Since the 1950s, popular music in Canada has performed an increasingly dominant role in defining our country on the international stage.  Our popular music has undergone an evolution and renaissance of sorts, and I endeavour to discuss three distinct periods in the history of Canadian popular music.  Emerging in the 1950s, on near equal-footing to American popular music, Canadian popular music enjoyed considerable success at-home and abroad, finding audiences on radio and in the local dancehalls.  By the 1960s and 70s, however, Canadian music began to look steadfastly overseas to Britain and to the U.S. for models and inspiration.  With some exceptions, of course, this trend of copycatting continued through much of the 1980s, with Canadian artists modelling themselves after British or American stars in hopes of securing lucrative international recording contracts.  By the late 80s, however, and flourishing through the 1990s, Canadian artists began to come into their own—in other words, Canadian music began to reflect a “Canadian” point-of-view.  The first decade of the 21st century has benefited from this renaissance of sorts in the 1990s, to the point where popular Canadian music has begun to be recognised and appreciated internationally as unique.

Prior to the explosion of modern popular music in the 1950s, Canada produced a number of notable stars, including comedic actress and singer, Beatrice Lillie during the WWI era, bandleader Guy Lombardo (born in London, ON), and the Montreal jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson. Nova Scotia-born and raised, Hank Snow, was one of country music’s first superstars, and certainly one of the genre’s most innovative. In the early 1950s, Snow, and fellow Nova Scotian, Wilf Carter, were as popular, and as important, as some of the U.S.’s biggest names in country music, rivalling the likes of Hank Williams.  Both Snow and Carter referenced Canada in their popular songs. Although Snow regularly crafted his songs to please American audiences, he at least placed Canadian cities on equal footing with U.S. locales in his version of the classic song, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Carter, however, was more explicitly Canadian in songs like “Rye Whisky” and “Blue Canadian Rockies.”

        The year 1955, however, was a turning point in terms of popular music.  In that year the rockabilly style of Elvis Presley reached Canada. The Four Lads, from Toronto, capitalised on this sound, and became a prominent act in the Canadian white R&B scene.  On the international stage, however, the first Canadian pop star was Ottawa-born Paul Anka, whose 1957 hit, “Diana,” is still the second best-selling single of all time (behind “White Christmas”).  Anka burst onto the international pop scene in the late 1950s and was quickly a teen idol. He enjoyed a range of hits through the late 50s and well into the 60s, such as “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” “Lonely Boy,” and “Puppy Love.”

        In the 1960s Canada nourished the early careers of later international superstars— Winnipeg’s The Guess Who, being perhaps the most notable example.  By the 1970s, hard rock acts like Rush, Triumph, and Trooper were internationally acclaimed, if not recognised and folk-rock acts like Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, The Band, Gordon Lightfoot, and Joni Mitchell emerged as innovators and bona fide international stars.

        The 1970s saw the introduction of a controversial Federal law pertaining to Canadian content regulations in relation to music on radio.  Requiring Canadian radio to play at least 30% Canadian content, CanCon regulations were designed as part of an attempt to revitalise the Canadian pop music industry which was struggling in the face of American and British competition.  The first Juno Awards ceremony, which was held in 1971, was closely related to rectifying this same concern.  Canadian content regulations have long been controversial.  Supporters note that the regulations have helped to foster the careers of Canadian artists who otherwise would have struggled to gain airplay in the face of the international power and wealth of American and British music promoters.  Detractors claim CanCon has in fact weakened Canadian music, forcing radio stations to play sub-standard quality music.  In reality, CanCon has created a situation where mainstream radio stations play and overplay the songs of only a few select Canadian artists, and much of the Canadian music community is still ignored.

        The most immediate example of the effects of CanCon regulations in the early 1970s, was the very sudden rise to fame of Anne Murray, whose 1970 hit “Snowbird” was a multi-million selling record thanks to heavy radio airplay.  Artists like Burton Cummings of The Guess Who, have long bragged that their success came before CanCon regulations.

        The 1980s were also a decade of considerable international success for Canadian singer-songwriters and performers, most notably Bryan Adams and Corey Hart. Other artists who enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad included Men Without Hats, Glass Tiger, Honeymoon Sweet, and The Box, among others.  But this decade suffered the greatest from the so-called “Copycat syndrome,” whereby Canadian performers felt compelled to copy the musical styles of American and British artists in order to secure record deals.

