Liam Gallagher Born: Oasis's Defiant Voice

Liam Gallagher became the snarling voice of 1990s Britpop as frontman of Oasis, delivering anthems like "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" with a raw, nasal delivery that defined an entire generation's soundtrack. Born in Burnage, Manchester, in 1972, the youngest of three brothers in an Irish-English working-class family, he joined the band his older brother Noel had transformed from a local act called the Rain into one of the biggest rock groups on the planet. Oasis's debut album Definitely Maybe became the fastest-selling debut in UK history in 1994, and its follow-up (What's the Story) Morning Glory? sold over twenty-two million copies worldwide. Liam's voice was the instrument that made the songs feel like they belonged to everyone. He sang with his hands clasped behind his back, chin tilted upward, projecting an arrogance that was either insufferable or magnetic depending on whether you were a journalist or a fan. His combative persona and public rivalry with brother Noel became tabloid staples that made Oasis as famous for their dysfunction as for their music. The feud with Blur, framed by the British press as a class war between Manchester and London, dominated the mid-1990s and produced the most intense chart battle in British pop history. Oasis headlined Knebworth in 1996, playing to 250,000 people across two nights, with an estimated 2.5 million having applied for tickets. Liam formed Beady Eye after Oasis split in 2009 and then launched a solo career that produced multiple UK number-one albums. His voice mellowed slightly with age but retained the confrontational edge that made it unmistakable.