Composition
John Harris commented in his music history Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock that much of the music on (What's the Story) Morning Glory? seemed to be "little more inspired than a string of musical hand-me-downs". Among the musical cues Harris noted on the album were Gary Glitter's "Hello, Hello I'm Back Again" ("Hello", Glitter was an influence on Britpop), the theme to the 1970s children's programme You and Me and The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ("She's Electric"), and the influence of R.E.M's "The One I Love" on "Morning Glory". One song, "Step Out", bore such a close resemblance to the song "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" by Stevie Wonder that it was removed from the album shortly before release due to the threat of legal action. In Britpop..., Bennet and Stratton analysed Liam Gallagher's vocal style in significant detail, stressing its importance to the songs of the album; " Mancunian accent blends into a register and timbre that works the gestural contours of the melody and lyrics." Bennet and Stratton went onto to conclude that Liam's 'over-personalized' style on songs such as "Wonderwall" resulted in "a beautiful sense of sentimentality that bespeaks the despondency of a generation. This occurs through the narrative structure of the song, vocal production, and the conventions of the singer's cultural context."
Noel Gallagher summed up his own perspective on the album's aesthetic in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1995; "Whilst is about dreaming of being a pop star in a band, What's the Story is about actually being a pop star in a band." The album has a notable anthemic theme to its songs, differing from the rawness and edged rock of Definitely Maybe. The use of string arrangements and more varied instrumentation in songs such as "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova" was a significant departure from the band's debut. This style had first been implemented by the band on their fifth single, "Whatever", released in December 1994. It was produced in conjunction with the London Symphony Orchestra, resulting in a much more pop-orientated and mellower sound; this would be the template that would come to define many of the songs on What's the Story. In the BBC documentary Seven Ages of Rock, former NME chief editor Steve Sutherland noted that "with Morning Glory, began to take seriously the notion of being the voice of a generation".
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