        The 1990s produced perhaps the most varied output in terms of Canadian music success, with the likes of k.d. lang, Celine Dion, Alanis Morrisette, and Shania Twain breaking international sales records. Our Canadian women musicians, in fact, have been particularly successful on the international stage.  In addition to lang, Dion, and Twain, female performers such as Avril Lavigne, Nelly Furtado, Chantal Kreviazuk, Kathleen Edwards, Sarah McLachlan, Tegan and Sara, Diana Krall, and Sarah Harmer, have found considerably success at home and abroad, to mention only a few.

        But the international success and widespread acceptance of Canadian pop stars has for the most part been characterised by a tendency, or necessity, to copy the sounds of American or British pop and rock acts.  With little exception, Canadian acts have found international success by adopting a generic sound and non-committal lyrical content, leaving no hint of their roots in Canadian soil.  Where American and British acts have never shied from singing of their homes, referencing cities, events, and personalities, Canadian artists—until the 1990s, at least—were criticised and looked down-upon (by fellow Canadians) for being “too Canadian.” This situation led to a kind of “Copycat syndrome,” whereby artists emulated American and British performers. Dave Bidini of The Rheostatics explains, “in the late eighties…Canadian bands were pissed on. People looked at you and thought you were somehow not ready for a serious career in music if you were too Canadian…you would be penalized or people would look down their noses at you if you were…singing about where you were from.”   Canadian record companies were particularly to blame for the copycat syndrome.  Until the mid-1990s Canadian musicians actively sought major-label record deals and recording contracts because this was basically the only way an artist or band could find success.  In an age before the internet, musicians needed the big money and national and international connections that the major record labels provided.  But seeking to make a profit off of artists, major labels showed very little openness in terms of allowing Canadian artists to truly express themselves. Because American and British sounds were sure sellers, major record labels sought bands that could fit these moulds, and many artists in turn gave the record companies what they were looking for.

         So frustrated was he with the situation of Canadian music in 1978, the iconic Stompin’ Tom Connors announced he was retiring after more than a decade of butting heads with the industry (he would return to music only in the late 1980s).  In an essay that he submitted to editorial boards of newspapers across the country, he wrote: “What an impossible situation we leave our young Canadian talent to face. We ask him to be proud of his country and give him no reason to be. When he writes or sings songs about Canada he’s considered ‘hokey’ and laughed at. When he sings songs like the Americans do, he’s considered a copycat. And who wants to buy or hear songs that are sung by a copycat when the real thing can be obtained directly from the Americans themselves? That’s why our talent goes nowhere—except maybe south.”   London, Ontario punk-rockers, The Demics, had an ironic hit with their 1979 release, “(I Wanna Go To) New York City,” which summarised the very situation Connors expressed and mirrored the aspirations of many Canadian musicians at the time.

        Artists like Bryan Adams have been criticised for adopting a generic rock style, with lyrical content that situates the artist in no particular place.  When heard on the international stage, such artists are automatically assumed to be American, possibly British, but certainly not Canadian.  Contemporary mainstream artists like Avril Lavigne and Nickelback suffer from these same assumptions, again because the lyrics of their songs and their general musical styles do not situate them as uniquely from anywhere, let alone Canada.  The prevalence of American culture worldwide means much of the world assumes all English speaking performers are from the U.S.; their second guess is British. As in all aspects of life, Canadian musicians, performers, and songwriters have been influenced and pressured by the success and inundation of American pop culture. Where our writers and filmmakers have been able to forge a uniquely “Canadian” style and identity—to varying degrees of success at home and abroad—our musical performers have, since the 1970s at least, been less successful, and apparently less willing to do so. Many Canadian artists have intentionally and explicitly modelled themselves as Americans, prostituting themselves musically, if you will—Montreal’s The Box offers a striking example of the copycat syndrome in the lyrics and video to their 1987 hit, “Ordinary People.”  Although members of The Box were all French-speaking Quebecois, “Ordinary People” sings of the cold war relationship between the United States and the U.S.S.R.  And in the heavily-rotated video for the song, The Box performs onstage in front of a prominent American flag.  Worse still, the band momentarily breaks into a few seconds of the “Star Spangled Banner” mid-song.

