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Canadians are good at celebrating their music. And why not? Over the last decade or so, the Canadian music scene has produced a dazzling array of talent, with artists and albums winning over critics and fans around the world. Operating mostly underground, Canada’s indie music scene is second to none and the envy of many.
But every yin must have its yang. For many of us, the introduction to homegrown talent came not through respected blogs and online radio, but through the MuchMusic Countdown and top 40 radio stations attempting to fill their 35% Canadian content quotas without deviating too far from the bubblegum pop dominating the airwaves at the time. This created a parallel world operating somewhere between the DIY ethos of the independents and the aesthetics of the marketing juggernauts coming from the south. When the boy band era came to an end, Canadian pop musicians, lacking credibility, large budgets, or even much in the way of name recognition, could neither retreat into the underground nor propel themselves forward as “adult” artists à la the Backstreet Boys and Justin Timberlake. Yes, the end of this era had casualties worldwide, but in Canada, almost no one was left standing.
This blog is an attempt to rectify that.
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