Five Reasons Oasis Should Be in the Rock Hall of Fame

In their heyday, Oasis ruffled more than a few feathers with their borderline arrogant confidence and take-no-prisoners attitude toward their work. For some, this wasn't appealing, but for others, it screamed rock 'n' roll.

The numbers, however, spoke for themselves. A little over a year after they signed with the independent Creation Records, Oasis had a hit album on their hands in the form of 1994's Definitely Maybe, an immensely popular release in their native U.K. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? followed in 1995, featuring "Wonderwall," the "Stairway to Heaven" of Britpop. That album propelled the band into the international spotlight, particularly brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.

"It's a dream, really, isn't it?" Noel said to Hotpress in 1994. "You dream of being on Top of the Pops, you dream of being in the back of posh cars, of not having to pay for anything, of loose women, and all the rest of it. That's all come true, so you might as well enjoy it while you can, before it finishes. You're only going to get five years out of all this."

But Oasis got more than that. Six of their seven studio albums, the last of which was released in 2008, have made the Top 25 in the U.S., and all seven made the No. 1 slot in the U.K.

With a track record like that, it's not difficult to see why Oasis would be considered for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But we're taking it further than that in the below five reasons.

They're the Most Influential Band of the Britpop Era

While Americans were being introduced to grunge with bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, Britain was experiencing a whole other kind of musical movement in the form of Britpop. Among the leading figures: Suede, Pulp, the Verve and, Oasis' most prominent rival, Blur. Regardless of one's own personal tastes, Oasis came out of the '90s as arguably the most influential band of the Britpop era, with an entire legion of aspiring musicians following in their footsteps. "The Oasis period as I call it," one U.K. music shop owner recalled in 2020, "where everyone wanted to buy a guitar."

'Wonderwall,' One Billion Streams and Counting

Having a song reach the level of cultural impact that Oasis' "Wonderwall" did is a duel-edged sword — both Gallagher brothers have spoken about their love/hate relationship with the song that effectively cemented them as history-making musicians. After its release in 1995, "Wonderwall," an anthemic ballad that was recorded in just a handful of takes, became an inescapable. For one reason or another, "Wonderwall" has continued to resonate with listeners and remains as recognizable now as it did then. In October 2020, it became the very first song from the '90s to reach over one billion streams on Spotify.

Their 1996 Knebworth Performance Is Still the Largest Demand for a Concert in British History 

The list of artists who've played the Knebworth Festival reads like, well, a list of artists who've already been inducted into the Rock Hall: The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Elton John, etc. In 1996, Oasis played two shows at the legendary event, each with an audience of 125,000, which made it one of Britain's largest outdoor concerts in history at that time. But what's even more telling is the number of people who did not get tickets – 2.5 million people applied for tickets, the largest demand for a concert in British history to date. 

Sibling Rivalry (and Collaboration) Is An Evergreen Part of Rock Music

Where would rock 'n' roll be without a healthy dose of sibling rivalry? Dire Straits, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, Heart, the Kinks — the list continues. Some of the best music in the rock canon has been the result of sibling collaboration. "I always say that making music with your family is equally the greatest strength and the greatest weakness you could ever have in a musical partnership," Noel said in the 2020 film The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart. "You've got the brothers singing. And when you've got brothers singing it's like an instrument that nobody else can buy. You can't go buy that sound in a shop."

Their Influence Ranged From the Beatles to the Sex Pistols, Carrying the Torch of Rock 'n' Roll Into the 21st Century

There once was a running joke that Oasis was essentially the world's most popular Beatles tribute band, prompted by the very accurate assessment that the Fab Four were a major influence on Oasis' songwriting. But this, of course, is a crucial part of the mission of the Rock Hall, to demonstrate how the torch has been passed from one generation of musicians to the next. In Oasis' case, they fused elements of British rock stalwarts like the Beatles, Stones and the Who, with the nonconformist and self-deprecating approaches of bands like the Sex Pistols, the Smiths and the Cure. And in turn another generation of bands was influenced by Oasis: Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, the Killers and so on.