        As recently as 1999, Vancouver music writer, Greg Potter, critically observed that “in a quest to win international celebrity, Canadian musical artists have gradually and unwittingly lost their Canadian identity.” Potter argues that artists such as The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Anne Murray, Ian Tyson, and Gordon Lightfoot were artists that were unquestionably “Canadian.”  But since the 1970s this trend has deteriorated, and Potter argues that “music from Canada—as opposed to Canadian music—has  emerged as a melting pot rather than a mosaic; whatever is marketable at the moment is parroted to a populace weaned on international media saturation.”   Although Potter is certainly correct with regards to popular and internationally successful Canadian music from much of the late 1970s and 1980s, his characterisation is somewhat overstated when we consider the renaissance of indie music in Canada which began in the 1990s and continues to bare fruit today.  However, Potter is very nearly dead-on if we only consider the international pop-rock stars that Canada has produced in the last 25 years.

       Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip, says of the mid-1980s music scene in Canada: “When we started out, there were a lot of Canadian bands that were trying to look and sound like American bands, and dropping American place names and things as if that would somehow ingratiate themselves into the American market. We found that kind of repulsive.”

        The 1990s was a decade perhaps most important for the new wave of home-grown “alternative rock” acts like Sloan, The Tragically Hip, and others, who created a unique niche which would ultimately, in my opinion, create a musical environment and feeling in this country that had an immense effect on the decade to follow.  The first decade of the 21st century has benefited directly from the alternative acts of the 1990s, with bands like Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Sum 41, Alexisonfire, and k-os finding considerable fame internationally, marking the so-called “Canadian sound.”  Alternative and indie acts in the 1990s consciously skirted the influence of major record labels—in large part due to the technological advances of recording that allowed artists to record near studio-quality albums in their garages and basements. Furthermore, the benefits of the internet (a new phenomenon in the 1990s) were quick, with artists finding they could sell and distribute their material through mail-order without the help of major labels. A do-it-yourself work ethic took root in the Canadian music scene of the 1990s, a phenomenon with considerable and lasting impacts at home.  And the support of community and university radio stations, combined with programmes on CBC radio like “Brave New Waves” and “Night Lines,” meant that bands who only a few years before were toiling away unheard in their basements could now be heard and promoted on a national scale.  CBC Radio 3 continues to offer this kind of support today.

        Folk-country artist, Fred Eaglesmith, is a perfect example of the “do-it-yourself” work ethic that took root in Canadian music through the 1990s. Now making his home in Port Dover, Eaglesmith was raised south of Grimbsy, Ontario.  Beginning in the 1980s, Eaglesmith began recording and distributing his own recordings.  His albums caught-on in popularity thanks entirely to Eaglesmith’s tireless touring and self-promotion. Eaglesmith has never had the support of a record label, yet he’s toured North America constantly since the early 1990s, and his songs have been covered by artists as far away as Australia.

        Therefore, to say that Canadian musicians and performers have altogether avoided singing of their home and their experience as Canadians, is misleading.  Internationally successful Canadian superstars may have shown few qualities that identify them as distinctly Canadian, but as many of you in this room will know, there are many Canadian performers well-loved and listened to at home that have made a point of singing their country.  Perhaps the most obvious and well-known examples of distinctly “Canadian” performances include St. John, NB-born Stompin’ Tom Connors, Kingston, ON’s The Tragically Hip, and Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans.

       Stompin’ Tom Connors has made a career of singing Canada, exploiting the original purpose of the folk and country genres of storytelling rooted in a distinct place.  With songs peppered with references to Canada, from east to west, urban and rural, historically and from a contemporary standpoint, Stompin’ Tom’s success has been thoroughly Canadian, with no apologies. His success is all the more remarkable when we consider the fact that mainstream record labels and radio have effectively snubbed Stompin’ Tom for more than thirty years.

        Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans, have found similar success in singing about Canada, with songs referencing the popular Western Canadian pastime of curling, and lyrics expressing the common phenomenon of the civic self-loathing felt by Winnipegers in “One Great City!”

       City and Colour, the acoustic side-project of St. Catharine’s, ON-born Dallas Green of Alexisonfire, similarly finds no embarrassment in dropping the names of Saskatoon, Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway), the Rocky Mountains, and the Nova Scotia cities Sydney and Halifax alongside American and UK place names in his recent hit, “Comin’ Home.”

