CanCon and the Emergence of a Separate Canadian Music Industry
Prior to 1970, few Canadian artists made it big in the way that their American or British counterparts did. Those who found fame in Canada found it in local markets; some, like Paul Anka, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young, made it big once they moved to the United States. The introduction of CanCon (“Canadian Content”) legislation, requiring AM radio stations to play at least 25% “demonstrably” Canadian content, and FM radio stations to play at least 10-30% Canadian content, created a Canadian popular music industry practically overnight. This percentage was increased to 30% in the 1980s and 35% in 1999. Stations licensed after 1999 are required to play 40%. Once the CanCon regulations came into effect, Canadian musicians no longer had to move to the US to make a career in music.
The system used to determine the content is referred to as the MAPL system (an acronym for Music, Artist, Production, Lyrics, pronounced “maple”) and was adopted after extensive hearings organized by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The introduction of Canadian content regulations led to the creation of more studios, management, and record labels. It paved the way for artists to find a way to gain widespread recognition without having to move to L.A. or New York.
In 1970 an awards program called the Gold Leaf Awards was initiated that would celebrate the talents of Canadians in the arts. In 1971 the name was changed to the JUNO Awards, honouring then president Pierre Juneau of the CRTC who was largely responsible for the implementation of the Canadian Content Regulations.
The CanCon regulations had an immediate effect on musicians; many were catapulted to fame in the early seventies. The band Crowbar from Hamilton scored the first hit in the new CanCon era with a tune called “Oh What a Feeling.”
Anne Murray, a pop singer hailing from Nova Scotia, would become the first Canadian female singer to reach the top of the American charts, and the first to earn a gold record, thanks in part to CanCon. Her 1970 hit “Snowbird” was one of the most played songs not only in Canada, but also in North America in that decade. She won the Juno for Best Female Vocalist in 1971, and won her first Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance (for “Love Song”) in 1974. She would go on to win 23 more Juno Awards, and three more Grammys, a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and in 1984 became a Companion of the Order of Canada, our country’s highest civilian honour. If you grew up in Canada, many of her songs will be well known to you (again, thanks in part to CanCon). Youtube has a mix of her biggest songs here.
Here is a radio clip of Anne Murray discussing the effect of CanCon legislation on Canadian popular music.
Other groups who achieved recognition – or more recognition – thanks to CanCon include: The Guess Who/Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Stampeders, Chilliwack, Prism, April Wine, Lighthouse, Trooper. There are a few user-created CanCon playlists on Youtube (here and here) that will give you a taste of some of the music that initially resulted from the CanCon laws in the 1970s. Whether you enjoy the music or not, these groups and the industry that formed at that time (studios, record labels, etc) made it possible for artists and groups like Celine Dion, The Tragically Hip, The Barenaked Ladies, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLaughlan, Nickelback, and even current artists like Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake, and The Weeknd to stay home and still garner international fame.
However, the MAPL guidelines also led to the exclusion of certain obviously Canadian artists, notably Bryan Adams (who co-wrote music with British producer and songwriter Mutt Lange). He was still played on the radio (a lot) but playing his music did not meet CanCon quotas for radio stations. In this radio interview, Bob Roper (a long-time music industry insider in Canada) discusses how and why Adams’ 1991 international hit “Everything I Do, I Do it For You” was not considered Canadian Content. Following the controversy over Adams’s eligibility, another special case was added to the MAPL guidelines:
“it was performed live or recorded after September 1, 1991 and, in addition to meeting the criterion for either artist or production, a Canadian who has collaborated with a non-Canadian receives at least half of the credit for both music and lyrics…”
In 2016, the Trudeau government announced a sweeping overhaul of cultural policies, including revisiting CanCon and MAPL, with the purpose of bringing the legislation up to date with the current broadcasting climate. Downloading, streaming, and the way we listen to music is changing all of the time, and faster than it ever has before, and the 1970 legislation is unable to address new technology in a useful way. It will be interesting to see how the legislation changes and grows with the times, or if it’s even still around in the future.
As you go about your life, take note of when you hear music by Canadian artists – perhaps on the radio, on tv, on your phone, in a public place. Do you feel CanCon legislation is necessary today? What are the pros and cons of legislation like this? How do you think the Canadian government can promote Canadian music in a competitive online climate? (These questions do not need to be answered now, but could find their way to your final).
1960s and 1970s Feminism and Popular Music
We have discussed race, class, generational divides, and the effects of 19th and 20th century wars and social movements on popular music. But one notably absent social revolution we have not gone in depth on is the effect of feminism on popular music. To put it bluntly, where are the women? Almost every significant piece of music in our textbook to this point is male driven. Women appear most often in the very narrow scope of vocalists, but they are, for the most part, not shown in the variety of creative music-making roles that males are in our text. One notable exception is Mother Maybelle Carter, and it’s interesting to note that her revolutionary guitar playing and music making came out of country music, one of the most conservative genres we have covered.
The 1970s heralds the rise of Second Wave Feminism in North America (the First Wave being the Suffrage movements of the early 20th century, where women primarily fought for the right to vote). Like other significant social events and movements we have discussed, Second Wave Feminism is reflected in the culture of music, and it raises a lot of questions about what revolution actually means.
