At 13 volumes in, the American version of the
Now That's What I Call Music! series has become quite stratified in terms of its selections and organization. Begun in the fall of 1998 at the height of a teen pop trend, the series retains an affection for the remaining vestiges of that style, and standard-bearers
Justin Timberlake of
*NSYNC and
Jennifer Lopez lead off this volume. After that, there is the familiar seguing to rap/hip-hop, adult contemporary, pop/rock, and mainstream rock over the course of the 20 selections. Released roughly every four months, the albums do not present the 20 biggest hits of the period by any means. Rather, the choices represent both a sampling of different styles and a combination of tracks that are actually popular with ones the major record labels are trying to push. This particular collection is a qualified success as a time capsule of the popular music of its time: the trend toward snotty adolescent punk-lite is glimpsed in the inclusion of
Bowling for Soup's "Girl All the Bad Guys Want,"
the Ataris' "In This Diary," and
Sum 41's "The Hell Song," for example, while the wave of artists exposed by the reality TV shows is ignored. ~ William Ruhlmann