Targeting the mainstream. (WEBBO).

2001 -- it was a strange year. The record industry was in a state of flux not knowing what the new year would bring and reacting in typical fashion by laying off staff and classic short-term thinking when budgets have to be met.

As I said some weeks ago, you can hardly blame executives scrabbling to meet targets for spewing out hits compilations when long-awaited albums stiff big time.

There were so many that some had to suffer and while many did OK they weren't the blockbusters that Greatest Hits were always meant to be -- the pension fund towards the end of a career. Producing hits compilations as a summary of a few years' work is never a good idea.

There are good signs though. After the well-publicised stiffs from classic older acts (mostly because their albums weren't any good) it was left to the team behind the Jools Holland album to show that something well thought out and marketed can sell to the ...