Blur

Blur is the name of a British rock band. Originally called Seymour, Blur formed in London in 1989 from the remnants of a band called Circus. Vocalist/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist/backing vocalist

Blur is the name of a British rock band. Originally called Seymour, Blur formed in London in 1989 from the remnants of a band called Circus. Vocalist/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist/backing vocalist Graham Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree, with bassist Alex James joining the lineup.

Blur were one of the British bands who appeared in the wake of the Stone Roses's eponymous album, mixing psychedelic pop rock with very loud guitars. Following an image change in the mid-'90s, the group emerged as one of the most popular bands in the U.K., establishing themselves as heir to the English pop tradition of the Kinks, the Small Faces, the Who, the Jam, Madness, and the Smiths. In the process, the group broke open the doors for a new generation of bands who became labelled as Britpop. With Damon Albarn's wry lyrics and 'mockney' vocals, Graham Coxon's remarkable guitar work and the group's pop mastery, Blur were one of the leaders of the Britpop movement. However they quickly became bound to it; since they were one of its biggest bands, they nearly fell apart when the movement itself subdued. Through some reinvention, Blur reclaimed their position as an art pop rock band in the late 1990s by incorporating indie rock and lo-fi influences of the American bands in the style of Pavement and R.E.M., which finally gave them their elusive American success in 1997. But the band's legacy remained in Britain, where they helped reinvent the guitar pop music by skilfully enriching the country's pop traditions.