Now 96

Back in 1988 I received my first Now album, Now 11. A lot has changed in the world of music since then, not just in terms of the actual music itself.

Things that were popular in the music world back in 1988 included Top of the Pops, The Chart Show, Smash Hits, Cassette Tapes, Walkman, Our Price, Andy's Records, all of which are no more. But one thing which has managed to survive all these years still going is the Now compilations.

The latest in the series, Now 96, comes out this Friday. The question is how has it managed to survive?

When I got Now 11, it was quite obvious what purpose it served. I was a kid who clearly enjoyed my pop music and this was a compilation of the latest popular songs which I could listen to at my leisure. Buying each song as a single would have been expensive business. Taping the top 40 on new tapes each week wouldn't have exactly been cheap either as it would require lots of blank tapes, and obviously there would be a lot of repetition. The Now compilations had the latest hits which cost no more than the average album and the whole thing could be listened to between 2-3 hours.

These days there are endless possibilities to listen to the latest hits at our leisure for free. Not only that, but when we go to YouTube we see the latest videos on their homepage. On streaming services we have playlists of the latest tunes. Not content with ready made playlists, we can create our own. Which raises the question, what purpose does any compilation, Now or otherwise, actually serve these days? Lets be honest, I don't think too many people, if anyone, can honestly say there is a Now compilation where they like every single track.

Aside from the possibilities we get from the internet now, another question is what exactly goes on the Now compilations these days given the lack of new material we get in the top 40?

Well to answer this I needed to look at the track list. There are 43 tracks in total and this can be broken down as follows:

• 24 tracks can be listened through YouTube links on this blog courtesy of my Top of the Pops posts
• 8 tracks were featured in the post on this blog about why Top of the Pops shouldn't come back
• 4 tracks reached their chart peak before the Top of the Pops post
• 1 track is an old George Michael one included as a tribute
• 6 tracks failed to make the top 40

Looking at it from a different angle, there are 25 records featured in my Top of the Pops posts that don't feature on the compilation at the time of writing. Sounds a lot, but 15 of them are by either Ed Sheeran, Drake or Stormzy. As we have some tracks on Now 96 which charted before Now 95 was released we may yet see some of the remaining 10 on Now 97.

The answer to the question of what do Now compilations contribute nowadays may lie in the 6 tracks which failed to reach the top 40. If you read my Top of the Pops posts you will know that most weeks I fail to find enough records in the top 40 to fill the show. In fact the only times I have had a full shows worth was the weeks Ed Sheeran, Drake or Stormzy had multiple new entries from their new albums in the top 40.

So basically, if you want to know what is happening in the world of pop nowadays, listen to the new albums from Ed Sheeran, Drake and Stormzy plus the latest Now album and you've got pretty much everything that's reached the top 40 plus a little bit more. So this is why Now compilations still have their place in the modern pop world and another reason why there's no need to bring back Top of the Pops.