Ah, 2010. It was the best year; it was the worst year. It was the year of transition and change for so many young people like me who listened, even idly, to the charts. The summer of 2010 marked the transition from childhood to adolescence – different schools, different friends: a new direction in life. And, according to NOW!75, it was also the last year that Pitbull was taken somewhat seriously as a pop-artist.
That summer, like most childhood ones, has faded to a haze of happy memories. Days at the beach; idly running errands with parents promising ice lollies; roaming around on bicycles looking for things to do. These tunes were always blasting from somewhere – from a car speaker as you walked down the road; overheard in the corner shop when you’d scraped enough change together to get yourself a can of Coke. I spent that summer doing nothing and everything: but this CD always narrated wherever I went and whatever I did.
Florence + The Machine and Journey professed their biggest bangers while JLS and Alexandra Burke reminded everyone that they were very much living in the era of the X-Factor: the inclusion of Joe McElderry’s cover of ‘The Climb’ is a bizarre exemplification of this. With X-Factor now being relegated to something you might put on for idle background noise – while a family member (probably yer da) moans about how it’s ‘all sob stories’ – it’s hard to imagine the monopoly it had over the entertainment and music industries.
2009 saw the only deviation in the trend of Christmas singles: Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ stole the number one spot; but by 2010, it was another X-Factor winner, Matt Cardle, with his cover of Biffy Clyro’s ‘Many of Horror’ – a brilliant single from one of my favourite bands with a very deserved spot on NOW!75 – who topped the charts. Many a cynical comment could be made about how, for example, many people – including twelve-year-old me – thought that Cardle’s cover was an original; how it seemed as if the X-Factor machine could tailor any original content and re-imagine and mass produce it to make it ‘more palatable’…
But, nevertheless. It’s difficult to hear this CD without thinking of just being a kid, and pretty much carefree – no concept of anything bar genuine appreciation for nice-sounding music. To me, NOW!75 is somewhat of a time capsule, and the songs on it can conjure up feelings only nostalgia-induced soundwaves can. Happy days.
Listen to NOW 75 on Spotify and Apple music.