In the following video, Dr. Michael McGerr, a History Professor at Indiana University, explores feminism in the world of 1960s and 1970s popular music. Please watch the whole video, and take notes, as you may be tested on information given in this lecture. This video relates closely to this module on the 1970s, and to Module 9, where we will return to an examination of country music.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?318487-1/feminism-19601970s-popular-music
Related articles (PDFs):
- Susan Hiwatt, 1970 “Cock Rock” Click to View
- Marion Meade, 1971 “Does Rock Degrade Women?” Click to View
- Ellen Willis, 1971 “But Now I’m Gonna Move” Click to View
References:
de Jong, Mark. “Canadian Content Legislation – CanCon, Lighthouse, and the Junos,” from MUS 111: The History of Popular Music. Online class material, University of Saskatchewan, 2009.
LeBlanc, Daniel.”Everything’s on the table,” The Globe and Mail, April 25, 2016, accessed June 15, 2016, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/exclusive-canadian-heritage-announces-sweeping-canconreview/article29722581/.
Starr, Larry, Christopher Waterman and Jay Hodgson. “The CRTC Era,” in Rock: A Canadian Perspective, 194-203. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. “Anne Murray Biography.” Accessed June 16, 2016. http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Mi-So/Murray-Anne.html
David Bowie, 1947-2016
Our textbook was completed in 2013. In 2016, we lost David Bowie, one of the great musical icons of the 20th century, not just of the 1970s. Remarkably, Bowie – who’s entire musical career seemed to be a type of performance art – framed his own death as art. On January 8, 2016, he released the album Blackstar and the video for “Lazarus”. The song and the video fortold his death from cancer a mere two days later.
We live in an interesting era. Now that many of our musical icons are either overcoming substance abuse or never partaking in the first place, their longevity allows them not only to continue to evolve their music over many decades, but also to say farewell to their fans. In 2016 both Bowie and Gord Downey of The Tragically Hip found ways to accomplish the latter in a way befitting their respective careers.
Read more about the life and death of David Bowie here.
Below: “Lazarus”.
Challenge Questions
If you have chosen to blog for your assignments, you may choose ONE of the following blog questions to blog on this week, for a total of 10% of your overall assignment grade. Note that there are blogging questions available for each module, and you need to complete up to two for the first deadline and up to two for the second deadline. Please see the Assignment Details and Blogging assignment pages for more information.
- Women and the Canon: In our Learning Material, Michael McGerr does a thorough analysis of the difficulty women faced in the 1960s and 1970s in the world of popular music, and explains the mechanisms used to keep rock masculine in spite of its revolutionary reputation. It is a small leap to make the argument that historically male dominated styles have formed the canon of popular music (reflected clearly in our textbook) in part because white, middle class men have created that canon. Your task is to find one song by a woman or female-dominated group from any era, post 1960, and argue for its inclusion in our textbook (or the popular music canon as a whole). The artist or group should not be included in our textbook or discussed in the Learning Materials; she or they should be at least moderately well known (radio play, a wiki page, etc). Look closely at the sound, lyrics, videos (if there are any) and any other aspects you feel support your argument. Provide links to the song where possible and to any external research. Discuss why you think this song should be included in the canon, and why you think it has not been. #M8Q1
- Heavy Metal: Our textbook uses Led Zeppelin to introduce heavy metal music into our growing collection of genres. Do you agree with this choice? Why or why not? Using your textbook as your guide, please follow one of the following paths:
- a) If you agree with this choice, choose three Zeppelin tracks (not included in our textbook) that prove Zeppelin are 1) heavy metal and 2) should be used to introduce the genre in the textbook.
- b) If you disagree that Zeppelin should be the group to introduce metal in the course, who would you put in their place, and why? Choose three tracks by the group that prove they are 1) heavy metal and 2) more important or seminal than Led Zeppelin.
Prove your points using a well-crafted argument, clear examples, strong research and citations. Embed the tracks in your posts. #M8Q2
- CanCon: Do you have a favourite 70’s era Canadian band or artist (besides Anne Murray, who is covered above)? Introduce them to the class in a way comparable to the textbook – name the members of the band, explain how they came together, embed and describe two of their hits (create brief listening cues for each), and briefly summarize their career. Then: explain how they did or did not benefit from the 1970 CanCon regulations. Would they have had as strong a career without those regulations? Finally: do you like their music? Had you heard it before? Using strong research and your own informed opinion, craft a thoughtful argument and response. Any of the bands listed above are fair game, but please use more sources than just the pages they are linked to. #M8Q3
4. Live Concert Review:
Attend a live concert and write a review detailing your experience. You may only complete one concert review for the whole course. If there are multiple groups on the bill, choose only one. The concert must take place during the course and reflect the knowledge you’ve gained from the course materials. It should be the same length as your other blog posts but must describe the following features:
- Performer: biographies, band history, current place in popular music. Assume the reader is unfamiliar with the group.
- Sound: specifics of the music – harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, lyrics (if applicable) etc. Focus on one or more songs and construct a thorough description.
- Venue and Audience: describe not only the practical details of the environment, but how the music might inform us of the social realities of the audience and vice versa.
- Reflection: how meaningful was this concert to you? Was it meaningful to a broader group of people? What contributed to this feeling, or what was lacking? Use your knowledge of the history of popular music to support these feelings.
- Organization, Spelling, References: cite what research you use, utilizing a recognized citation method (Chicago is preferred).
- Proof of Attendance: take pictures of the event for your blog post and/or a selfie.
#M8Q4