Britrock was used to refer to early 90s British Rock bands like The Wildhearts (Newcastle), Manic Street Preachers (Wales) and Therapy? (N. Ireland) who emerged onto a landscape dominated by Baggy from Madchester and Shoegaze from Southern England. The Britrock sound combined elements from Heavy Metal and (Post-)Punk in an accessible way. Britrock bands rose in popularity around the time of Grunge/Alt Rock, Britpop and Green Day when there was a surge of interest in UK rock music, and later bands like the Northern Irish Ash led the way in the commercially viable Punk/Rock end of what was known as Britpop.
Not necessarily a watered-down Heavy Metal or Pop Punk, the songwriting of the bands described above was often more accomplished than that of their influences, while later act Mansun (and at times The Wildhearts) displayed strong Progressive Rock elements.Bands like Cable were taught lessons by American bands such as Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Pavement, Pixies and Jesus Lizard. By the mid-90s however the metal aspect of Britrock was retained by only a handful of artists.