Canadian music in the U.S.

[The Bookie]

The Bookie - thats great you got to meet Neil Osbourne. Always seemed like a really down to earth guy and certainly a great songwriter.

[skolozsy2]

Where a music group is from is pretty irrellevant on whether they make it big in the States or not. There are always great non-American groups that never got thier chance or never made it big, but there are also literally a countless number of non-American groups that were huge, including a number of Canadian groups.

Will the majority of groups in the American music industry be American? Ofcourse, why wouldnt it? Goes the same way anywhere. British bands are the majority in England....Indian groups are the majority in the Indian music industry. Doesnt mean they're anti-American...just means American groups need to be really good for thier music to sell in those other markets.

Beiber, Shania, Avril, Nickleback and the countless others made it huge in the States...so there isnt any anti- Canadian conspiracy. Ace of Base showed you can be a non-American, pile of crap and still be huge.....and Rammstein showed you didnt even have to speak english to dominate American rock radio.

It all just depends on what people are requesting thier stations to play.....people dont care where the group is from, they just want to hear the song. Its not supernatural.

[Buggernut]

Untruth. American media dominates the world, without cancon local acts wouldnt stand a chance, no matter how good they are. Before its was regulated that 30% of music on canadian radio be canadian made in the 80's, it was a very rare thing for canadian bands to do well even here. American music dominated the airways because thats what canadian radio stations wanted to play. But with cancon, great canadian bands got played and plus it encouraged Canadians to form bands and create their own music. Cancon has been a great move.

The US doesnt play canadian bands, not becaue they 'cant stand on their own merit' they are certainly good enough. Its because American radio stations, magazines, video channels, are only interested in promoting American material. Better for national business, economy, etc. Are you telling me these canadian bands wouldnt be huge if they were heard on american radio? How can we see if theyd ever be big or not if they are not even given a chance there to begin with? Tell me an american radio station that regularly plays the bands i listed. If there is a few, and these bands still dont sell - only then do you have an argument.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Extremely talented and highly underrated, even in Canada.

[Tre Mac]

Just listening to my mp3 player and Sector Seven came on. I love punk music but most bands have a very short shelflife. Anywho, they had a couple of sweet songs. Pretty sure they were Canadian.

Man wtf happened to Much. Now they just play teen sextrash shows and old malcom in the middle reruns, wtf is up with that? Back in the 90's that station was king and all my american friends and familiy were envious we had a music station that just played music. Now they went all MTV and beyond, so sad.

[TOMapleLaughs]

What happened to Much?

[RUPERTKBD]

Have to agree about Kim Mitchell...have been a fan since the Max Webster days.  Goddo too, but that was 100 years ago.

[avelanch]

I wanted to get your guys' thoughts on something. Growing up in Canada in the 90s, I was a big fan of Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good Band, Tea Party etc., I was a little too young to appreciate the Tragically Hip at that time but now they're one of my favorite bands. I remember these bands and a lot of other quality groups like Big Wreck, the Watchmen and I Mother Earth get played on Much Music a lot, every Friday my brother and I got home from school and we turned on the MuchMusic countdown, and these bands held heavy influence. Now if you're not a fan of these groups or similar artists, that's ok, you are entitled to your opinion. But for fellow fans like myself, why couldn't they gain an audience in the U.S. Especially OLP and the Hip, they were huge in Canada. Matt Good is one of the most inventive musicians I've heard and he had no audience in the States. Perhaps it's because these artists never sought success in the States? Poor marketing by the label? What do you guys think?

[Butcher]

Where a music group is from is pretty irrellevant on whether they make it big in the States or not. There are always great non-American groups that never got thier chance or never made it big, but there are also literally a countless number of non-American groups that were huge, including a number of Canadian groups.

Will the majority of groups in the American music industry be American? Ofcourse, why wouldnt it? Goes the same way anywhere. British bands are the majority in England....Indian groups are the majority in the Indian music industry. Doesnt mean they're anti-American...just means American groups need to be really good for thier music to sell in those other markets.

Beiber, Shania, Avril, Nickleback and the countless others made it huge in the States...so there isnt any anti- Canadian conspiracy. Ace of Base showed you can be a non-American, pile of crap and still be huge.....and Rammstein showed you didnt even have to speak english to dominate American rock radio.

It all just depends on what people are requesting thier stations to play.....people dont care where the group is from, they just want to hear the song. Its not supernatural.

[McBackup]

I just want to chime in and add that radio airplay time doesn't necessarily constitute talent.

[skolozsy2]

It does not go the same way everywhere. American bands make it big around the world. Other countries bands do not make it big in America. American popular culture has a really wide reach in the world. I can remember having a couple roommates in res in university who had just arrived from Guatemala and Italy - they were big on Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Slipknot, etc. But besides American stuff and local stuff, there was no chance they'd ever heard of a canadian band.

My argument is more about the 90's rock bands, which were as good as the american ones but didnt break through south of the border. Today, the internet has a big impact that american markets and media cant control. I know Bieber was a Youtube sensation as first, and everything rolled from there. A lot of quality '00 bands (not the ones you mentioned) are also finding moderate success down south (Grimes, Metric, Tegan & Sara, etc) because word of mouth has spread through music lovers on the net.

