Let’s not get ahead of ourselves by celebrating unduly. There are some serious issues facing the Canadian Music Industry, some that have gone on too long without being solved. Controversies have sprung up time and again, most of which relate to trying to carve out an identity for our music that all too often succumbs to the fever of foreign cultural imperialism. I’m going to take a look at four issues and am not attempting to provide any definitive answers. But in exploring them, some suggestions will present themselves naturally. What follows is a lengthy article that I’ve divided into two parts.
Issue #1: “International” Versus Domestic Success
My previous blog entry looked at the huge success many Canadian artists have had abroad and noted that some, like Amanda Marshall, The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Tom Cochrane, and Jann Arden, have remained extremely popular domestically only. This subject has found itself at the heart of controversy in Canada. The question is often asked: should the success of a Canadian artist, album, or song abroad have any bearing on how great it should be regarded by Canadians? Canadian musician Matthew Good spoke out against the Juno Awards in 2008 refusing to attend, saying that, rather than celebrating Canadian music, it was just a showcase of who is doing well internationally. It can be argued that any artist can do well in her home country but when other countries award the artist, this signals real excellence. The spirit of Good’s argument was pure, but the argument itself was misplaced. There are two vastly more important points to consider; namely, what is the real meaning behind the term “international” and are Canadian artists more inclined to change their music to please foreign ears?
When the Canadian music industry talks about Canadians doing well “internationally”, it is whittling down the truth. What it is really talking about is Canadian music doing well in the United States. When Canada’s Sally Yeh became a huge star in China, a country with a population four times that of the U.S., her achievement was ignored by the Canadian music industry. In recent years, Vancouver’s Angela Zhang, with a string of Number One hits, has become one of top 3 biggest-selling female artists in the most populated nation on earth. Her achievement has been completely ignored. The successes of francophone artists who attain superstardom in the international French-speaking world are ignored by the Canadian music industry. For example, one of Isabelle Boulay’s albums was certified Diamond in France. Most Canadians have never heard of Boulay. Despite the fact that Canada is still under the Queen of England, artists who do well in Britain, Australia, and other commonwealth countries but who fail to chart in the U.S. are not seen as successful internationally.
The other important point is that other counties, whose ears are shaped by a different culture, may be attracted to different styles of music, and Canadian artists may alter their style to please them rather than focusing on producing the kind of music that appeals to Canadians. Many Canadians were critical of Nelly Furtado for having American Timbaland (Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, and Justin Timberlake) co-produce her third album, which took her in a very different direction musically. This leads to the second issue.
Issue #2: Foreign Influence
In 1998, “Cash Crop” by the band Rascalz was nominated for Best Rap Recording at the Juno Awards. As an article puts it, “Due to Canadian hip hop’s limited commercial notability, however, the rap award had never been presented during the main Juno ceremony, instead being relegated to the untelevised technical awards ceremony during the previous evening.” Rascalz was put off by this alleging that racism was the reason for the award’s suppressed status. I’m sure internationally-famous Canadian rapper Snow would accuse Rascalz of being racists themselves for suggesting that the performance of rap music is confined to those of African descent!
But this incident raised the question: just because Rap is a popular genre of music in the U.S., should Canada artificially establish it as a major force in its own music scene? The debate spawned further questions: should Canada promote Latin music since it is popular in the United States which, unlike Canada, has a large Hispanic population? It became evident to many Canadians that, the Canadian music and broadcasting industries need to reflect Canada’s own ethnic makeup which, with huge French and Chinese populations, is entirely different than that of the United States, which has much larger populations of African and Hispanic descent.
Despite this realization, the Canadian broadcasting industry has been intent on generously playing American styles of music: R&B, Rap (a.k.a. Hip Hop), and Latin. Canada’s premier music video network Much Music had a segment going for a while that was dubbed International. Did they play any Chinese, Indian, Italian, or Japanese music? No. Predominant were Spanish songs. And they had the nerve to include French songs (as if French Canadian music was international and not part of Canadian domestic music!) Canadian radio outside of Quebec stubbornly refuses to play French Canadian music, and airplay of Chinese pop music is non-existent on major radio stations, even in Vancouver which is over 17% ethnically Chinese. Canada, a country the prides itself on federalism, multiculturalism, and bilingualism actually holds separate awards ceremonies for English and French singers (Juno and Felix Awards respectively). One could argue that English-speakers are not willing to listen to music sung in other languages (which has never proven to be true) but one could also argue that reggae, Brit pop and other genres of music performed in English are not as prominently featured on Canadian radio as American musical genres which are just as foreign to Canadians.
Ashley MacIsaac’s “Sleepy Maggie” is sung in neither of Canada’s two official languages (English and French) but in Scottish Gaelic. Despite this, it received heavy radio airplay across the country and was very popular. This suggests two things: Canadians can enjoy a song sung in a foreign language and Canadian English radio stations, which snub French songs and Chinese songs, do not have a problem with songs sung in another language of the British Isles.
I mentioned above that radio’s contention that English-speaking Canadians are unwilling to listen to music sung in a foreign language has never proven to be true. I add to this that the evidence actually points to the contrary, thanks to the Germans. Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” was released in both English and German versions. The German version was more popular in Canada. Falco released the German song “Der Kommissar”. The band After the Fire released an English version. The original German version was far more successful in Canada (and the U.S.).
Speaking of language, Canadian actors working in Hollywood have been criticized for altering their accents to American ones. Actors from England are not asked to do this unless their role is one of an American, but Canadians are rarely allowed to keep their accents. To a lesser extent, some Canadian singers have been altering their accents to American ones, perhaps being told by their music producers to do so in order to maximize their chances of getting radio airplay in the U.S.. Their “sorry” becomes “sarry”. Their “foreign” becomes “fareign”. And so on.
The good news is that Canadian artists have, in general, not really bowed to American musical influences and continue to produce music that is very Canadian in Canadian singing accents. Often when Canadians have turned to Americans to produce their music, they have ended up being very disappointed with the results and, afterwards, abandoned the foreign assistance. This was true when Vancouver-based synthesizer outfit Images In Vogue turned to American Gary Wright to produce their debut L.P.. When they returned to Canada, very upset with the production, they ended up rerecording many of the songs.
There is irony in this, however. Canada has generated some of the world’s most successful producers. David Foster, who has produced some of the biggest acts in American music, is Canadian. The man who co-produced many of U2′s albums—Daniel Lanois—is Canadian. So, Canadians concerned that Canadian artists are having their music shaped by foreign producers can find some comfort in knowing that there are Canadian producers who are out there Canadianizing the music of foreign artists!
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