Gen Z fans are rediscovering the Now music back catalogue (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
‘It’s a phenomenon that deserves to be recognised!’ Gen Z is crying out, somewhat surprisingly, over the iconic but ‘archaic’ Now That’s What I Call Music brand.
That’s right, despite streaming becoming the way we consume music in the 21st century, the world’s best-selling compilation album remains a tour-de-force in the industry and is, remarkably, an enduring compilation series among the younger generation who grew up with Spotify.
The Now brand, which has sold a whopping 200 million plus since its inception decades ago, has an astonishingly enduring legacy, but why is Gen Z so obsessed with it?
Despite the era of streaming, Now is a surprising behemoth for under-30s in 2024 and it’s enticing Gen Z with its newly-released latest edition, Now That’s What I Call Music 118 (!), packed with tracks from younger artists such as Benson Boone, Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter.
However, they are also exploring the Now archives to hear the biggest hits compiled of any given year, and it makes an ideal opportunity for them to discover ‘new’ music from the 80s and 90s, probably the two most popular ‘old’ decades for the younger crowd today.
Over 200 million Now CDs have been sold since the brand’s inception (Picture: Now)
Gen Z has been using Now albums to discover ‘new’ music from the 80s and 90s (Picture: Now)
For Gen Z, delving into the 90s music scene offers a treasure trove of sounds that have paved the way for the artists of today and this newfound appreciation is influencing their music consumption. Platforms like TikTok are also introducing younger audiences to songs from previous decades through viral challenges and trends. Hey, it’s good for something, right?
If you search for the Now brand on TikTok, you will see scores of videos from TikTokers creating funny and informative videos about the Now brand.
American teenager Damian Gandia is so passionate about the Now brand he has dedicated his very own YouTube channel to it. At 18 years old, he wasn’t even born when his favourite Now album was released in the USA in July 2002, but he considers it a ‘total classic’ thanks to the inclusion of tracks like Britney Spears’ Overprotected and Nickelback’s How You Remind Me.
Damian is an avid collector of Now CDs and is adamant that there is still a need for the Now brand, despite there being endless playlists available on various streaming services. He feels that its selling points are that it offers something unique in the way it collates the tracks and he considers it to be a life changer.
The latest edition of Now features artists including Sabrina (Picture: Hector Vivas/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Phil was a fixture on the Now albums during his hey-day (Picture: Bob King/Redferns)
‘As dumb as it sounds, it’s kind of changed my life,’ he says. ‘It provided me with a different format for listening to music. It’s a phenomenon that deserves to be recognised.’
Jerry Cohen, the Chief Operating Officer for Now has overseen the release of 175 Now albums in the US and says the Now brand has a ‘very loyal group of fans’ and that it attracts a wide demographic which includes Gen Z kids like Damai, millennials as well as older listeners, too.
This includes James Dean, 50, from Manchester who remembers receiving the first-ever edition of Now That’s What I Call Music for Christmas on cassette in 1983 and thought it was ‘the best thing since sliced bread’.
He continues: ‘I remember getting my first Now That’s What I Call Music for Christmas. It was the very first one, on a double cassette and I listened to it on my Walkman, on repeat until I almost wore it out!
James received the first ever Now compilation on cassette in 1983 (Picture: Metro/Emma Harrison)
‘It introduced me to some of the most iconic bands that I have listened to all my life, Culture Club, The Cure, The Human League. Culture Club in particular gave me one of my first glimpses of LGBT culture and people, my people.’
And the teenagers of today are equally as dazzled by the Now anthology and compilation ‘trend’, and listening back to these sonic time capsules that transport you back to a real moment in time. You can literally feel the charts of whatever year you are listening back to.
Eliza, 17, from Bournemouth, was first introduced to the Now series as a young child and still devours her favourite albums today, despite Spotify having the monopoly on music consumption in 2024.
