Dans les années 1990, le rock britannique revient sur le devant de la scène, porté par des groupes tels Blur, Oasis, Pulp et Suede, que la presse rassemble sous l'étiquette Britpop. Non contents de s'inspirer des grands groupes locaux des années 1960, comme les Beatles, ces musiciens se distinguent par une écriture et une image profondément ancrées dans leur propre identité britannique, et évoquent volontiers dans leurs chansons le mode de vie de la jeunesse comme la culture de la classe ouvrière. Cette renaissance sur les plans musical et culturel (participant au phénomène Cool Britannia) est contemporaine de la rénovation de l'idéologie et de l'image du Parti travailliste, qui devient New Labour sous la férule de Tony Blair, intéressé par la vision positive de la britannicité dépeinte par la Britpop. Dans la course aux élections législatives de 1997, le chef de l'opposition cherche à présenter son parti comme jeune et moderne, et se rapproche des acteurs de la scène rock de l'époque dans le but de courtiser l'électorat jeune qui fait défaut à la gauche depuis les années 1980. L'utilisation du rock en tant qu'outil de soutien politique pourrait néanmoins paraître contre-Nature à cause du rôle traditionnel de ce genre musical, lié aux sous-Cultures et mouvements contestataires. L'étude des excroissances du mouvement Britpop, visibles jusqu'à l'accession de Gordon Brown au poste de Premier ministre en 2007, permettra de dégager l'existence d'une veine critique et contestataire au sein de cette même scène rock, proposant une vision plus réaliste de la société, rappelant l'idée de Broken Britain mise en avant par les Conservateurs à cette époque. / In the 1990s, a string of successful bands such as Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede, inspired by glorious forefathers like the Beatles, revived the British rock genre. The press was quick to dub this new scene "Britpop", to describe the way these bands drew their inspiration from their own sense of Britishness, both in their appearance and in their lyrics, which documented several aspects of youth and working-Class cultures in Britain. Meanwhile, the Labour Party was undergoing a similar kind of rebirth under the influence of Tony Blair, who rebranded his party as New Labour. Since Britpop offered a positive, near-Patriotic vision of Britishness in line with the spirit of "Cool Britannia", Blair sought to obtain a very visible support from the Britpop scene in the run-Up to the 1997 general election. This was conceived as a way to help rejuvenate the Labour Party's image and to secure the youth vote which had eluded the left since the 1980s. However, the traditional view of rock music (as a type of protest music, prone to generating subcultures) hardly seems compatible with the idea that it could be used to support a mainstream political party. As the Britpop format went on to influence homegrown rock music into the next decade, with Gordon Brown succeeding Blair as Prime Minister in 2007, it seems several bands took British rock back to its primary, subversive function by painting a realistic picture of British society, closer to the concept of "Broken Britain" than to that of "Cool Britannia".

Storbritannien präglades på 1990-talet av politiskt och kulturellt nytänkande med New Labour och kulturfenomenet Cool Britannia samtidigt som IKEA försökte etablera sig i landet. Min diskurshistoriska analys undersöker hur IKEAs reklamkampanjer “Chuck out your chintz” och “Stop being so English” anpassades till framväxande föreställningar om ett nytt Storbritannien. Studien motiveras av att det finns ett forskningsgap när det gäller IKEAs reklamanpassning i nationella marknader och utgår från Douglas B. Holts kulturella varumärkesteori om hur varumärken blir ikoniska genom identitetsmyter som riktar sig till kulturella motsättningar. Resultaten pekar på interdiskursivitet i New Labours och IKEAs kommunikation med ett ideologiskt narrativ om ett modernt och klasslöst samhälle. I “Stop being so English” framträder även en ideologi om sexuell liberalism som kopplas ihop med IKEAs svenska betoning i sin marknadsföring. Analysen indikerar att IKEA konstruerade en identitetsmyt som jämnade ut kulturella motsättningar om social klass och nationell identitet där människor kunde delta i det nya Storbritannien som konsumenter. Då företag som IKEA använder kulturell marknadsföring kan reklam tillämpas i idéhistoriska undersökningar för att belysa samhällsförändringar. Reklam kan vara ett kulturellt uttryck som är bärare av föreställningar och genom att identifiera identitetsmyter i reklamen kan man urskilja de ideologier som verkar i en kultur.

The gay male emerged as a visible public consumer during 1990s, when the LGBTQ movement in the United Kingdom and the United States was marked by conflicting commercial and political motives, heightened by the AIDS crisis. The cultural tension surrounding the gay male subject was reflected through various literary expressions. In the United Kingdom Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking (1996), as part of the in-yer-face theatre, exploded in the face of the bourgeoisie. In the US America Dennis Cooper’s highly publicised George Miles Cycle (1989-2000), was followed by The Sluts (2004) as part of the transgressive literature, provoking both straight and gay communities. Through an analysis of themes such as capitalism, commerce, hyperreality, internalised fear, desire, and violence in the works, an alternative image of the gay male is distinguished. This is an image of the gay male subject that is complex, multi-faceted, contradictory and polyvalent. The characters relate differently to the hegemonic hyperreal role model, but are exposed to the same social structure that dictates their living conditions and positioning them as objects possible to practice violence on. The works provide a widened and complicated image the public image of the gay male. Their countercultural narratives trace how the gay male subject have been affected by the heteronormative society. When the provided stereotype is too narrow to express the burden and the joy of the contemporary gay male subject, alternatives, like the depictions by Ravenhill and Cooper, may allow the subject to fully possess the gay experiences of pain, sorrow and anger that he has been forced to bear. This research explores how the violence within the texts holds a liberating potential.