Music retailer HMV reports that Mike Oldfield, Underworld and Vangelis are among the artists getting a significant bump in sales because of their music’s use in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
They report that Oldfield, who performed the title track to Tubular Bells, saw an overnight 757 per cent surge in sales of his classic 1973 recording.
The top 10 artists seeing sales jumps from the Olympics:
- Mike Oldfield / Tubular Bells (757%)
- Underworld / Best Of (500%)
- Frank Turner / England Keep My Bones (371%)
- Dizzee Rascal / Tongue In Cheek (346%)
- Paul McCartney / Beatles 1 (268%)
- The Sex Pistols / Never Mind The B*******, Here’s The Sex Pistols (166%)
- The Arctic Monkeys / Whatever People Say That I Am, That’s What I’m Not (146%)
- David Bowie / Platinum Collection Greatest Hits (139%)
- Emeli Sandé / Our Version of Events (116%)
- Vangelis / Chariots of Fire OST (76%)
I believe this is pretty ridiculous. I mean, people discovering Mike Oldfield because of the Olympics ? non sense
My son is a composer of music in Australia, he would dearly love to contact Mike Oldfield to show his appreciation for inspiring my son at an early age to become a singer song writer. Therefore, it would be great if Mike could get in touch with my son for him to say a big thank you to Mike.
People get reminded of music from their youth, and go online to buy it. After all, when “Tubular Bells” was originally out I had to choose between it and “Dark Side Of The Moon” as I couldn’t afford both albums at the time! Plus, Oldfield put on a good performance. Much as I love Paul McCartney and the Beatles, did he have to play that awful dirge, “Hey Jude”? Couldn’t he have found something more upbeat and appropriate, even “O-bla-di”?
This proves that most people only want the music they hear on the radio or TV. They don’t want to search for its favourite music. They are consumers, and only consume what they see on the commercials (or TV shows).
Good because of the people discovering great music (Vangelis, Oldfield and more), but bad news because corroborates a lack of musical culture.
In a world where so many want to sound like Underworld, there’s not much of a path left for any new potential Mike Oldfields. They can be found on occasion, if you search for them or frequent Soundcloud, but The People have clearly chosen Simple & Easy as the ruling junta. Its become so boring, I’m no longer on the side of the X-Men. I’m with Magneto. Its extremely rare that anyone can sound as broad as Oldfield and far, FAR too many are playing the theme to “Blade Runner.” Where are the people who built on those high-water marks?