Anyway, Heres Wonderwall (and 20 More of the Best Oasis Songs) The Gallagher brothers reunite for a sold-out UK tour in the latest example of the lucrative business of nostalgia. Plus: A dream set list.
By
Bryan Parys
September 24, 2024
Liam (left) and Noel Gallagher
Image has been modified. Original image courtesy of Shymanet (CC BY-NC 4.0)
First, a disclaimer: I have been a dedicated Oasis fan since I was in eighth grade, when my college-aged sister tossed a CD copy of (What's the Story) Morning Glory? at me and said, Listen to this and tell me if it's any good. (Confession: I never told her it was good so that I could hoard it for myself.) Since then, I can't tell you how many times I've had a recurring dream where the band asks the audience if anyone out there can play the guitar solo to Live Forever, only to see me jumping up and down, begging for the chance.
This all to say, I cannot be objective on this subject, and I can't believe my boss let me write this article. However, I promise the goal here is not to create Oasis stans, but rather to look at why the news of their reunion and tour has made headline news, despite the band not releasing any new music since 2008.
Oasis Was Never a Paradise A big reason the Oasis reunion tour announcement has been so popular is due to the contentious relationship between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher. Their sibling rivalry has been headline fodder since the release of their debut album Definitely Maybe in 1994, and has continued to make news all the way to the present.
When they released Morning Glory in 1995, their popularity grew to a global scale off the megahit singles Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, and Don't Look Back in Anger, which are still mainstays on radio and streaming (in fact, the hugely popular YouTube music critic Rick Beato recently explained why Champagne Supernova is the best Oasis song). However, the band's first North American tour was beset with fraternal spats, which led Noel to quit the band briefly at one point.
Their fraught tour should've halted their meteoric rise, as it soured many American listeners (believe me-I took constant flak for being a die-hard past the Wonderwall era). Their mythology as a swaggering rock band marked by clickbait-worthy drama kept them in the public eye, however, despite diminishing returns on their later albums, followed by what felt like a definitive breakup in 2009.
The Big Business of NostalgiaA broader explanation for the buzz around the reunion is, quite simply: nostalgia sells. Oasis is by no means the first band to recognize this, and they've been turning down highly lucrative offers to reunite basically since they split.
Berklee professor and musicologist Joe Bennett spoke with a radio program in the United Arab Emirates (Bennetts interview begins 22 minutes into the broadcast) on this topic, and pointed out that reunions on this scale have been happening for decades. He cited as notable examples the Eagles 1994 album and tour cheekily titled Hell Freezes Over and a one-off Led Zeppelin show in 2007, given that both bands had made it very clear years earlier that their breakups were definitive. ABBA kinda-sorta reunited in 2016-34 years after splitting up in 1982-when they announced a new tour . . . featuring hologram avatars rather than the actual band members.
You're very susceptible to the pop music from that formative period [of ages 12-25]. . . . The industry knows this . . . and Oasis are no more immune to those market forces than anybody else.
- Joe Bennett
Bennett explains that legacy tours like this sell so well because for their fans, it's a visceral reminder of the culture that existed as they were discovering their identities between the ages of 12 and 25. You're very susceptible to the pop music from that formative period, Bennett says, pointing out that, in psychological terms, this phenomenon is referred to as the reminiscence bump. He continues, the industry knows this, and can commercially mobilize around it, and Oasis are no more immune to those market forces than anybody else.
As someone who discovered Oasis within that reminiscence bump, it makes sense that I am absolutely ecstatic about this reunion-and the fact that somehow, in 2024, they broke Ticketmaster for their UK performances in a very similar way to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. However, if you ever indulged in the many jokes about Oasis just being Beatles rip-offs, but you're still planning to grab a ticket for this tour: As long as you let me get in that digital queue ahead of you, I won't look back in anger.
Oasis Set List Predictions and Personal PicksBefore we get to my dream set list, here are a few predictions and thoughts about how Oasis might sequence their reunion performances.
What They Will Open With Rock n Roll Star : First song off the first off album, and the line Tonight, I'm a rock n roll star is an overt and obvious mission statement. Musically, it opens with a definitive Noel guitar riff, with the rest of the band building up behind him for drama.
What They Should Open With Columbia: Also off the first album, but no one will expect it, so it'll pack a surprise punch. Also, the trancey four-on-the-floor beat allows the band to draw the crowd in, even for those unfamiliar with the song, all while building to some of Noel's most gripping lead work. Drawing more on the Stone Roses than the Beatles, it's an up-front declaration that the rock band you thought you knew can also groove.
What Will Come Next Acquiesce : What you follow your opening song with on a reunion tour is almost more important than the first song. The first song has a low bar because the moment the lights go down and the band walks out, the audience will already be losing their mind. The second song,
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Anyway, Heres Wonderwall (and 20 More of the Best Oasis Songs) The Gallagher brothers reunite for a sold-out UK tour in the latest example of the lucrative business of nostalgia. Plus: A dream set list.
