Modern Music

In the mid to late 1990s new Welsh music became unexpectedly fashionable, with the chart successes of bands including Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia and Stereophonics. These groups helped the media at the time invent the epithet 'Cool Cymru', an answer to Britpop's Cool Britannia. Prior to that, Welsh acts including The Alarm, Shakin' Stevens and Bonnie Tyler had all had high profiles, but there had never been much of a movement.

Around this time, groups such as Super Furry Animals and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci rose to popularity, and artists such as Tom Jones, John Cale and Shirley Bassey had something of a renaissance.

The Welsh music industry is currently in rude health, with boundless creativity from many lesser known groups, and labels such as Ankstmusik, Crai and Boobytrap. And, in recent years, a large alternative and punk scene has sprung up from the Valleys towns in south Wales, of which Lostprophets and Funeral For A Friend have achieved notable international success. Old School hardcore Punk Rock band, the rebellious Picture Frame Seduction have even reformed. PFS from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, West Wales created their own disturbing punk sound in 1978, and in 2003 they signed to Grand Theft Audio Records in Los Angeles, USA. They were once dubbed the ' Welsh Sex Pistols ' due to their attitude towards the music establishment in the UK.