The original Now That's What I Call Music! series began in the U.K. in 1983. Since then, a few additional volumes have been added during each successive year. For pop fans in the U.K., the series has become a reliable and timely way to pick up a bunch of chart hits in one shot, and it tends not to discriminate between genres, meaning that it regularly delivers a representative snapshot of a specific point in time. Virgin, with help from Polygram and Universal, launched a U.S. series of the same name in late 1998. This was just as singles -- in the physical, buyable sense -- began to be phased out in the marketplace. The first volume covers hits of several stripes from the past year and a half or so, with rock (Lenny Kravitz' "Fly Away," Hanson's "MMMBop," Fastball's "The Way"), R&B (Brian McKnight's "Anytime," Janet Jackson's "Together Again," K-Ci & JoJo's "All My Life"), and dance-pop (Aqua's "Barbie Girl," the Spice Girls' "Say You'll Be There," All Saints' "Never Ever") covered rather equally. It was a ho-hum period for popular music, especially where mainstream rock is considered. Don't blame the compilers of this set.
Various Artists
Now That's What I Call Music [1998]
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AllMusic Review by Andy Kellman
Track Listing
Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Janet Jackson | 05:01 | Amazon | ||||
2 | Backstreet Boys | 03:32 | Amazon | ||||
3 | Fastball | 04:16 | Amazon | ||||
4 | Harvey Danger | 03:35 | Amazon | ||||
5 | Spice Girls | 03:56 | Amazon | ||||
6 | K-Ci & JoJo | 05:31 | Amazon | ||||
7 | All Saints | 04:54 | Amazon | ||||
8 | Tonic | 04:21 | Amazon | ||||
9 | Hanson | 04:27 | Amazon | ||||
10 | Cherry Poppin' Daddies | 03:53 | Amazon | ||||
11 | Imajin | 04:54 | Amazon | ||||
12 | Brian McKnight | 04:31 | Amazon | ||||
13 | Aqua | 03:16 | Amazon | ||||
14 | Radiohead | 04:21 | Amazon | ||||
15 | Everclear | 03:58 | Amazon | ||||
16 | Lenny Kravitz | 03:41 | Amazon | ||||
17 | Marcy Playground | 02:52 | Amazon |