"Stereotypes" is a song by English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band Blur and is the opening track to their fourth studio album, '' The Great Escape'' (1995). It was released on 12 February 1996 as the third

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from that album, charting at number seven on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. It also became a minor hit in Australia, peaking at number 95 on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in June 1996. The accompanying UK B-sides—"The Man Who Left Himself", "Tame" and "Ludwig"—demonstrated a dramatic change in style for Blur, being stark and raw, foreshadowing the stylistic shift that would realize itself on their eponymous follow-up album.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

which was directed by Matthew Longfellow features live footage. Whereas the previous live video promo "

End of a Century "End of a Century" is a song by English alternative rock band Blur. Released in November 1994, it was the last single to be released from their third album, ''Parklife'' (1994). "End of a Century" reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart, cons ...

" was live in picture and sound, "Stereotypes" is simply live footage edited to fit the album track recording.

Track listings

All music was composed by

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...

, Alex James, and

Dave Rowntree David Alexander De Horne Rowntree (born 8 May 1964) is an English musician, politician, solicitor, composer and animator. He is the drummer for the rock band Blur and was a Labour Party councillor in Norfolk County Council from 2017 until 202 ...

. All lyrics were composed by Albarn. UK and Australasian CD single # "Stereotypes" # "The Man Who Left Himself" # "Tame" # "Ludwig" UK 7-inch and cassette single # "Stereotypes" – 3:11 # "The Man Who Left Himself" – 3:21 # "Tame" – 4:47 European CD single # "Stereotypes" – 3:09 # "The Horrors" – 3:17 Italian CD single # "Stereotypes" – 3:09 # "The Horrors" – 3:17 # "A Song" – 1:45 # "St. Louis" – 3:12

Personnel

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

–

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

* Alex James –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Charts

References

External links

Lyrics
{{Authority control Blur (band) songs 1996 singles 1996 songs Food Records singles Parlophone singles Song recordings produced by Stephen Street Songs written by Alex James (musician) Songs written by Damon Albarn Songs written by Dave Rowntree Songs written by Graham Coxon