Canadian Music Now
Ten years ago I graduated from McGill University with a degree in comparative religions and an uncertain future. My degree was by no means an instant ticket to a job and I didn't want to go to law school or hole up in an ashram in India. At the time my brother was living in New York, and his band Stars had just released their first record, Nightsongs. I volunteered to help them promote shows, manage tours, and pretty much do anything I could to get their career going. I basically became their de facto manager. I accompanied them to CMJ, CMW, NXNE, SXSW, and on tours across North America.
A few years later I started a music festival called POP Montreal with some friends. Our festival would be different from the events that existed in Canada at the time – industry showcases that seemed like mere musical meat markets. We asked our friends to perform, applied for grants, and did our best to find sponsors. In a short period of time, POP Montreal, which recently saw its eighth edition, has become a world class event. We've done this by working hard, being creative, and being different, featuring bands from around the world, and local talent, too.
In keeping with the work I did with my brother’s band a decade ago, Pop Montreal puts Canadian music in its rightful place alongside the best of the world. As such, it makes sense that much of what we do is supported by government. We are lucky in Canada that art is encouraged and supported by our government institutions, even if that funding remains ever precarious. Of course, as with any pursuit in the arts, funding is not enough. You need to be original, heartfelt, and relevant if you are going to make a mark on the world stage. To create a music industry that breeds these qualities, and one that successfully defends against the constant threats to arts funding, it's important to have a strong and vocal arts community. It’s essential that we constantly discuss and re-evaluate the state of Canadian music – the successes and failures of Canadian artists, governments, and listeners, all of whom have an important role to play in the cultural future of our country.
Canada’s Lost Albums
by Alan Cross
Senior Program Director, Splice Interactive; creator, The Ongoing History of New Music.
- First Posted: Dec 07 2009 08:57 AM
- Updated: 6 months ago
In the UK, a steady stream of re-released albums helps to preserve British music. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Canada.
Every time I go to the UK, I’m – to use their vernacular – gobsmacked at the amount of reverence the British accord their music. The newsstands are filled with thick, well-written music magazines, from the generalist (Q, Uncut) to the specific (Classic Rock, Kerrang) to the obsessive (Mojo, Record Collector). Millions spend their summers going from festival to festival. Even radio – from the immense BBC 1 and 2 to the various private stations around the island – continues to wield tremendous power and influence. But what really amazes me is the care taken to preserve British music.
Browsing through the HMV flagship store on Oxford Street, I looked for the CD version of a particular Ultravox album from the 1970s. I’d have a better chance of finding Angelina Jolie at my front door with a bottle of Dom and two glasses than locating a copy here in Canada. Yet there it – they! – were: five copies in the rack at six pounds each. Sold.
The music mags are filled with reviews and ads for re-releases of albums from the past. They come from a variety of boutique-y labels which lovingly unearth, digitize, tart up, and re-release them. And while the anglophile in me is happy, I also feel a little sad for Canada.
No one talks about it, but a significant amount of Canadian music was lost in the transition from vinyl to compact disc. Many singles and albums – especially those from niche genres – never made it for a host of reasons – lost or damaged master tapes, unclear or disputed ownership of copyright, badly executed recording contracts, dead or missing members.
I, for example, would love a CD copy of Lullabyes in Razorland, the excellent post-punk album by Toby Swann, ex of the Battered Wives. I have the vinyl, but it’s old and crackly. And not that anyone mourns the loss of Cats Can Fly’s debut album – they did win a Juno, after all – it’s never been available on CD.
Then there are the CDs that have long since gone out of print. Eight Seconds was a pretty decent alt-rock band from Ottawa who had a couple of hits. What about Teenage Head: where's their stuff? And after Eddie Vedder had a hit with his cover of Indio’s “Hard Sun,” was it possible to find a copy of the original on the Big Harvest album from 1989? Not a chance.
In the 90s, it looked like we were starting to get our own network of boutique reissue labels, but then the bottom fell out of the CD market. Today, given the costs involved in digging up and re-releasing this old material, it just isn’t worth it. You’d never sell enough copies to come close to making your money back. Even issuing this material online, which would reduce your manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution costs to zero, wouldn't be affordable; the start-up costs involved in solving the various legalities would be prohibitive. So much for Long Tail theories.
Meanwhile, this music fades. If we wait much longer, it’ll be gone forever.
Comments
Re:Marks
“ As a fan of early Ultravox, I feel your thrill and as a supporter of Canadian music, I feel your pain. But really, you've only accidentally shone a light into one of the dark corners of reality of the music business in English Canada. For what it would take to unravel the rights issues, remaster, relaunch and re-publicize any of these worthy candidates, few would find the market sufficient to recoup the costs. Partly through the branch plant mentality of the major labels, partly through the dive-to-the-bottom abandonment of independent Canadian artists by mainstream radio, partly through our proximity to the U.S. cultural juggernaut and partly through a kind of indifference to deal broadly with a robust notion of Canadian identity, we have painted ourselves into a cultural corner where just about anyone you meet would identify The Tragically Hip as proudly Canadian, Nickleback as embarrassingly Canadian, Randy Bachman as tiresomely Canadian and Neil, Joni, Gord and Leonard as prototypically Canadian. The vast number of awesome Canadian artists who write about and play about who we are every day get very little airplay and sell very few records in English Canada - no matter how glowingly they're written about (take Ron Sexsmith or Emm Gryner or John K. Samson for examples). K'naan will be a gigantic worldwide phenomenon before most Canadians decide to buy his astonishingly good record. Until we develop a true English Canadian market that truly values Canadian artists right across the industrial spectrum (development, production, touring, airplay, retail support and promotion - Quebec already does this) Canada will continue to eat its young and disregard its old - until some other part of the world makes the effort to honour them (Jamaica to Toronto, anyone?) Jowi
Jowi Taylor