1998 VS 2008: Part Un (Music)

January 7th, 2009

All images courtesy of Getty

O, what I wouldn’t give to go back to the sweet, sweet arms of 1998; a time when Britney was on the rise, Madonna was releasing club bangers, Usher was singing about sex, Brad Pitt was a hottie… uh, wait a tick. Sounds a little familiar, if you ask me (and you did, so…). Sounds a little like LAST YEAR – as in 10 years later, things are exactly the SAME! I want my money back.

Ok, so not quite. While I can find similarities between the two periods, a lot has changed in ten years… but the more things change, the more they stay the same (or so I’ve heard). And while ten years sounds like a long time, I can still hear the siren call of Savage Garden on the radio … oh. Stupid adult contemporary station and your retro tunes! (Turning off radio) Now wheeeerrre was I? Oh, yes. Enough of this drabble. PREPARE FOR A BATTLE OF THE YEARS: 1998, meet your worst enemy – 2008. Which year was better? Or, ok – which year was more tolerable?

SINGLES

Since Getty didn’t have a photo of Next, I’ll use this photo of Brandy and Monica standing TOO CLOSE to each other. GET IT?? Ahahaha.. sorry.

What songs remind you of 1998? Were you stuck in a womb or a math class? If you said that Will Smith “Gettin Jiggy With It” reminds you of 1998, you’re wrong. That was only #14 on the top 100 songs of the year. I still don’t believe #1 – “Too Close” by Next? Really?! While it featured prominently in my Driving To Early Band Practice Playlist (shut UP), I wouldn’t have guessed it to be the top song of the year.

Billboard’s Top 5 of 1998:

1. Too Close – Next
2. The Boy Is Mine – Brandy & Monica
3. You’re Still The One – Shania Twain
4. Truly Madly Deeply – Savage Garden
5. How Do I Live – LeAnn Rimes

Compared to the Top 5 of 2008 (no surprises here – I never want to hear a Flo Rida ringtone again):

1. Low – Flo Rida
2. Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
3. No One – Alicia Keys
4. Lollipop – Lil Wayne
5. Apologize – Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic

Interesting… 2008 is all R&B/Hip-Hop Pop, while country was a pop mainstay in ’98.

How We Listened To Music:

1998: Sony Shockwave Discman (or alternative) – and remember looking for the best price on that Puff Daddy album.. because we actually bought CDs? (reminder: Diddy was called Puff Daddy at the time)
2008: iPod (unless your name is Erin Jackson and you still use a discman). I guess most of us download music or buy it online now … how many CDs did you actually purchase last year? I think I bought 2.

Top 5 Albums Sold in 1998:

Yep, this all sounds about right – Titanic was a blockbuster, Shania has one of the top-selling albums of all time and this was the beginning of the bubblegum takeover. After this, BSB and NSync just got bigger, and Britney, Xtina, Eminem et al still hadn’t hit hard.

1. Titanic Soundtrack (9.3 million)
2. Celine – Let’s Talk About Love (5.85 million)
3. Backstreet Boys – Backstreet Boys (5.7 million)
4. Shania Twain – Come On Over (4.87 million)
5. *NSync – *NSync (4.38 million)

Top 5 Albums Sold in 2008:

This is the first time since Nielsen started tracking sales that the top album moved less than 3 million. Ouch. Well, not really. Come on , Wayne’s still rich. Taylor Swift had two albums in the top ten, making her actually the best-selling artist of the year!

1. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III (2.87 million)
2. Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2.15 million)
3. Taylor Swift – Fearless (2.11 million + sales of her previous album, 1.6 million)
4. Kid Rock – Rock N Roll Jesus (2 million) [not available digitally]
5.AC/DC – Black Ice (1.92 million) [not available digitally]

As far as traditional album purchasing goes, sales are still on the decline, but of course now we buy music digitally – pretty much unheard of in 1998. Approximately 1 billion digital tracks were sold in 2008 – the top seller being Rihanna, who can boast 9.9 million digital singles sold (Taylor Swift comes in at #2 and Kanye at #3). Coldplay had the best-selling digital album and “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis was the best-selling digital track. Of course now ringtones are a major player (IF you had a cell in 1998, how did it ring? A poly version of “Ode To Joy”?) – and Flo Rida had the top-selling tone of 2008 with “Low”.

Interesting to note: more vinyl records were sold in 2008 then any other year since 1991.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 3:13 pm by Wendy and is filed under Just For Fun.