually dissolving after ''[[TheBandMinusTheFace Think Tank]]'' sometime around 2004. The original lineup, with Graham Coxon in tow, reunited in 2009 to [[{{Understatement}} much anticipation]] and released a new song, "Fool's Day" in the Spring of 2010.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Their first few albums were bright and bubbly, but their albums gradually got darker and melancholy as their sound progressed, with the subject matter of ''13'' mainly being that of Damon's split from his girlfriend, and ''Think Tank'' having a very eerie and somber feel to it.

* GenreShift: From shoegaze-pop to Britpop to blatantly {{Pavement}}ish to whatever the hell Think Tank was.

* OneHitWonder: ''Song 2'' in America, although Blur are [[{{Understatement}} much bigger]] in Britain and the Commonwealth countries.

* BilingualBonus: "To The End" has Stereolab singer Lætitia Sadier speaking French between the lines of the verses.

* BlackSheepHit: "Song 2" and, to a lesser extent, "Girls and Boys" in America

** "Yuko and Hiro" has backing vocals in Japanese.
** Also, "Girls and Boys" has a bit of GratuitousGerman.

* BilingualBonus: "To The End" has Stereolab singer Lætitia Sadier speaking French between the lines of the verses.

* CreatorBacklash: in later years Albarn would disown ''The Great Escape'' for being artifical and slick, and the band are especially unkind about the big brass-band knees up "Country House" (their second number one).

* DrugsAreBad: "Beetlebum" is about negative drug experiences that Damon Albarn had with the afformentioned Justine Frischmann.

* DrugsAreBad: "Beetlebum" is about negative drug experiences that Damon Albarn had with the afformentioned Justin Frischmann.

* HoYay: The boys kiss on stage. And grope one another. And some sources have indicated that Alex and Damon have kissed each other... [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean down there.]] [[YaoiFangirl Yaoi fangirls?]] You may now rejoice.

* BreakupSong: Most of "13".