       The Tragically Hip, have similarly sang of Canada, from their references to linguistic strife in Franco-Ontario of the late 1980s in “Born in the Water,” mirroring the so-called “northern” experiences of Torontonians in “Bobcaygeon,” imagining the thoughts of wrongfully-charged David Milgaard in “Wheat Kings,” dropping the names of writer Hugh MacLennan, Group of Seven founder Tom Thompson, and Jacques Cartier the French explorer, to romanticising the life and death of Toronto Maple Leaf hockey star, Bill Barilko, in “Fifty Mission Cap.” A musical institution in and of themselves, The Tragically Hip hosted a series of immensely popular and well-attended Canada Day concerts and the Another Roadside Attraction series of festivals in the 1990s. These festival gatherings were unapologetically Canadian, featuring established and up-and-coming home-grown acts.  Usually headlined by the Hip themselves, these festival shows often featured at least one international act as well, such as Australia’s Midnight Oil, and American college-rock icon Matthew Sweet. Love them or hate them, the Hip did much to foster the talent and exposure of other Canadian acts—a phenomenon particularly unique in the 1990s, but now copied on a much smaller scale by bands like Besnard Lakes and Metric, who, using their new-found fame and clout, give a boost to Canadian bands they appreciate or feel who are equally deserving of success.

        Songwriters are at heart, mythmakers and storytellers, and although references to place and experience within a Canadian context are not always explicit, or easily identifiable, the presence of Canada in our popular music has long been evident, if we’ve been willing to look and listen for it.  Canada has been expressed through song most effectively by our folk and so-called “indie” artists that have sadly not always found widespread commercial success.

        Here are only a few examples of other artists who’ve made Canada a theme in their music, whether it explicitly or subtly.

      Neil Young—despite having left Canada early in his career, the country has informed his music, particularly in his early career, with references to that “town in north Ontario” where he spent summers with his family (which is, in fact, Omemee, near Peterborough) and in his Winnipeg prairie-boy roots (on albums such as Harvest, Harvest Moon, and Prairie Wind). Neil Young’s journey from Winnipeg, to Thunder Bay, on to Toronto, and eventually Los Angeles, was the inspiration for Canadian novelist, Kevin Chong’s highly entertaining work of creative non-fiction, Neil Young Nation (2005).

       The Band—although they got their start backing Arkansas-born (but transplanted Canadian) Ronnie Hawkins, and later Bob Dylan, surviving members of The Band to this day insist their music was always informed by their south-western Ontario roots, even though the lyrical content of their songs failed to mention Canada until the end of their career as a band.  Members of The Band grew up in the nearby communities of Simcoe, Stratford, and London, Ontario. Toronto-born Robbie Robertson spent much of his childhood on the Six Nations Reserve with his mother of Mohawk ancestry and keyboard player, Garth Hudson, cut his musical teeth in the clubs and bars of London, Ontario. Although The Band were labelled rural American, and their sound defined the modern conception of southern roots rock, Garth Hudson says that if we look beyond The Band’s lyrics, this is where we’ll find Canada.  Hudson explains that four fifths of The Band “worked from a base of musical knowledge that only small-town Canadians of that era would have had.” Growing up in rural southern Ontario in the 1950s, members of The Band all listened to Canadian radio, in particular the CBC. Hudson explains, “all these little melodies and tunes and country stylings were part of our heritage….”  Robbie Robertson’s solo material, in the late 1980s and 1990s explicitly explored his First Nations background, and he found a hit in “Showdown at Big Sky” in 1987.

       Joni Mitchell—made scattered references to Canada in her early career, evoking memories of her Alberta and Saskatchewan childhood and her early career highlights in the coffee houses of Yorkville in Toronto, where she shared the stage with other Canadian folk legends, Gordon Lightfoot and Ian & Sylvia. Many music critics consider Joni Mitchell to be the single most important female songwriter and performer of the 20th century, and her praises have been sung by fans and artists worldwide. Uncompromising and highly innovative, Mitchell’s career has produced a varied mix of folk, pop, rock, and jazz, and her influence has been noted by the likes of Madonna and Prince.