‘What I love about the collections is that there’s always something for everyone on each album, there’s never one song on the albums that someone doesn’t like,’ she notes.
Eliz’a favourite ever Now album is from the 80s and features the likes of Madness and Duran Duran (Picture: Metro/Emma Harrison)
Her discerning music tastes shaped her youth and she is now the bass player in up-and-coming band The Blue Mondays whose music is clearly influenced by the tunes she digested as a child.
Unsurprisingly, Eliza’s favourite Now album is the first ever album made in 1983 which features Phil Collins, Madness, Duran Duran among others. Eliza name checks this album as her favourite as it is ‘full of classics and it is so influential to the music industry.’
She is absolutely right; back in the 80s, every band and artist would vie to get their record on the latest Now album. It was considered to be the ultimate pinnacle and music acts would battle it out to get their mitts on that ultimate coveted opening track position which would be awarded to the likes of an illustrious line up of international stars like Sir Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel and Queen.
Now history and facts
Widely regarded as THE compilation giant, Now That’s What I Call Music was launched on November 29, 1983, with the sole mission to anthologise the biggest chart hits of the day.
Fast forward over 40 years later and the Now brand is still as vital and relevant as ever, despite ultimately being tied to nostalgia with many music fans going back to the earlier collections that they loved and listened to in their youth.
Now that’s what I call a load of facts
The first track on the first Now album was You Can’t Hurry Love by Phil Collins.
More than 120 million Now albums have been sold and the average UK household owns four Now albums.
Now 44 is the series’ biggest seller ever with a whopping 2.3 million copies sold. It was released in November 1999 and includes bangers such as Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time, Lou Vega’s Mambo No 4, Steps’ Tragedy and Shania Twain classic That Don’t Impress Me Much.
Robbie Williams has appeared more times than anyone else with a whopping 38 appearances on the Now albums, both as a solo artist and as a member of Take That.
Don McLean’s American Pie is the longest song to feature on a Now album, clocking in at 8 minutes and 34 seconds.
Got 302 hours and 36 minutes to spare? You could listen to all 117 volumes of the Now That’s What I Call Music series back to back. That’s over 12.5 days!
When it comes to the groups, Little Mix have clocked in the most Now appearances, with 28 in total, followed by Coldplay and Girls Aloud.
What started as a simple numbered affair beginning with Now That’s What I Call Music 1 is now in the dizzy heights of treble figures. But, the canny Now team have created a series of more than 250-plus spin-off specials that include everything from dad rock and country to Eurovision, power ballads and Pride to name a few.
Ranging from extraordinary to eclectic, the Now train continues at full pelt and for many buying a compilation is a trip down memory lane. That delicious taste of nostalgia evokes memories of scurrying around the Christmas tree as a child and teenager, wishing and hoping for a CD-shaped parcel from your parents.
Bastille’s lead singer Dan Smith, considers the Now CDs as a ‘marker of time’, previously noting that they were often ‘a quite mad and eclectic jumble of songs’. Bastille’s seminal track Pompeii appears on Now 84, alongside Sam Smith and Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere which was originally released in 1987, but re-entered the UK charts after appearing in an advert. Again, Now manages to capture a perfect snapshot in time, a cross-section of the charts at any given moment.
Gen Z Eliza believes that the appeal for the Now series is that ‘they focus on the chart-toppers, therefore, there’s always songs that people will know and enjoy and it just puts people into the now and even introduces the older generations to modern music.’
She continues: ‘The Now albums definitely opened my eyes to the world of pop music. Now That’s What I Call Music 76 was the first one I’d ever bought back in 2010. I loved and enjoyed the energy of Katy Perry and even Pitbull. Even to this day I still have a love for this genre of music!’
What does the future of Now look like? It seems like the Now train doesn’t look like it will be stopping anytime soon.
From Gen X and boomers to millennials and Gen Z, it seems that everybody has a favourite Now album. What’s yours?
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