DC Music: The Story of NOW That's What I Call Music

By DC Cueva

@DC408dxtr

As you know, I'm a huge music fan...it's something that's part of my lifeblood. Unlike others who gravitate to one or another's genre or one era, and even though my favorite band is Linkin Park, I'm one of those people who actually likes all kinds of music. If it's something that I like, even if it's something that to some might be a bit unusual, I'll be happy with it regardless. I'll be someone who's comfortable in listening to it and also for longer periods of time. And I can thank my preference in the radio & playlist world of listening to what it's officially called Contemporary Hit Radio, or better known as Top 40. Essentially, that format is simply the best of what's dominating the charts and features the industry's biggest stars and all genres of music from pop to urban, rock to dance & beyond. It's the success of what many also call "pop radio" that has become the basis for this article that looks at the time when they all come together in one compilation album.

Lately, I've been going to thrift shops all over town where I live here in Milpitas, CA. And often one of the first places I go to when I go to either the local Goodwill or Savers stores is to the books & media section. There, I scour all the available CD's, DVD's and VHS tapes and decide which bargains of music do I want to grab for $2.00 a pop. And also, I can admit to also being an eBay junkie too, and sometimes I buy CD's there too.

   Often when I go through the CD section in both areas, I come around a CD from the collection known simply as NOW That's What I Call Music!. There, hits from years past dating all the way back to my sophomore year in high school - 1998 if you're wondering - come into my attention and I immediately grab hold of it and add it to my collection. And of course, when the recent installments of NOW are released in stores, I make it a point to add it to my collection.

   Along with even getting free music through my library account, NOW has become an economically feasible thing for me as it also allows me to save money on my checking account in not having to buy every single track on iTunes, just non-duplicate tracks that aren't available in either source or when I buy an artist's full album.

   Along with buying each recent NOW CD once it drops, I'm now building up a collection of these discs, with the hope that one day I'll have every single edition of the U.S. series in my collection, along with some overseas ones. In all I have 21 of the 50 Now albums that have been released since it started here.

Although it has been around in America since I was 15 years old, the NOW That's What I Call Music story is actually just about as old as I am. It was at the office of Virgin Records in Vernon Yard in Britain in 1983 that Virgin GM Jon Webster and Licensing & Business Affairs head Stephen Nevin came up with an idea of a compilation album featuring the hits of various artists who were on their label. Their concept came to the attention of Virgin Managing Director Simon Draper and then to Draper's counterpart at rival EMI Records, Peter Jamieson, who shared that ambitious passion for doing a compilation and immediately partnered up for the project, whose deal was finalized aboard the boat of Virgin patriarch Richard Branson in Little Venice.

   And what's the oddest story in the history of NOW? The idea of its name came from, of all things, a 1920's advertising poster for a Danish bacon company which showed a picture of a pig listening to a chicken sing "Now That's What I Call Music." That poster was actually bought by the British entrepreneur for his Record label cousin to put on Draper's wall in his Virgin Records office. Oddly enough, the pig became an early mascot for the series, but whose shelf life only lasted a few years.

   Just fifteen days after I was born, the NOW collection officially came out for the first time on November 28, 1983 in British record stores. And unlike the ones we have here in the U.S., that first edition, as well as every subsequent release since then, was a double selection with 30 UK hits put on a double vinyl LP album or cassette. While this wasn't the first compilation of recent chart hits (other British labels had done similar albums since the '70s), NOW marked the first time that two major record labels had collaborated for a venture such as this. As part of their partnership, Virgin and EMI agreed on a number of things including a greater number of major hits to be included in the album, whose 1st one included 11 UK Chart #1's, and for which that first album went to number one.

   The popularity of that series during the '80s was so big, the demand eventually grew to where the British version has and is still released three times a year (in spring, summer and fall/winter) as a double album. That varies considerably to what we have here where Now is released quarterly four times a year and where it's released at just a single album. Thus, the UK series has had 87 releases in its main series since the beginning, and for which there's 40-46 tracks over the two discs. Whereas here in America, about 80 tracks are released per year, about a third less than there.

Thanks to the worldwide reach of the companies whose tracks are heard everywhere you go, the Now collection has expanded to over 25 countries & territories around the world, with its latest addition, South Korea, to join the fold in October with Now That's What I Call K-Pop with their homegrown genre to figure prominently headlined by, of course, Psy and "Gangnam Style." The compilation made its North American debut ten years earlier than its American counterparts up in Canada, but it's 2nd installment didn't come until 1995.