       The Guess Who—this landmark Canadian band’s biggest hit, “American Woman,” defined itself as distinctly Canadian in characterising Americans as “the other.” The song was meant to protest the ideologies of the US, although American audiences (and Lenny Kravitz, who covered “American Woman” in recent years) have apparently remained largely ignorant of this fact. Other Guess Who songs reflected a prairie experience, most obviously “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon,” despite Burton Cummings' less-than-complimentary remarks about the Winnipeg-rival city in his opening comments on the blistering 1971 live album, “Live at the Paramount” (which also featured another tribute to Canada, despite being recorded in Seattle, Washington, in “Glace Bay Blues”).  “Share the Land” is perhaps one of the Guess Who’s least understood and least respected songs with particular reference to Canada—written and released within a year of the Trudeau Government’s White Paper on Indian Affairs, the lyrics of “Share the Land” reflect the growing awareness and concern over treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Canada and their rocky relationship with Euro-Canadians.  Similarly, their earlier album, “Wheatfield Soul,” featured recognisable references to the Guess Who’s Manitoba and prairie roots.  John Einarson, Winnipeg writer and Manitoba music historian credits “Wheatfield Soul” as “the album that put the province [of Manitoba] on the international music map and gave us our sound.”   When The Guess Who found international success in early 1970, they surprised even their Canadian fans by remaining firmly rooted in Winnipeg, rather than relocating to Los Angeles or New York.

       Gordon Lightfoot—folk-country singer songwriter, who has found considerable respect and success amongst international audiences and other performers (with songs covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, Barbra Streisand, and Marty Robbins, among others), is an icon as far as Canadian music is concerned.  The Orillia, Ontario-born Lightfoot rose out of the same Yorkville scene that fostered the careers of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, had his career significantly boosted by the CBC. His “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” long celebrated as an undeniable Canadian classic, was in fact, a song Lightfoot wrote on commission from the CBC for Canada’s Centennial in 1967. The impact of “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is so large that some have called it, without any sense of irony (or addressing the basic problems with Lightfoot’s mythologizing) “the best six minutes of history class Canadian kids have spent ever since.”

       Daniel Lanois--known primarily for his masterful production skills (having produced landmark albums for internationally respected artists like U2, Willie Nelson, and Peter Gabriel, as well as Canadian performers such as Luba, Martha and the Muffins, Parachute Club, and Robbie Robertson, among others), Hull-born (and Hamilton-based) Lanois has released three albums and was a significant performer in The Tragically Hip’s Another Roadside Attraction festivals during the 90s.  His albums, “Acadie” and “For the Beauty of Winona” are particularly ripe with references, both lyrically and musically, to Canada.  Lanois often performs on the albums he produces as well, and performers such as Emmylou Harris and Dave Matthews regularly perform his songs in concert.

       L’Etranger—a Toronto post-punk band, regionally popular throughout southern Ontario, featured Andrew Cash and members of The Grievous Angels and Skydiggers in early career.  Much of their music was easily identifiable as being rooted in the urban experience of Toronto. Songs like “One People” spoke of international issues like apartheid in South Africa alongside ethnic tensions in Toronto.  Chuck Angus, L’Etranger’s bass player, credits the band’s lyrical content and social conscience in part to the angst of youth: “We really wanted to change the world, and we thought our band was going to play a part in changing the world. That was as much a part of making music as anything.”   When the band broke up in the mid-eighties, lead singer and guitarist Andrew Cash pursued a solo career. Cash was the first Canadian to be signed to Island Records (the home of international superstars Bob Marley and U2), and he toured internationally with Melissa Etheridge in the late 80s, performing at “A Concert for Berlin” in November, 1989 (only three days after the fall of the Berlin Wall), and he won a Juno Award in 1990 for his Canadian hit, “Boomtown.”  The lyrics and video of “Boomtown” told the tale of a down and out couple struggling to find affordable housing in a city booming with developments for the rich. Chuck Angus, also a member of L’Etranger, went on to form The Grievous Angels, who had a successful career in Northern Ontario, singing of communities and cultures in the North. Presently Chuck Angus is NDP Member of Provincial Parliament for the Timmins region. Other musicians associated with L’Etranger went on to form The Skydiggers, who found considerable success in the 1990s as a folk-rock act sharing the same “Canadian sound” as Blue Rodeo. Andrew Cash now performs with his brother Peter, a former member of The Skydiggers, in the alt-country band The Cash Brothers.

        The Rheostatics—beginning in the mid-80s The Rheostatics unapologetically sang of Canada, and particularly their experiences as youths growing up in the suburbs of Toronto. Later albums evoked the spirit of the Group of Seven and Canadian novelist Paul Quarrington’s Brian Wilson-inspired novel, Whale Music. Guitarist and singer Dave Bidini is equally well-known now as a writer of non-fiction stories about music and hockey, among other things. Following their 2007 retirement, Canadian artists, including The Weakerthans, The Inbreds, Barenaked Ladies, and Cuff the Duke, among others, recorded a tribute album to The Rheostatics.

