THE ANSWER TO A QUESTION IN A PUB QUIZ

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

Now, it could be appropriate to any number of given questions, such as ‘What was the biggest selling single in the UK in 2006?’, or perhaps, ‘Which song was instrumental in making a seemingly overnight star of singer/rapper CeeLo Green more than a decade after he first entered a recording studio?’.

The question I was thinking of, given that it involved something truly ground-breaking and historic, is:-

‘Name the first single to top the UK charts on download sales alone?’

I do recall all sorts of doom and gloom merchants predicting that the success of Crazy spelt the end for CDs in the same way as those shiny metal discs had killed off vinyl.  To be fair, it wasn’t an unreasonable assumption to make given the rise of portable and affordable mp3s player and other technologies which would, and indeed did, change the listening habits of music lovers the world over.

I’m not going to get into any sort of discussion or debate as to why vinyl began to make its comeback from about the time Crazy hit the top of the charts, as there’s no single definitive reason.  I can only speak for myself in that I got this blog up and running in September 2006 right on the back of getting my first USB Turntable, courtesy of an anniversary gift from Rachel, and from being encouraged to do so by a few other music bloggers, and in particular Comrade Colin.  Vinyl on the second-hand market was still very cheap, albeit many of the shops were dominated by the sort of stuff that had been chart-fodder it wasn’t always easy to find the sort of stuff I really wanted.  But the growth at the same time of on-line markets, and in particular eBay and Discogs, meant it became easier to track things down at affordable prices.  It’s a totally different world now…..

Will the bubble burst?  It most likely will given it does seem that, for the most part, physical copies of music are bought by older generations and younger folk, having known nothing but digital downloads or streaming sites, will need to get on board in the years and decades to come if the vinyl revival is to be maintained.

It’s a strange old world out there. I didn’t ever see music fans giving up on their CD collections given how much they had spent on these as replacements for vinyl, but if you go into any second-hand or charity stores and have a rummage, then you can pick up physical copies of albums for a lot less than it would cost to download it.

Anyways, enough of my ramblings.

mp3: Gnarls Barkley – Crazy

It’s a great piece of dance/pop music with a real earworm of a tune that I never got bored with.  Oh, and for the record, I never bought this on CD at the time of release. I didn’t have a copy of it in my possession until the time when I began to use my PC to listen to and, ahem, acquire music.  I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it.

JC