Everyone seemed so shocked earlier this year when the
\ncompilation album
\nNow 4<\/i> topped the Billboard charts. I don’t know why; albums
\nsuch as these have been popular in Great Britain for many years,
\nand similar (albeit low-budget) compilations have occasionally been
\nreleased here.<\/p>\n
But in 1998, what
\nNow That’s What I Call Music<\/i> (hereafter called
\nNow<\/i>) did was open the floodgates in American music. Here was
\na disc which dared to take some of the popular songs of that moment
\nand throw them together for the pop music fan. Commercial suicide?
\nLess of an incentive to buy the original album? In both cases, I
\nthink the answer is “no”.<\/p>\n
This disc is aimed at the top-40 radio fan, with a mixture of
\nalternative hits and smooth r&b permeating the disc. And while
\nsome of these songs may already feel like relics only two years
\nafter their peak success, it’s still a fun disc to listen to.<\/p>\n
Some of the selections on
\nNow<\/i> are blatantly obvious; you couldn’t put together a
\ncollection from this time and not include Backstreet Boys (“As Long
\nAs You Love Me”), Spice Girls (“Say You’ll Be There”) or Hanson
\n(“Mmm Bop”). You don’t even need to be a fan of any of these groups
\nto enjoy these songs in the context of their historical place in
\nmusic; placed among other songs of their generation, they fit
\nwell.<\/p>\n
There are some pleasant surprises on
\nNow<\/i>, as well. Brian McKnight absolutely pleases with
\n“Anytime,” and his appearance on this disc is sure to win him a
\nmuch larger fanbase than he currently enjoys. Likewise, as much as
\nI got sick of hearing “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz (or, as my
\nfour-year-old calls it, “the getaway song”), it feels right to hear
\nit on this disc. The same can be said for groups like Fastball
\n(“The Way”) and Harvey Danger (“Flagpole Sitta” – in all its edited
\nglory).<\/p>\n
Yet there are a few moments on
\nNow<\/i> that will leave you scratching your head. Why would a
\nslow number like “Karma Police” from Radiohead be included – a song
\nI don’t remember hearing on the airwaves that much? Marcy
\nPlayground may have had a minor hit with “Sex And Candy,” but it is
\nnot the greatest choice to end this disc. And I know it was a slice
\nof 1998 history, but it is kind of weird to hear “Barbie Girl” by
\nAqua.<\/p>\n
Still, the level of fun that
\nNow<\/i> provides is high, and is a definite disc to slap in the
\nchanger when it’s time to party. More importantly,
\nNow<\/i> showed the record companies that people would buy
\nwell-produced singles compilations without sacrificing total album
\nsales. Whether the hot streak would continue onto
\nNow 2<\/i> is something we’ll talk about next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36753","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36753"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}