       The Northern Pikes—this Saskatchewan pop-rock band of the late 80s and early 90s who rivalled the popularity of The Tragically Hip, remained true to their Canadian prairie roots, not only in name, but particularly in their quirky videos which often featured prairie landscapes and small town sentiment. At the height of their popularity, The Northern Pikes opened tours for Duran Duran, David Bowie, and Robert Plant. The Pikes biggest-selling album, 1990s “Snow in June,” featured the input of fellow Canadian, Garth Hudson (formerly of The Band) and John Sebastian (of The Lovin’ Spoonfull). Chief songwriter of The Northern Pikes, Jay Semko, found success after the bands initial break-up in the mid 90s scoring the television soundtrack to the popular Canadian-based CBS/CTV weekly drama, Due South, featuring Paul Gross.

        Quebecois musicians, or “Chansonniers,” as they were known in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, sang songs overtly rooted in place, both linguistically and socially. The first popular chansonniers group, Les Bozos, formed in 1959, spawned a new generation of popular singers in the 1960s and 70s, which included Diane Dufresne andJean-Pierre Ferland. Chansonniers usually performed solo, with an acoustic guitar, singing romantic songs with great intimacy and expression. They were an important part of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, and helped lead the expressive blossoming of Quebec culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Another widely popular Quebecois rock star was Robert Charlebois, whose hits “Quebec Love” and “Les Ailes d'Un Ange” became something of sovereignist rallying cries. Charlebois, and other artists, like Harmonium and les Seguin, were rock groups inspired by the chansonniers. Popular contemporary Quebecois pop stars include Jean Leloup (or Jean Leclerc, as he’s called himself in recent years), Richard Desjardins, and La Chicane.

        Anglophone musicians from Quebec have had considerable success as well. A few notable contemporary artists include Sam Roberts, Van Bran 3000, Simple Plan, legendary metal group Voivod (now featuring former Metallica member, Jason Newstead, on bass), Arcade Fire, The Dears, The Stars, Besnard Lakes, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Wolf Parade.

         D.O.A.—this influential Vancouver hardcore punk band has long sung of the Canadian experience. Lead singer and main songwriter, Joey “Shithead” Keithley, in his politically-charged lyrics, has addressed issues such as anti-racism, anti-globalisation, and the environment, and the band’s long popular slogan has been “Talk – Action = 0.”  The album art of D.O.A.’s 1993 release, “Loggerheads,” featured the famous photograph of a Canadian military officer nose to nose with a Mohawk warrior, taken during the 1990 Oka land claim crisis. Lead singer Joey Keithley ran as a candidate for the Green Party in the British Columbia provincial and civic elections of 1996.   D.O.A.’s 2002 release “Win the Battle,” featured the song “I Am Canadian,” re-appropriating the popular Molson beer slogan. So respected is the band in their home city of Vancouver, that in 2003 mayor Larry Campbell declared December 21, “D.O.A. Day.”

        The 1990s were a decade of incredible nationalism, at least as far as English-Canadian music was concerned.  The “alternative revolution” in Canada was, somewhat fittingly kicked off by an unassuming demo tape by The Barenaked Ladies in 1991.  The “Yellow Tape” included a cover-version of fellow Canadian, folk artist, Bruce Cockburn’s “Lover’s In A Dangerous Time,” and the tape became the hottest thing in Canadian record stores in the Fall of 1991, paving the way for an explosion of Canadian indie bands. Halifax quartet, Sloan, was easily the most successful of these so-called “Indie” bands.  Their 1992 major label debut, “Smeared,” which the band had recorded with no notion of major label interest, was touted by their Los Angeles record company as Canada’s answer to Nirvana.  For some months, Halifax was spoken and written about in the international music community as the “New Seattle” (following on the grunge successes of Seattle bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden). With Sloan at the forefront, the international attention led to attention at home, with bands like Hardship Post and Eric’s Trip finding some success on the Seattle-based record label, Sub Pop. Halifax, throughout the first half of the 1990s, was the cradle of indie rock in Canada, and simply sporting a member from this east coast city (whether they’d lived there long or not) meant automatically a measure of success from a growing legion of indie rock fans who packed the clubs and live-music bars of that decade.  And although the Canadian indie scene was closely watched by US audiences, the lyrical and stylistic content of Canadian bands from this era remained distinct from the sounds of American grunge bands. In addition to Sloan, groups like Thrush Hermit often referenced their experiences as a band touring Canada from east to west. Chief songwriter of Thrush Hermit, Joel Plaskett, in early 2001 wrote a song which in all rights should be a modern day rock anthem, in “True Patriot Love.” The Canadian pop landscape of the 1990s was distinct in that it was defined by a national pride and self-confident distinctiveness that had never before been seen in Canadian music.  And by the 1990s, the Canadian music audience was arguably large enough to allow bands like The Tragically Hip to remain unapologetically Canadian.  Unlike their earlier counterparts, such as The Guess Who, bands like The Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo did not need to worry so much about exposure in the U.S. or abroad.  Financially they could survive with a firm fan base in Canada alone.

