Recently I had a chat on Facebook with an old friend of mine Ryan van Sickle a Canadian Singer/Songwriter who had been living and working in New York City. Having recently seen his homecoming concert opening for Ian Tyson in Hamilton I asked him how long he'd be up here for; "to say" summed up his reply.
Not getting into details we moved on to other topics but his succinct response summed up the attitudes among Canadian artists that has been gradually shifting over the past two decades.
The time period this page primarily covers - the 1970's and 1980's was a time when success for any Canadian artist was measured by their success south of the 49th parallel - aka America. Translated, for Canadians true success translated into American Success.
The litmus test of success for any Canadian musician was by definition success in the American Market, and who could blame us? With the most powerful and influential county in the world having just over 10 times our population at our border, a little American Envy was to be forgiven. As could any Canadian artist wanting to move south then come back and say "hey screw you! You didn't like me here.. But guess where i made it there!!"
These cross border converts caused a measure of pride and in the case of those like Stompin' Tom who remained home also a measure of disgust. Time moves slowly, but within that same decade Canadians grew, gained confidence and began to take on the world from home.
It was the less critically acclaimed but wildly successful pop/pop-rock singers like Bryan Adams and Corey Hart that climbed to the top of the charts in the 1980's gaining international success (I even had a pen pal in the Philippines who kept raving about Corey Hart) that began to change the national scenery. Canadian artists who proudly proclaimed themselves thus, but who stayed home at the height of their careers and never tried to hide their roots. Bryan Adams for one putting a Canadian Flag over his drummers stand during overseas shows.
These guys didn't necessarily sing about anything particularly Canadian like say a Gordon Lightfoot, nor were they considered particularly musically innovative. What they did do was prove you could not only top the charts in the US and remain based in Canada, but that you could brag about it and still be a success. That in truth was their real innovation, not musical, but cultural in a way most Canadians would not have thought of.
Towards the end of the 1980's newer bands started getting airplay, bands like The Tragically Hip, Tom Cochrane (around earlier with Red Rider) and Blue Rodeo, groups that gained wide Canadian airplay. Although there were initial murmurs of it, no one was asking why they were not making waves in the US. It seemed Canadians had more self confidence, that they could finally appreciate a band nationally that had not had great success in the United States. In fact. although their 1989 album "Up to Here" featured a song titled "New Orleans is Sinking" they would go on to greater domestic success singing a song titled after the popular Ontario vacation region of Bobcaygeon.
Yes it finally seems Canadians are musically comfortable in their own skins, and it's about time. Other bands, Chalk Circle, The Northern Pikes and Great Big Sea to name a few came, went and some stay on to continued success here at home. Others such as Lowest of the Low gained fanatical local success but continued to tour nationally and in the US border states, a success not tainted by the need to be first feted elsewhere and not shy about singing songs of their home and native land.
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