Oasis: culture, business and demographics

Write something about the Oasis reunion the boss said...

Here goes. In terms of branding, Oasis have got a strong visual identity, haven’t they? The teaser for the Live ’25 tour announcement is all Oasis-y without having to literally say “Oasis”. A lesson to all on the value of distinctive assets and the importance of stand out. And when you saw it, did you feel mad for it all over again? It’s a great example of the power of iconic design to trigger meaning and emotion, helping bands (and brands!) land what exactly what they stand for. It’s testament to its originator's (Brian Cannon and Microdot) design chops. Job done.

Not quite. Because the popularity of Oasis now stretches over 3 decades, there’s something more to say about the changes in culture, business, and demographics that they’ve navigated – that perhaps gives us a clue about the future too.

As well as a lesson in the power of design and branding, the Oasis reunion shows the challenge in becoming mainstream, how digitisation continues to disrupt value chains, and – perhaps most importantly – how markets will potentially need to reorientate themselves around more influential, dominant and older consumer groups.

Let’s start with culture. Similar to today, back in 1996 Oasis played two concerts at Knebworth, and 2.6mn people – 5 per cent of the British population at the time – applied for tickets. A resolutely analogue band, Noel Gallagher proudly described these shows (with an audience of 250,000 per night) as “the last great gathering before the birth of the Internet”.

Oasis were around before Facebook, before YouTube, before iPhones, before Spotify, before TikTok. In a world of limited choice, their brand could penetrate a huge base through broadcast media, at a time before pop culture was fragmented at the hands of technology and its algorithms. Oasis were mass market, whereas today the market is a mass of niches – making it much harder for any band to dominate the country’s life in quite the same way Oasis did (do?).

In terms of business, here’s some data to chew on. Back in 1996, a ticket for Knebworth (where support acts included the likes of the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers) cost ￡22.50. Adjusted for inflation, this would be the equivalent of around ￡45 today. To put that into context, over the weekend, dynamic pricing meant that tickets for next summer’s tour reached ￡350 through the official channels. On the flip side, back in 1996 the album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (12 tracks) on CD cost the equivalent of a Spotify Premium subscription (over 100 million songs) for 2 months.

This illustrates the profound effect digitisation has had on our economies and where value now lies. In the age of the CD, shows were almost loss leaders that helped artists sell physical albums (again, Morning Glory sold over 22mn copies around the world). Now, in the age of streaming, the situation is reversed, bands make their real dough through tours. Oasis’s own 17 date tour is expected to net the Gallagher brothers about ￡50mn each.

And now for demographics. Perhaps the seemingly evergreen popularity of Oasis, who had their heyday first time well over a quarter of a century ago, is a sign of things to come: the cultural hegemony of the old.

The year after Knebworth, in Britain, Tony Blair would become Prime Minister at the age of 43, and a key part of his election strategy was convincing a thousand-year-old country to think of itself as young. Back then, the median age of the UK was well under 40, today, it’s crossed the other side of that line (by the time next year's tour comes around, Noel will be 58 and Liam will be 52). And it’s not just Britain, as people are living longer and having less kids, the whole world is getting older. By 2030 it's extremely unlikely that anywhere in the Americas or Europe will have a fertility rate above replacement.

For as long as anyone can remember, young people and their interests have shaped the tastes of the rest of the population, but that influence might be fading. In an aging society, the younger demographic loses some of its previous sway. As the population skews older, their preferences and spending habits will become more pronounced (was The Matrix being back on the big screen for its 25th anniversary this summer driven by Gen X’s nostalgia?). Perhaps the cultural and economic power that once made youth the arbiters of taste and style will begin to wane, and their views and interests will be squeezed out and marginalised? If you’re under 40 and you’re reading this, I’m sorry about that, but you gotta roll with it.

As always, thanks to my colleagues at Design Bridge and Partners for encouraging me to develop a point-of-view and giving me the time to write it up!