        The first decade of the 21st century has introduced one notable, if not disturbing, factor on the Canadian pop music scene—Canadian Idol, modelled explicitly after American and British “reality” TV programming, Pop Idol and American Idol. A good example of how Canadian pop culture still relies on and borrows heavily from American influences, in particular, Canadian Idol has attracted undeniable popularity and has been impossible to ignore—love it or hate it. With the possible exception of Kalan Porter, few Idol winners have found an audience outside the confines of the show.  But during the 2004 season, Porter’s slim win over Saskatoon’s Theresa Sokyrka, created a significant degree of buzz nationally.  In Saskatchewan, Sokyrka was the clear Idol winner and her career has since flourished in that province, where she has released two acclaimed CDs and has appeared in television commercials and other marketing campaigns.

        In short, the 1990s were a decade characterised by the unique fact that it was suddenly “cool” to be Canadian.  Pop performers of that decade helped to foster an environment that artists like The New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and Leslie Feist benefit from today.  Drawing on the philosophy and styles of 1990s indie rock, these and other artists have found international success, defining a “Canadian sound” that is recognised and respected by pop music fans worldwide.  Bolstered by a do-it-yourself indie approach, and supported by internet-based promotion tools like CBC Radio 3, artists of the early 21st century have reclaimed what it means to be “Canadian.” Seattle-born, Neko Case, alt-country queen, who got her start as a musician in Vancouver with pop-punk bands Maow and Cub, paid a fitting tribute to the country she credits with her success in 2001 with the aptly titled, “Canadian Amp”—an album of cover songs highlighting some of her favourite Canadian songwriters. Case pays tribute to 90s indie songwriters Lisa Marr (of Cub), Mike O’Neill (of The Inbreds), and Sook-Yin Lee (of MuchMusic and CBC Radio fame). The Canadian indie rock scene, in recent years, has been the focus of national and international media attention in such publications as Spin, The New York Times Magazine, and Rolling Stone. So “cool” is Canada now, musically, at least, that non-Canadian artists and bands feel it safe to begin referencing our country in their songs, if not their band names themselves—Of Montreal, and Boards of Canada, as well as the American indie record label, Secretly Canadian—being obvious examples of the new found international fetish of playing Canadian.
 
 

Suggested Further Reading:

Michael Barclay, et. al. Have Not Been the Same: the CanRock renaissance, 1985-95 (Toronto: ECW Press, 2001).

Dave Bidini, On A Cold Road: tales of adventure in Canadian rock (Toronto: M&S, 1998).

Kevin Chong, Neil Young Nation: a quest, an obsession (and a true story) (Vancouver: Greystone, 2005).

Peter Goddard and Philip Kamin, Shakin’ All Over: the rock ‘n roll years in Canada (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1989).

Rick Jackson, Encyclopedia of Canadian rock, pop and folk music (Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1994).

Mark Kearney and Randy Ray, Canadian Music Fast Facts: a resource booklet on Canadian pop music history (London, ON: Sparky Jefferson, 1991).

Martin Melhuish, Heart of Gold: 30 years of Canadian pop music (Toronto: CBC Enterprises, 1983).

Martin Melhuish, Oh What a Feeling: a vital history of Canadian music (Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1996).

Bob Mersereau, The Top 100 Canadian Albums (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2007).

Greg Potter, Hand Me Down World: the Canadian pop-rock paradox (Toronto: Macmillan, 1999).

Ritchie York, Axes, Chops & Hot Licks: the Canadian rock music scene (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1971).