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April 17[edit]

CD singles in the UK[edit]

Back in the 90s when (I presume) the CD was, at least for a time, the predominant way singles were sold in the UK,

How were they used? I would have thought that putting in a CD to listen to but two or three tracks would be tedious.
Which demographics bought them?

--Leon (talk) 20:47, 17 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Re your 1. – considerably less tedious that setting up a 7" vinyl record on a turntable, and no more tedious that putting a cassette tape single (which was a preceding thing) into a cassette deck. (The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.203.117.240 (talk) 21:14, 17 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Are they still made? If not, that would suggest the answer to your question 2 would be "not enough". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:46, 17 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not in the UK, but I bought several CD singles at the time. Some were artists who never actually had albums released, making that the only way to get that song. Others were from albums that I had heard other songs from and only liked that one track. No sense paying for the full album when I would only ever listen to that one song. Also, multi-disc changers would relieve the tedium of changing the disc with each song or two. At the same time, ripping the CDs to your computer was becoming more and more common, alleviating the tedium even more. As for who bought them, lots of people from all demographics. Just as later lots of people from all demographics paid to download just one or two songs instead of full albums. Singles as a concept are still around, it's just that the physical medium is not really needed anymore.--Khajidha (talk) 02:29, 18 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

To answer Bugs, I bought a true (and one-sided) CD single only a few years ago, but it wasn't exactly a commercial release. (It was an unlabelled "under-the-counter" song about a soccer team and fans who are bitter rivals of those in the city near which I live, of which the local police would have taken a dim view on the grounds of it being a possible incitement to violence.) I have however quite recently bought several EP CDs with only a few tracks, from bands playing at local venues. (The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.203.117.240 (talk) 07:39, 18 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A look at List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1990s shows the sort of material that was popular in the single format. Plenty of novelty songs - nobody would want to buy an album by Mr Blobby for example - and boy bands like S Club 7 whose fanbase was mainly small girls who could afford a single from their pocket money, but not the whole album. The competition to get to the top of the singles charts was something of a national obsession and (certainly in the 70s and 80s) a good proportion of the younger population would tune in to BBC Radio 1 on a Sunday afternoon to find out who had the top slot and whether their favourite song had moved up or down. My impression was that fans would buy the latest single from their idol, just to try to get them to Number 1, even if they intended to buy the album when it was released (which was generally after the best tracks had peaked in the singles chart - a clever marketing ploy). Alansplodge (talk) 10:30, 18 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]