Big Shiny Tunes is a series of rock albums compiled and released by the Canadian music television station MuchMusic, and through MusiquePlus in Quebec, from 1996 to 2009. The best-selling album of the series was Big Shiny Tunes 2, which was certified Diamond in Canada (1,000,000 units) by the CRIA on March 25, 1998.[1] It has been cited as the best-selling album series in Canadian history,[2][3] with 5 million albums sold in ten years.[4]
Characteristics
The Big Shiny Tunes albums are each thought to be composed of a combination of rock songs that are major hits by well-known artists, less successful songs by well-known artists and songs by more obscure artists, released in the same year as the albums' publication.[5] There are a combination of Canadian, British and American performers. One common feature among the selected artists is that they are attached to Universal Music, Warner Bros., EMI Music Canada, and/or MuchMusic, who come together to produce Big Shiny Tunes albums.[2] The most frequently appearing band in the Big Shiny Tunes series is Nickelback, who appeared on 7 releases in the series (Big Shiny Tunes 5, 7–11, and 14.) The first six Big Shiny Tunes albums were all released on both CD and cassette formats, before being put out solely on CD starting with Big Shiny Tunes 7 in 2002.
Part of the appeal of the series is that those who do not usually buy albums will find Big Shiny Tunes provides several well-known songs, as opposed to a CD by a single artist whose non-single tracks may be relatively unfamiliar.[2] The music is aimed at teenagers and young adults.[6] There has been some criticism of consistency in regards to the use of censored versus uncensored versions of songs from album to album (Big Shiny Tunes 6 carried a label stating that some songs contained coarse language, while the previous and following albums had censored songs by Matthew Good, Limp Bizkit, Staind, Not By Choice and Wheatus).
In addition to the ordinary albums in the series, MuchMusic also released albums that compile the biggest hits across a span of years, such as Big Shiny 80s (2005) that included classics like Billy Idol's "White Wedding." There have also been two volumes of Big Shiny 90s released.
History
The first edition of Big Shiny Tunes was released in 1996 and was successful, being certified Triple Platinum in Canada. Big Shiny Tunes 2 was released in 1997 to greater success, selling 128,000 copies in its first week and going on to sell 1,230,000 copies overall, making it the third best-selling album of all time in Canada of the Nielsen SoundScan era.[7]Big Shiny Tunes 3 was released in 1998 and was also very successful, and the second and third editions alone would account for over 2,000,000 copies of Big Shiny Tunes albums sold.[8] Following editions of Big Shiny Tunes reached #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, the last being Big Shiny Tunes 6, which sold 68,500 copies in its first week in 2001.[9]
The series soon lost its predominance with the growth of Peer-to-peer file sharing in the 2000s. The last album in the series, Big Shiny Tunes 14, was released in 2009. As of 2010, the series went on an indefinite hiatus and was later discontinued.
Notes: When the track listing was originally shown via online music stores such as Mymusic before the official site opened, songs by Green Day, Audioslave, System of a Down, Arcade Fire, Beck, and the Foo Fighters were shown to be on the album. These were replaced by songs by Nickelback, Weezer, Seether, Theory of a Deadman, Mobile, and k-os.[15]
Notes: The album's official site also lists "Stricken" by Disturbed as being on the album as well, but it doesn't appear in the final product. The album was certified Platinum in Canada (100,000 units) on February 1, 2007.[16]
MuchDance, a compilation series by MuchMusic first released in 1990 and by MusiquePlus as DansePlus until 2019 and in the U.S. as Dance Mix USA (1993–1998)
^ abcTom Harrison, "Big Shiny Tunes finds big niche: Compilation albums reflect modern rock and sell millions in Canada," The Province, Vancouver, B.C.: January 13, 2002, pg. B.5.