Blur was founded in 1989 under the name Seymour. The singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon have been good friends for a long time. In Damon's dorm lives one floor up a strange bird by the name of Alex James who turns out to be a bassist. They jam together and decide to start a band. The drummer, Dave Rowntree joins. Blur grew into one of the most successful British bands of all time in the 1990s. The single ''Song 2'' brought the band mainstream success in the US for the first time.Their debut album, Leisure (1991), featured the sounds of the madchester and shoegaze genre. After a change of style influenced by English guitar pop groups such as the Kinks, The Beatles and XTC, Blur released Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). The consequence of this sound helped the band to popularize the Britpop genre, aided by a chart success with rival band Oasis in 1995 called "The Battle of Britpop".
The band has gone through multiple stylistic shifts in their discography. They experimented with electronic, gospel, hip-hop and world music. After the tour of their album Think Tank, the band broke up for several years. In 2009, the band reunited again with Coxon in the band, who left the band at the recording sessions of their latest album. In the following years they released several singles and compilations and toured internationally.
