troutman
07-19-2012, 03:11 PM
Calgary alt-weekly calls Canadian music boring, picks fight with entire Canadian music industry
http://www.aux.tv/2012/07/calgary-alt-weekly-calls-canadian-music-boring-picks-fight-with-entire-canadian-music-industry/
Canadian music is boring
Living in the age of enforced mediocrity
http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/music/music-features/canadian-music-is-boring-9466/
Canadian music is forcibly being supported on the airwaves — not for its quality, or artistic merit, but simply for its MAPL-certified Canadian-ness. Has it helped independent Canadian musicians? Yes and no. Pop-punk pissants like Hedley and Simple Plan dominate mainstream radio; Can-indie, the descendents of The New Pornographers, BSS, dominate community radio airwaves. Cancon regulations might support Canadian music in a roundabout way, but it hardly supports new, fresh or fascinating ideas in Canadian music. It is, in a sense, enforcing mediocre musical tastes, not challenging them.
When everything is “good,” everything basically sucks. No one breaks the rules, no one pushes the envelope, no one even tries. The Canadian critics, working hand in hand with other facets of the national music industry, have become the equivalent of over-encouraging parents. Everything Canada produces runs the gamut from good to great.
We don’t actually believe that all Canadian music is boring, but as a country we’re addicted to mediocrity, to nepotism, to a stagnating Can-rock fraternity. In order to embrace the talent that’s abundant on our own soil, we need to shift the Canadian music paradigm away from consensus, away from nepotism, and away from some streamlined idea of “quality” — a term that’s highly subjective. As a nation, we have a grant system — however lacking in funding — a broadcast protection system and yes, coast-to-coast talent at our disposal.
We just need to redefine how we utilize those infrastructures so as to avoid cultural staleness. After all, innovative music doesn’t only exist in a select few backyards; it’s coming out of countless small town garages, dingy practice spaces and cluttered bedrooms across the country.
I have to go read these articles, but it seems to me mediocrity was worse in the 1980s and 1990s. Now that artists are less reliant on commercial radio, I think this is a Golden Age for Canadian music.
I was however, underwhelmed with the Polaris Prize nominees.
Cancon is irrelevant when talking about CBC3 or college radio stations like CJSW. CBC3 plays only Canadian music, and CJSW plays a ton of local and Canadian music.
http://www.aux.tv/2012/07/calgary-alt-weekly-calls-canadian-music-boring-picks-fight-with-entire-canadian-music-industry/
Canadian music is boring
Living in the age of enforced mediocrity
http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/music/music-features/canadian-music-is-boring-9466/
Canadian music is forcibly being supported on the airwaves — not for its quality, or artistic merit, but simply for its MAPL-certified Canadian-ness. Has it helped independent Canadian musicians? Yes and no. Pop-punk pissants like Hedley and Simple Plan dominate mainstream radio; Can-indie, the descendents of The New Pornographers, BSS, dominate community radio airwaves. Cancon regulations might support Canadian music in a roundabout way, but it hardly supports new, fresh or fascinating ideas in Canadian music. It is, in a sense, enforcing mediocre musical tastes, not challenging them.
When everything is “good,” everything basically sucks. No one breaks the rules, no one pushes the envelope, no one even tries. The Canadian critics, working hand in hand with other facets of the national music industry, have become the equivalent of over-encouraging parents. Everything Canada produces runs the gamut from good to great.
We don’t actually believe that all Canadian music is boring, but as a country we’re addicted to mediocrity, to nepotism, to a stagnating Can-rock fraternity. In order to embrace the talent that’s abundant on our own soil, we need to shift the Canadian music paradigm away from consensus, away from nepotism, and away from some streamlined idea of “quality” — a term that’s highly subjective. As a nation, we have a grant system — however lacking in funding — a broadcast protection system and yes, coast-to-coast talent at our disposal.
We just need to redefine how we utilize those infrastructures so as to avoid cultural staleness. After all, innovative music doesn’t only exist in a select few backyards; it’s coming out of countless small town garages, dingy practice spaces and cluttered bedrooms across the country.
I have to go read these articles, but it seems to me mediocrity was worse in the 1980s and 1990s. Now that artists are less reliant on commercial radio, I think this is a Golden Age for Canadian music.
I was however, underwhelmed with the Polaris Prize nominees.
Cancon is irrelevant when talking about CBC3 or college radio stations like CJSW. CBC3 plays only Canadian music, and CJSW plays a ton of local and Canadian music.