Saturday, April 27, 2024

#TBT: Now That’s What I Call…The Decline Of The CD

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Remember when these “NOW That’s What I Call Music” albums were everything? They had all your favorite songs while they were still cool, other ways of hearing or buying these songs were limited, and the genres actually varied.

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Kids and teens and even young adults counted down to the release dates, and rushed to Borders (RIP) to purchase what today’s kids might call these mysterious, round silver thingies that store a measly 20-ish songs each…and let’s not forget the cheesy, almost psychedelic-color commercials with kids dancing to the album’s marquee songs and track lists scrolling up the screen like the beginning of Star Wars! If you aren’t feeling old yet, we wandered over to the site to see what the NOW franchise is up to, well, now (teehee)…

…they are about to release volume-wait for it-50. That’s fifty. Cincuenta. Half a century.
…the songs from the last several releases are all from the same pop category, and have all been played to death and worn out of season by the time the release even gets its first “hype.” The list for the upcoming volume includes:

Pharrell’s “Happy”


Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty”

Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse”. Yawn.

…this so called “hype” is no more because it is so rare for people to buy compilation CDs as opposed to individual songs as they please, particularly the youngsters
Back in the golden age of NOW (that almost sounded philosophical), Generation Y rushed out for NOW volume 1 to be able to blast from their boom boxes and hi-fi stereos:

“Zoot Suit Riot” by The Cherry Poppin Daddies

“Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz

“MMMBop” by Hanson

Or when the new, trendy, edgy NOW VOLUME 2 finally came around:

“The Sweetest Thing” by U2

“Hard Knock Life” by Jay-Z

“Closing Time” by Semisonic

Ah, how the times have changed #TBT

Article by: Elizabeth Potash > Twitter