The Corrs Lead Ireland in UK's Top 100 albums

[DazedOblivion]

Gavin Bonnar "tweeted" us with this link to an article entitled "The Corrs are leading Irish act in UK all time Top 50"

www.hotpress.com/The%20Corrs/news/The%20Corrs%20are%20leading%20Irish%20act%20in%20UK%20all%20time%20Top%2050/5830335.html

The Corrs Talk On Corners is the biggest selling Irish album in the UK over the past 50 years.

It also ranks as the No.20 best selling album of all time in the UK, a remarkable achievement for the Dundalk band, which accurately reflects the scale of their impact across the water.

The figures have been released by Music Week, the UK music trade bible, which is currently celebrating 50 years of publication. Music Week first hit the streets – or rather the desks! – in 1959, in time for the great explosion of music in Britain that happened with the beat boom of the 1960s.

"The Corrs achievement is astonishing, really," one industry insider told Hot Press. ""The No.1 album is Queen's Greatest Hits – but when you strip out the hit collections, Talk On Corners ranks right up there with the really big records that everyone is familiar with."

Ahead of Talk on Corners are records that went down in the annals – The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (No.2); Oasis' What's The Story Morning Glory (No. 4); Michael Jackson's Thriller (No.5); Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (No.7); Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (No.13); Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell (No.19). But a huge number of celebrated records follow, including the biggest selling albums by The Spice Girls, Coldplay, Take That, Robbie Williams and U2.

There are albums by three Irish bands in the Top 50, with U2's The Joshua Tree at No.28 and Snow Patrol's Eyes Open at No.50.

Contacted by Hot Press, Corrs manager John Hughes reflected on the overall achievement of Irish artists.

"It does make you proud to see Irish names ranking up there among the biggest albums," he commented. "I think it is important for us to be aware of the scale of the impact that Irish artists have had internationally. We are looking for ways to address the current economic crisis and I think the arts have a real role to play in that.

"I was listening to Colm Toibin this morning on the radio talking about threatened cuts to the arts and it occurred to me that a lot of people may underestimate contribution that the arts have made to the hugely positive perception of Ireland throughout the world.

"The Irish are very artistic. We have an extraordinary tradition in music and in literature, which is vital to the country in so many ways. And seeing The Corrs, U2 and Snow Patrol in the top 50 is a reminder of just how important Irish artists are, in the grand scheme of things. We need to support and encourage that in every way."

There are 15 albums from the US – just five times as many as from Ireland, from a population base that is a multiple of approximately 50 times ours. The maths may be basic, but the chart results give us a 6% representation in the Top 50 records, against competition from all over the world. They say that Ireland punches above its weight in the arts: one need look no further for proof.[/size][/font]

It's always intriguing to me how the UK took to Talk On Corners while the US seems to have gone for In Blue. Even back then, it was television that was such a powerful force in creating demand. The RAH St. Patrick's Day concert in 1998 was monumental. Within weeks, both Forgiven Not Forgotten and Talk On Corners occupied the top two spots. The power of TV goes back to the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. If Ed was still doing his show in 2000, I believe that the Corrs would have gone triple platinum in the U.S.

[cw]

TOC WAS the actual worldwide success (everywhere exc the US). In Blue, if anything, was more "targetted" at the US market.

Breathless was the ONE Corrs single that "made it" in the US and why was that so ?? The Corrs sang it but, apart from the visual delights of watching 3 beautiful women on the clip, they were incidental. It was a big bombastic Mutt Lange production and may well have been a number for his (then) missus or any other female singer of the genre. Essentially it succeeded in the US because it WAS yr stock-standard generic US mainstream hit.

That is the nub of the matter for foreign artists when approaching the US market. Unless you are an enormous o/s star (and even then that is no guarantee); unless you adapt yr sound to mainstream America you are likely to be Whistling Dixie to get credible airtime/exposur in mainstream markets.

Disagree with yr Ed Sullivan analogy. TV had moved on from that model by and large by the late 70's. That style of show esp in those timeslots are long-gone. The key niches for natl TV exposures are breakfast TV/morning chat shows and to a lesser degree the late-night shows.

In the US, the Corrs WERE able to get some very good exposure on shows like Today/GMA, esp around St Patricks Day, and obviously charmed their way sufficiently (both to the TV audiences & the presenters/producers) to be regularly invited back. TV in the US was NOT the problem for the Corrs; radio airplay was.

[DazedOblivion]

Funny you say that, because I did think that "Breathless" and "Irresistible" WERE Shania songs which, at that time, were very commonplace, so I missed paying the Corrs any attention in 2000. Personally, I prefer the "non-Mutt" songs, myself, though the songs improved in my estimation after I saw Caroline drumming to them!

Like you say, morning shows are good, but the afternoon shows like Oprah and Ellen are probably even better. The best thing of all is to get a gig on American Idol in prime time.

Borrowed Heaven had no radio airplay. That WAS a problem. But I think that the importance of radio airplay has diminished since 2004 and television has a major impact but it is wasted on the idol contestants for the most part.

I agree with you about the dilemma faced by outside artists trying to break into the U.S. music market. It's a terrible situation and that's why I consider myself a "musical refugee," and look elsewhere more and more.

Sept 24, 2009 17:49:06 GMT 1 cw said:

Disagree with yr Ed Sullivan analogy. TV had moved on from that model by and large by the late 70's. That style of show esp in those timeslots are long-gone. The key niches for natl TV exposures are breakfast TV/morning chat shows and to a lesser degree the late-night shows.

I didn't make an "analogy". I was merely stating that the power of television has remained a constant going back to that time. The idol shows of today are proof of this - prime time is still very effective. One could witness the power of British TV in the level of support that the tonally-challenged Diana Vickers had at the Twitterwall. Obviously, the times have changed. The Ed Sullivan Show format is indeed long gone as are the conditions that existed at that time (i.e. choices limited to three major networks). I only stated that if there were an Ed Sullivan Show in 2000, the Corrs would have gone triple-platinum in the U.S.

My understanding is that the televised RAH concert was THE catalyst for the UK "breakout" for the Corrs in 1998 - this can be illustrated best by comparing the chart performance of the Corrs' debut album Forgiven Not Forgotten on the charts before and after the RAH concert. It was always great music, but it took the TV exposure to get people to take note of that.

[cw]

1. Re RAH, definitely the catalyst for "breaking" the British mainland, no debte on that. We ARE, however, talking about a one-off/special event concert rather than regular programming.

2. Idol, agree with a number of the points. Maybe it's the public voyur instinct that feeds the "reality TV" genre. Gives oh so much credence to the saying "arse beats class"; the self-promoter will always come to the fore under those circumstances.

3. Agree that afternoon TV is certainly useful but probably doesnt hit the
working demographic that breakfast TV can hit. Also agree that MOST TV exposure is valuable ...... except for those instances when you are being photographed rat-arsed drunk being hauled into a police van/giving people "the finger" or "mooning" the camera.