A public tiring of the ceaseless round of ‘Best Ever’ polls appear to have wreaked their revenge on MTV with Craig David’s debut album ‘Born To Do It’ coming second in a chart to find the best albums of all time.
The growth of the internet has only lead to more avenue’s for people with too much time on their hands to play practical jokes on the music industry. Belle And Sebastian winning ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Brit Awards after a web campaign was probably the first example in this country, but Rick Astley’s victory in the ‘Best Act Ever’ category at the recent MTV Europe Awards led to the coining of a new phrase – ‘Rickrolled’.
It seems the latest act to get the rickroll treatment is Craig David. The singer burst through from an extremely commercial end of the garage scene with a series of R&B lite anthems. His song ‘Seven Days’ was a smash hit, with ‘Born To Do It’ becoming a massive chart success.
Now reviled by teenagers who bought it at the end but have now grown up and moved onto pastures new, the album was the subject of a web campaign to have it named ‘Best Album Ever’ in a new MTV poll.
Sadly, fans came just short losing out to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. More than 40,000 people voted with Craig David scoring an astonishing 12% of all votes, much more than Radiohead, Oasis and other heavyweights.
In response, Craig David denies his success is a joke, insisting that his ever loyal fans have voted for him.
He told BBC Radio 1: “At the time of having this vote and knowing that it’s so many different genres of MTV, even if my fans were just trying to make the vote I really don’t think it would’ve made any difference.”
Craig David released a ‘Greatest Hits’ album last year which crawled into the British charts at number 48.