And ive never really thought radio programmers listen to what people request, unless it simply cant be ignored. The latest Smashing Pumpkin album, which was great - ignored by radio. Chinese Democracy by Guns N Roses - heavily requested and sold well - yet ignored by radio. There are many mysterious decisions like this when it comes to rock or alternative radio. They decide in advance what they, alongside the record companies they are buying from, want to push on people.

Just try requesting any song by Broken Social Scene besides Shoreline on the PEAK, good luck with that. Just try requesting something from the latest two 5440 albums on any stations, not a chance. Just try requesting any REM song after Billy Berry left the band (Up, Reveal, Around the Sun albums), not a chance until Accelerate. I could go on and on about their mysterious decisions. Requesting doesn't make much of a difference. Most people aren't deep music searchers, and will only request what they've already heard the radio play,

[-DLC-]

I actually preferred the Max Webster stuff myself. Early Kim Mitchell was pretty good too (Go for Soda, Lager and Ale), but some of the later stuff like "I am a Wild Party", "Rock and Roll Duty" and "Rockland Wonderland" just didn't do it for me...

If you want to talk about talent though, Kim's sideman Peter Fredette is pretty amazing. (He's the guy on keys and singing the high counterpoint on Patio Lanterns) He plays every instrument and stage (and plays them well) and is actually a better singer than KM...

Is he the one who sings with Kim on "All We Are"? If so, love him.

I don't know if we've also mentioned Big Sugar. I think we did, but very worthy of being mentioned if not.

[D-Money]

Every country has a bunch of artists/bands that are favourites in their homeland, but have trouble cracking major markets elsewhere.

For instance, how many of you listen to Moneybrother, Ane Brun, Mando Diao, Jens Lekman, The Tallest Man on Earth, Niki and the Dove, The Radio Dept., or The Knife? Because all those bands/artists are big in Sweden. Personally, I would take most of their music over anything by Matt Good, Moist, Watchmen, etc., etc.

But Sweden does have other artists that end up making a dent in the American market, to varying degrees, such as Robyn, The Hives, Peter Bjorn & John... They aren't necessarily any "better" than the ones that don't. It's usually the strength of one hit song that captures international interest.

[skolozsy2]

Every country has a bunch of artists/bands that are favourites in their homeland, but have trouble cracking major markets elsewhere.

For instance, how many of you listen to Moneybrother, Ane Brun, Mando Diao, Jens Lekman, The Tallest Man on Earth, Niki and the Dove, The Radio Dept., or The Knife? Because all those bands/artists are big in Sweden. Personally, I would take most of their music over anything by Matt Good, Moist, Watchmen, etc., etc.

But Sweden does have other artists that end up making a dent in the American market, to varying degrees, such as Robyn, The Hives, Peter Bjorn & John... They aren't necessarily any "better" than the ones that don't. It's usually the strength of one hit song that captures international interest.

[D-Money]

I agree about just needing one hit to attain decent success in the States....I think I've heard "Lovefool" by the Cardigans 10,000 times and yet never heard any other songs by them. And I'd be willing to bet they made a fortune in the US on that one song.

[RUPERTKBD]

Is he the one who sings with Kim on "All We Are"?  If so, love him.

I don't know if we've also mentioned Big Sugar.  I think we did, but very worthy of being mentioned if not.

[gemchakra]

As an American, I'm eternally grateful to have moved to Washington State to be exposed to CFOX Vancouver. Couldn't imagine life without bands like The Hip, Spirit of the West, Matt Good, City and Color, etc., etc. I think so much of it has to do with radio airplay. Yeah, maybe more varied radio station marketing by managers needs to be done for "faraway" locales? I've always appreciated that Canada has the "CanCon" rules for content.

Back in Colorado now and I am so thankful to have a plethora of Canadian music in my playlists. Life wouldn't be the same without these artists!

[Mr. Ambien]

I'm quite surprised so many people I talk to from Vancouver and BC in general don't know who Bill Leeb (Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy), cEvin Key, and Nivek Ogre (latter two of Skinny Puppy) are.

[Cyril Sneer]

Canada has or had when I was growing a thriving underground punk scene.

DOA

SNFU

The Smugglers

Propagandhi

Gob

Dayglo abortions

Chixdiggit

[Butcher]

It kinda sounds like the Canadian bands you mentioned didnt make it big anywhere outside of Canada. Was that American media too? Was America telling the Italians to play Nirvana and Pearl Jam and other American bands while telling them to shun the Canadian groups?

If no foreign groups got radio play I would understand the arguement.....but alot of non-American groups had huge success in the 90's. Listeners dont care where a group is from if they like thier music, and record labels dont care where a group is from as long as thier music is gonna sell. Radio stations dont care either...they'd play Oasis fifty times a day as long as thier station's ratings are up.

The only time where a group is from makes a big difference is in thier home town. Smashing Pumpkins while really big, where HUGE in Chicago. They could fart in a microphone for ten seconds and it would still get tons of airplay. They were on the radio non-stop. When I went to school in Western Michigan, I maybe would hear a Pumpkin song twice a day.

Why American groups were more popular in other countries over Canadian groups is something I cant answer. Maybe Canadian labels werent sinking enough money into thier marketing department. Maybe people just liked American music, I dont know. But Canadian groups un-popularity outside of Canada isnt really the fault of American media.