The Labour Party won a landslide election and positioned itself near to political devolution for Wales and Scotland,[6] and a PR campaign which involved association with the UK arts scene and social engagement with figures in the Britpop movement such as Noel Gallagher.

[7][8] Author Iain Ellis attributes some of the attitude behind Cool Cymru figures to the perception that Wales had, for much of the 1960s and 1970s, been 'perennial underachievers' of the Union, stuck with "old-fashioned crooners"[9] like Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones while England was represented across the globe by Beatlemania, The Rolling Stones, and The Who.

[9] Wider political developments had taken to the fore in the 1990s, such as S4C taking a widened remit in the Broadcasting Act 1990, commercial sponsorship of the National Eisteddfod of Wales reaching over £1 million for the first time, the construction of the Millennium Stadium, the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay, the establishment of Newport Riverfront Arts Centre, and the wider political and architectural construction which followed the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum.

Its reputation was heightened by the performances of sporting individuals such as Joe Calzaghe, Ryan Giggs, and Scott Gibbs,[5] as well as the notorious headlines generated by figures like Howard Marks.

[5] Actors of prominence included Ioan Gruffudd,[5] who appeared in Solomon & Gaenor (nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 72nd Academy Awards), as well as Rhys Ifans and Anthony Hopkins[5] who both appeared in the Chekhov tale August, and Llangefni born Huw Garmon who starred in the Oscar nominated Welsh language film Hedd Wyn.

[11] The Kevin Allen-produced black comedy Twin Town, which holds cult status[12] in Swansea and internationally, showed Wales' second city in a then-controversial light of "excessive profanity, drug-taking and violence as the order of the day",[12] and provoked the outraged response of Liberal Democrat MP David Alton who railed against the film as "sordid and squalid, plunging new depths of depravity.

"[12] The Guardian in a 2004 review of Cool Cymru described a road map of the scene as a "proud nation of footballer Ryan Giggs, movie star Catherine Zeta-Jones, clothes designer Julien Macdonald, rappers Goldie Lookin Chain and, to a lesser extent, Rhys Ifans and Huw Edwards.

"[10] Terry Morris book and exhibit was titled Cool Cymru,[13] launched at the Wales Millennium Centre and opened by Charlotte Church.

[9] Neither eschewing nor celebrating Welsh Acts In contrast stood Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, and Mclusky, who "saw its identity more through musical genre than geography.

The group famously reached number 11 in the UK charts with Mwng in 2001, to much surprise given the presence of a full ten Welsh language songs on the album.

[18] The organisation is credited with individual successes such as the growth of Lostprophets and Mclusky,[18] as well as bringing BBC Radio 1 on its first visit to Wales for Sound City in Cardiff.

[28] In 2021, Matthew Rhys spoke about his belief that Cool Cymru had a positive impact on the acceptance of the Welsh language, adding that he wished to emulate that affect in his own career.