Selective memory can be a marvellous thing. It ensures we are never wrong, always right and (best of all) that we have always had such impeccable taste in music.

In Britain there were a lot of drugs about in the nineties—a lot of bad drugs—which might explain why so many of us—who lived through that heady decade—only recall the really good stuff rather than all that crap we apparently really enjoyed—Mr Blobby? Babylon Zoo? Rednex? Will Smith?—well, somebody bought this shit, how else did it all get to #1?

Personally, I have no recollection (officer) as to how all these records charted, but I can certainly give you a brief illustrated history of what we were actually listening to and what we all supposedly liked.

Exhibit #1: Select magazine

Select was arguably the magazine of the 1990s—the one that best represented (or at least covered) what happened during that decade—well, if you lived in the UK that is. Select had attitude, swagger and wit and was very, very opinionated. It didn’t tug its forelock or swoon before too many stars—though it certainly had its favorites.

Select kicked off in July 1990 with his purple highness Prince on the cover. It was a statement of the kind of magazine they were going to be—cool, sophisticated, sexy, sharp. Prince was good—everybody loves Prince. It didn’t last long. Over the next few months, the magazine struggled to find a musical movement it could wholeheartedly endorse. In its search for the next big thing—even The Beatles (rather surprisingly) featured on its cover.

Select threw its weight behind such bands as Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Blur and most significantly Suede—who never quite managed the level of success the magazine hoped for. Then Select did something remarkable—rather than follow the trend the magazine decided to shape it.

In April 1993, Select published an article by journalist Stuart Maconie entitled “Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr. Cobain?” In it Maconie made a very convincing case for abandoning the influence of American music (grunge) and taking up with the “crimplene, glamour, wit, and irony” of local British talent.

Maconie offered up a list of bands he thought would make it big—Suede, Saint Etienne, Denim, The Auteurs and Pulp—lumping them together under the title “Britpop.” Within a year—the idea of one journalist had become a movement of disparate bands, genres and styles—from Oasis to Blur, Elastica to Pulp, Sleeper to The Verve.

Maconie’s idea gave Select their drum—one they were going to bang until everyone was deaf or the thrill had gone.

Select lasted for just over a decade 1990-2001. Its final cover featured Coldplay—which might explain where Britpop had gone wrong. Some kind soul has scanned all of the back issues—inside and out—and a trawl through their covers tells the story of what was in, what was hip, and what was “going on.”

If you’ve a hankering for the past or just want to relive the heady days of the 1990s, then check here to read, view and enjoy the whole archive of Select magazine.
 

Prince on the very first cover of ‘Select’ July 1990.
 

 

Something old, something new… a taste of what’s to come…
 

Something very old: The Beatles—but a hint of what this magazine hoped to find in the 1990s…Britpop. November 1990.
 

You get the feeling this bloke’s gonna feature a lot in this magazine…Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, January 1991.
 

Canadian hip-hop duo Dream Warriors, March 1991.
 

Some acts must never die—the return of Boy George, April 1991.
 

And some just never give up… Wendy James, June 1991.
 

‘Dance music destroyed everything’ said miserabilist Morrissey, July 1991.
 

The Cure’s Robert Smith—your ‘average reclusive poetic tyrant,’ August 1991.
 

Inside: The man who could save rock ‘n’ roll—apparently—was Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie.
 

Blur’s Damon Albarn, October 1991.
 

The nineties didn’t kill them…U2, November 1991.
 

Album of the Month Public Enemy’s ‘Apocalypse 91.’
 

The man who saved rock ‘n’ roll is back, this time on the cover, February 1992.
 

At the brink of collapse… Nirvana make the cover April 1992.
 

Inside: ‘Corporate rock whores?’
 

Shaun and his drugs, September 1992.
 

Inside: Can Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth save Shaun from himself?
 

L7, February 1993.
 

One of Select’s favorite bands, Suede, April 1993.
 

Inside: Stuart Maconie unleashes Britpop on an unsuspecting nation….
 

... with a big plug for Pulp. What no Oasis?
 

Inside May 1993: When Radiohead’s Thom Yorke described himself as a ‘synopsis of thought’... Yeah, like we know what you mean.
 

Britpop’s arrived and yet there was still this: The Pet Shop Boys, October 1993.
 

Inside: Ex-Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson discussed his HIV diagnosis—a groundbreaking interview.
 

The future has arrived…or maybe not… Justine Frischmann of Elastica, February 1994.
 

The writing’s on the cover…Kurt Cobain’s death wish…June 1994.
 

Meet the First Lady: P. J. Harvey, April 1995.
 

They’re back and the battle of the bands is about to commence. In the red corner Blur, July 1995.
 

And in the blue corner, Oasis, August 1995.
 

Man of the ‘Common People’...Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, October 1995.
 

Out of the Happy Mondays but back on the cover…this time Shaun’s with Black Grape, November 1995.
 

The Stone Roses trying hard to be relevant, December 1995.
 

The drugs were good that year, so just in case you missed it, here’s what happened in 1995, January 1996.
 

Is Britpop over? The Foo Fighters make the cover February 1996.
 

Sex sells…so here’s Garbage, June 1996.
 

Help the aged…keeping Mod culture alive with Paul Weller, September 1996.
 

The future is female…haven’t we seen this cover before? Sleeper (Who?—Ed.), October 1997.
 

The Prodigy said that this would be their last album… They lied. The Prodigy, September 1997.
 

It’s that synopsis of a thought again…Radiohead’s Thom Yorke is ready to kill, January 1998.
 

I prefer Goldie Lookin’ Chain myself, to Goldie, February 1998.
 

Jarvis Cocker, older but not necessarily wiser, April 1998.
 

This was 1998’s first proper star—yeah, that’s what I thought—Cerys from Catatonia, July 1998.
 

You kinda get the feeling Britpop just might be over when a Canadian gets the Select cover. Alanis Morissette, December 1998.
 

Buy this man’s new album and help him get dressed, Marilyn Manson, March 1999.
 

We all have dreams: Courtney Love wanted to be ‘absolutely f*cking fabulous,’ where’d it go so wrong, eh? September 1999.
 

Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers, October 1999.
 

Hairstyles of the early noughties… ex-Stone Roses’ Ian Brown, March 2000.
 

Yep, Britpop’s dead—Eminem, November 2000
 

I told you it was going to end badly…Coldplay feature on the final cover January 2001.