   NOW was finally welcomed into the world's most-lucrative music market in 1998 and featured Janet Jackson, the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls, Lenny Kravitz and Hanson, among others. Ever since, NOW in the U.S. has become an extremely-successful franchise where each of the first twenty-nine volumes received at least platinum certification, and 18 albums have reached #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, which other than for the Beatles is more than any other individual recording artist. And though the recent shift in musical tastes, and of course digital downloads, have seen recent album sales not sell perhaps as huge as back in the day, NOW nonetheless remains a huge part of the scene and a consistent top performer for the industry.

   It's followed the same pattern of featuring all the having the taking the best of pop, hip-hop, R&B and rock from those who are signed to affiliated labels and who's been at the top of the charts. Plus, it's also adapted to the times in adding dance and country to its repertoire as both genres have become more mainstream in recent years? And in exchange for additional hits, recent editions have also included bonus tracks from new artists who've not broken through in America.

   When fans here look over the list of those who have appeared in the 50 U.S. editions of Now, you can see an entire generation of the biggest hits and the brightest stars both of back then and of right now. They've included Britney, U2, Enrique Iglesias, and J.Lo; through Rihanna, B.E.P., Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars; and right up to Pitbull, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Lorde and Miley Cyrus. For someone like me who's grown up a bit since back when I was in high school, this represents my musical yearbook.

   And the latest installment, Now 51 which drops tomorrow on my sister's 35th birthday, once again takes the pulse of the music of the moment with Katy, Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea, Justin, Pitbull, Paramore and Demi Lovato. Also, breakthrough hits by Magic!, KONGOS, Sia, 5 Seconds of Summer, Sam Smith and Rixton are featured, along with a look ahead to who could become the next ones in Jacob Latimore, Teyana Taylor and Seven Lions.

In much the same way as the VMA's, Grammys and any event that brings all genres of music together, I treat the Now collection in the exact same way: it's compulsory listening for myself much like the music award shows. I treat my love of music the same way I look about my passion for sports and for television: I'm not into just one thing or another, I'm into the entire atmosphere. I'm someone who loves all these genres of music, and NOW brings them all together into one album, just as it has done in the UK since I was born and here in the U.S. for the last 16 years, spanning countless numbers of hits and artists. And as long as we still have pop music, we'll still have the clever idea put together in 1983 by British record executives to bring music's biggest, best and brightest into one album.

For those of you regular visitors to this page who have been wondering where I have been the past few weeks in the blogosphere, I've had a lot happening that's been affecting me outside DCBLOG, and that's why I haven't posted a proper post since my recap of The Challenge: Free Agents. But rest assured, I am still here and is still dedicated & devoted to furthering the success of this blog.

   All throughout this month and into the fall, I'll be aiming to offer a great number of sports posts that will be covering soccer and the huge growth of it in America after the World Cup, plus posts on UFC, football, big events and more. I've been stocking up on sports books lately to provide me with story ideas on what I want to cover, and the sports world will be covered here. And that will fill the gap towards this blog being your go-to destination for wall-to-wall coverage of everything MTV here.

   With filming of both the 30th season of The Real World in Chicago and the 26th installment of The Challenge about to get underway, and with season two of Are You The One? to debut on Monday, September 29, you can again expect plenty of coverage on here of all three shows including our renowned & unique SocialPulse posts bringing you an exclusive running diary of tweets from cast members, fans and me during the episodes, plus wrap ups & more.

   Weekly DCSP posts will resume a week earlier on Monday, September 22 when the celebrated season 1 cast gathers to celebrate Amber & Ethan not only becoming married but also becoming parents to a new baby. And once the cast & the trailer for AYTO season two is unveiled sometime this month, we'll be covering that for you here, along with a look at Virgin Territory.

You can always find me on twitter & Instagram @DC408Dxtr, and my live tweet home, DCNOW at @DC408DxNow. Having done lots of live tweeting of sports, shows and events over the past several months on that hub, be sure to follow DCNOW for the big schedule that's forthcoming in the fall and winter along with Retro Nights that I'm doing during the summer. Until I talk to you on twitter & back here at the 'Blog, thanks for reading, stay cool and see you then. I AM DC.

- DC