September 9, 2024

(What's the story) morning glory?

A data-driven look at Oasis reunion fever.
Research
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Oasis never did things by half measures. They claimed to be “bigger than God” during their 1990s heyday, and the drunken antics of frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher were constant tabloid fodder in the U.K.

It’s no surprise, then, that the public went wild when Oasis announced a set of reunion tour dates in 2025. Tickets sold out rapidly, with controversial (and now under investigation) “dynamic pricing” driving costs sky high. 

We decided to leverage Harris QuestDIY’s intuitive and rapid tools to survey 994 respondents who have heard of the band Oasis and are broadly representative of the U.K. across age, gender, and region. Reunion tickets went on presale August 30; our survey was launched on September 6, with all respondents answering within hours.

The TL;DR

Oasis released their first album in 1994 and broke up in 2009. Given the often steep price of reunion tickets, you might safely expect that the crowd at these gigs would be primarily well-heeled fans in middle age who are willing to splurge a bit on a night of nostalgia.

The data, however, suggests otherwise.

Our survey showed that the rush for tickets was driven more by kids in their teens and twenties who never got a chance to see Oasis first time around, rather than people in their 40s and 50s trying to relive their youth.
—Gary Topiol, Managing Director of QuestDIY

The desire of Gen Z to prioritize spending money on experiences, rather than possessions, led to three quarters (74%) of 18–24 year olds attempting to snag Oasis 2025 reunion tickets.

When asked to unpack the reasons for the general excitement over the reunion, this age group also selected the band's popularity, media hype, and general FOMO over Oasis's music itself.

Now it's time to slip inside the eye of your mind and see what the data shows on a more granular level.

Overall, Oasis is as massive as ever

  • The Manchester band broke up in 2009, but 46% of respondents still define themselves as “fans of Oasis,” with only 16% saying they don’t like the band.
  • The cohort most likely to identify as Oasis fans are 25-34 year olds (71%), followed by 18–24 year olds (66%). Keep in mind that a 25-year-old would not have been born in 1994, when Oasis’s debut album Definitely Maybe dropped. A 34-year-old would have been 4.

Reunion fervor

Fandom overall doesn’t necessarily translate into rabid enthusiasm for the reunion tour.

  • 22% of respondents overall claimed to be “extremely excited” for the Oasis reunion, whereas 38% said they were “not excited at all.”
  • Men are a bit more amped for the tour dates, with 26% “extremely excited” VS. 18% of women.
  • The % of those “extremely excited” for the reunion roughly follows the data arc for Oasis fandom overall, with the 25-34 age group the most enthusiastic (43%).

The general youthful preference for Oasis has led to a bit of intergenerational bickering, to say the least.

And all the roads we have to walk are winding

Oasis released 7 studio albums during their career, but you won’t find too many people casually name dropping Heathen Chemistry (2002). 

The red-hot center of Oasis’s catalog remains 1995’s What’s The Story, Morning Glory?, which contains some of the band’s best-known tracks.

We asked respondents which song they most associate with the band’s success.

Sibling rivalry

Just as everyone has their favorite Beatle, everyone is expected to fall into either Team Liam or Team Noel. But when it comes to these oft-bickering brothers, our respondents were split right down the middle.

  • When asked who their favorite Oasis brother was, respondents overall were 14% in favor of Liam...and 14% in favor of Noel.
  • 32% claimed to “like both equally.” How sweet!
  • Broken down by gender, there were some slight differences. Men slightly preferred Noel (16%) over Liam (14%), while women went for Liam (14%) over Noel (12%).
  • Liam fared best among 18-to-24 year olds, with 36% preferring him over his brother Noel (7%).

The race for tickets

Excitement and fandom is one thing, but who actually made the attempt to purchase tickets for Oasis’s 2025 reunion?

  • 37% of respondents overall attempted to get tickets.
  • Looking specifically at the 18–24 year olds, a whopping 74% made an attempt to buy tickets.
  • The 18-to-24 year old fans were also the least likely to seem miffed about Ticketmaster's "dynamic pricing" scheme, with 42% seeing it as "somewhat or very fair."

Show me the money

Here's how much fans said they were willing to cough up for a chance to the band reunite in 2025. Suffice it to say that many people vented their frustration at high costs and the "dynamic pricing" model via our survey's open-end questions.

"I think it's just another method of bleeding money from those who can least afford it, to give [to] those who don't need it," one respondent wrote. "Fair ticket prices and transparency are essential," another said. "Prevent scalping and ensure tickets go to genuine fans."

Forget Oasis, let’s bring back...

Which other Gods of Rock stand to reap huge dividends if they ever choose to reunite? We asked our UK respondents which other bands they’d prefer to see reunite more than Oasis. Here’s how they answered the multi-select question.

  • 28% chose Pink Floyd.
  • 24% want to see Genesis begin again.
  • 21% had a whole lotta love for Led Zeppelin.
  • 14% are eager to see The Verve reunite.

Here’s how to definitely maybe run your own survey

QuestDIY lets you draft surveys easily and intuitively, and the platform’s AI assistant guides you as you go—which means you can write questions with confidence, even if you’ve never done so before.

It’s a convenient self-serve survey tool that can help your brand elevate your market research efforts. And did we mention that it’s fast? After a survey is deployed, it takes mere hours for all responses to be filed.

We’d love to show you how QuestDIY could elevate research for your brand or agency.

Scott Indrisek

Scott Indrisek is the Senior Editorial Lead at Stagwell Marketing Cloud

Take five minutes to elevate your marketing POV
Twice monthly, get the latest from Into the Cloud in your inbox.
Related articles
How QuestDIY uses AI to simplify survey writing
Consider it a drafting & research assistant that never sleeps.
Research
10 mistakes to avoid when drafting your market research survey
From leading questions to inconsistent answer scales, here’s what to keep in mind.
Research