Views from the North

On the 28th November 2013, I saw a piece on BBC Breakfast News celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the ‘Now That's What I Call Music’ series. During the segment a journalist from Music Week appeared and talked about the enduring appeal of the compilation album.  In doing this he stated that “there is so much music out there, that people often don’t know where to look for it, what to listen to and what to like. How patronising is that? Silly little humans haven’t got a clue about music so feed them cheap compilations of whatever we are trying to push at that given moment. My first reaction to this was how can possibly there be too much music? Are we now putting a cap on creativity and art nowadays, also, if you look around, where is all this music he talks about. It certainly isn’t in the High Street. Independent record shops have all but disappeared apart from a strong few holding on and offering a fine service. All you find in supermarkets are these compilations and the ...