Hi Scara,
Last year you bought 100 albums by English artists all written and produced in the one year and not over a couple or so?
Like I said - more than 100 albums by contemporary artists - the English don't have a monopoly on good music, although a good portion of the albums in question are from UK artists.
I imagine that most of the albums were probably written and recorded over a period of about 18 months to two years. Obviously some will have taken longer (some artists are really prolific and release an album every year), but I'm not sure why that's relevant. The stream of releases is ongoing and last year was - as I said - pretty slow.
Music is always changing,,, well at least on the face of it. What we have in the charts today in no wise reflects the 70's or 80's music. There are more recording artists than ever and we have far more music from American artists and even other countries now.
What position did they reach in the top selling albums charts and how many had a hit single of them?
I wouldn't have a clue and I frankly couldn't care less. Popularity is rarely a good indication of quality, especially when so many talented artists don't get the exposure they deserve - hence my comment about you looking in the wrong place. If you are only looking in the charts or listening to commercial radio, then I'm not surprised that you find a lot of contemporary music lacking.
I do not listen as much as I use to. At one time I was always on top of the music scene. Too busy being a carer to get as much quality time to listen.
I do get to hear about the odd new groups or solo artist and their music before release because my sisters brother-in-law is in the music industry he now arranges the tours and travels with some of the bigger bands and artists. He works with new and upcoming support artists too he is often liasing on their first albums and the sound tracks.
Sometimes we can overload something with too much. Which means the good stuff gets lost.