Does the Closing Ceremonies reflect the music industry today?

            Another Olympics has come to a close and with it, the buzz this week has been around the London 2012 closing ceremonies. Director Kim Gavin decide to place the focus on Great Britain’s contributions to popular music since the last London games in 1948. It’s hard to argue that, with a list of bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols, and the Clash just for starters, Gavin isn’t wrong in wanting to put together a “Symphony of British Music” for the world. In the United States, a lot of the social media and blog focus had been about NBC and how they failed to properly capture the event. This post will not be about that but you can read all about my reaction to that on my Twitter feed.

            This post will be about how the closing ceremonies reflect the music industry as it is right now. Just recently, based on Nielsen Soundscan info and reported by Stereogum, old albums are outselling new albums. The artists within were able to use this platform to propel this trend for their own gain, a trend highlighted in article in the Daily Mail. The Spice Girls were hesitant to reunite but with Viva Forever, a West End musical featuring their songs opening soon, the opportunity to draw attention proved too strong. According to the Guardian, the Who turned down performing twice but the recent US tour announcement helped change that decision and they ended up begin a great closer. George Michael used the moment to split the difference, performing his hit “Freedom 90” and also debuting a new song called “White Light.” So far, “White Light” has outsold “Freedom 90” reaching number 2 on iTunes according to his own Twitter feed, a rarity in today’s market.

Further proof came the following day in the numbers. Reported by NME and the Music Network, the Spice Girls Greatest Hits re-entered the iTunes UK album chart at #11 the Monday following the ceremonies and rose to #8 the following day. Following a performance of “Wonderwall” by Liam Gallagher and former members of Oasis in their new band Beady Eye, their 1995 classic What’s The Story, Morning Glory re-entered the charts at #34 but dropped to #50. Kate Bush, who didn’t perform but a version of her 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” was a key part of the ceremony saw her best-of compilation The Whole Story re-enter the chart at #16.

That’s not to say there wasn’t any room for new British artists. Emili Sande whose song “Read All About It” bookended the “London rush hour” sequence found herself with the #2 spot on the iTunes UK album chart and the song at #3 on the singles chart. Jessie J, who performed her own music and sang with Queen, saw her album Who You Are rise back up to number 22. Newer artists Tinie Tempah, Taio Cruz, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse and Ed Sheeran all performed at the ceremony but did not see any major sales changes as of the time of these reports. This could be interpreted at how hard it is for newer artists to break through even if they have the world's largest stage to perform on.

With most of the story being older artists, it’s interesting how sales would have been affected for those who turned down the event. Most notably, David Bowie’s 1980 single “Fashion” was in a huge spot but how much larger would the impact have been if he’d actually showed up to perform. Bowie is notoriously reclusive as of late after having had angioplasty surgery and was not a total surprise that he did not perform. If David Bowie had made an appearance, it more than likely would have sparked a huge interest in his back catalogue not seen in ages. Also rumored by the Guardian were The Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones. The most interesting thought would be the Stones marking their 50th anniversary with a one-off gig at the Olympics. With most of the sales stories tipped toward how the older artists impacted that charts more than the newer ones, it appears as if this trend that older artists outselling newer ones will continue.