The 2000s
So far, the first 21st century decade has been dominated by disc-burning, downloading and mp3 players - strange, new ways of listening to music that would be unfamiliar even to a 1984 record buyer.
In 2001 the total value of music sales reached an all-time high (nearly £226 million); but the following year, sales of CD albums were down 7%...
By 2004, six albums were being sold for every single - and Robbie Williams' ' Greatest Hits' helped total UK album sales reach a record high of 239.4 million units.
The following year Queen became chart champions, having spent more weeks on the album chart than any other act: 1,332 to date - that's 25 years in total! Runners-up were the usual suspects: Elvis Presley, The Beatles, U2 and Dire Straits...
In 2005 Coldplay's ' X&Y' reached No. 1 in the UK - and more than 20 other countries around the world...
This was also the era of Pop Idol, The X Factor and Fame Academy - though, as yet, only Will Young's track record suggests a viable career...
And strangely, in this defiantly digital age, simple singer-songwriters were once again back in vogue: Katie Melua, Jack Johnson, KT Tunstall, David Gray, Sandi Thom and Norah Jones have all enjoyed long chart runs; while Dido's ' No Angel' (2000) and James Blunt's 'Back To Bedlam' (2004) battle it out for the best-selling debut album ever released in the UK - with anticipated sales of three million each by the end of 2006.
Patrick Humphries
