 At the time, what was then called "underground music" was starting to achieve some commercial success in Europe, bolstered by new radio and TV programmes such as John Peel's "Top Gear".CBS competed actively for this new market against other “progressive” labels such as Elektra, Island, Immediate, and the EMI subsidiary Harvest, who followed with similar samplers of their acts.Although some of the featured artists were already stars, others such as Leonard Cohen and Spirit were only starting to become known in Europe, and the album made a major contribution to their success.