Music in Canada has many different ways of its implementation. In this respect, the world show business could not go without many celebrities, like Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, or Avril Lavigne. With different ceremonies and with awards in the international festivals this field of Canada has some peculiarities. The article by Will Straw is the representation of a deep analysis of Canadian singers in different genres. His claim that Canadian music is peculiar for an alleged “quest for lost difference” provides the main point for discussion (Straw 175). It is the phrase that can identify Canada, as the unity of different ethnic, racial, and cultural communities living in the country. Furthermore, the author states that the process of standardization made Canadian music so patterned. Will Straw also admits that the significance of location and identity makes Canadian celebrities engage in the quest. Locating such specificities in the first place when examining the features of music is not correct. This paper is dedicated to working out the real character of Canadian music in terms of the versatile picture of different impacts on it. The argument of Straw seems not persuasive. Most of the other authors provide a scope of facts land counter-arguments on the approach by Straw. Hence, Canadian music should be evaluated from all sides of human activities and social relations, as it is a matter of art, first of all.
Thus, the reliability of such a claim against the assertion by Straw is not surprising. There are too many observers of Canadian music who state the opposite reasoning about the issue. Thus, the music serves, as a source for inspiration. It is indivisible and inevitably tells about the flow of development in the country to which it relates. Canadian Music should reflect the facts from Canadian reality (Straw 176). This statement is true and needs more additional arguments. Canada has its history. The country is divided into two major parts of inhabitants: English-speaking and French-speaking people. On this ground, there are confrontations between two parties. It concerns also the theme of music. Canada is a country of different communities. There are communities of natives of different countries and ethnic identities. In this respect, Canada served as a good background for the elaboration of music. Its approach relates also to the most popular trends in world music. Preferences in this case concern pop, hip-hop, rock, and other cultural entities. This is why the critique needs more observation. It is so because Canadian music is a matter of wider approaches.
First of all, one should not confuse the social situation in Canada with, for instance, that of in the USA. Straw’s argument in some points touches upon the social struggle in the US. This makes the difference about the racial issues. Such a point is emphasized by the same density of different ethnical communities. Jody Berland in her article Locating Listening gives a scope of characteristic features of Canadian music. Hence, the author asserts that music in Canada and everywhere in the world is unique in its similarities for genre specificities (Berland 347). This opinion restates the truth that sounds can make a person go outside the realities of the time. The Canadian identity of a signer or musician makes a point on his/her relation to the country. On the other hand, it makes an accomplishment of the world’s trends in pop, rock, and other styles of music. Other researchers support the idea of Canadian music by following statement: “Developments and decisions made in other countries have important effects on the structure and prosperity of the industry here” (Sutherland and Straw 142). Canada does not stay apart from significant and felt changes in the sphere of the show industry. It cannot actually due to its closeness to the USA and other countries of the American continent.
However, the ethnic problem in Canada concerns mainly francophone people. This is why there is a concept of so-called Anglo cultural hegemony. Continuing this idea David Young comments on three main arguments as of the lack of representation of minorities at Juno Awards. Thus, the first is the biased attitude of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) (Young 183). The second is several cases of promotional opposition among ethnic-racial minorities (Young 183). The third CARAS secures the hegemony of English culture (Young 183). Thus, this is the standpoint for ethnic problems in Canadian music. However, again it states that Canadian show business is peculiar mainly in two main contradictions – French and English. This is the real originality of the Canadian music culture. This is the reason for numerous protests in francophone music. In turn, it reflects Canadian motives among Anglophone singers or musicians. With so multiple numbers of representatives from different countries, Canada stays in Canada. In other words, specificities of place or community concerned with performing musicians or singers do not matter if this person identifies Canadian reality.
The example of Celine Dion is most stunning in this respect. She sings both in French and English. She admits different Canadian motives. She works in the US, but still, she represents in her texts of the songs Canada with all its social peculiarities. On the other hand, the example of Deborah Cox represents the Canadian social motive of not being-quite-citizen for Caribbean/black inhabitants (Walcott 127). The discourse of deterioration between Diasporas in the national approach in Canada also constitutes the fact of Canadian peculiarity. There is no loss of difference. It is the struggle for rights and cultural fullness among communities at large.
One more point highlights the problem that Canada was greatly influenced by the USA in terms of broadcast. The musical circles of enthusiasts sought the national music video broadcasting company in the late 1970s (Wagman 47). The issue of national television and music record companies was not quite determined in Canada. It is because of the bilateral conflicts between two major entities in the country. However, Canadian music is original and strong in its identification. The remark by Will Straw provides a narrow-minded opinion on the versatile urge of performers to show the difference in the international scope. Canada is unique and individual in social tendencies as of arts. Since the Report of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee in 1982 marketing and distribution of Canadian music products began increasing (Wagman 49). Local identification to place or community does not matter when facing the reality of social and political development in Canada. The issue of music is one of the central. It leads the country toward acknowledgment in the music world arena. It also shapes the relation of a performer to Canada notwithstanding his/her belonging to a definite nationality.
Works cited
Berland, Jody. “Locating Listening: Technological Space, Popular Music, and Canadian Mediations.” Cultural Studies 2(3) (1988) 343 – 358.
Straw, Will. “In and Around Canadian Music.” Journal of Canadian Studies 35(3) (2000) 173-183.
Young, David. “Ethno-Racial Minorities and the Juno Awards” The Canadian Journal of Sociology 31(2). (2006) 183-210.
Wagman, Ira. “Rock the nation: MuchMusic, Cultural Policy, and the Development of English Canadian Music Video Programming, 1974-1984.” Canadian Journal of Communication 26 (2001) 47-518.
Walcott, Rinaldo. “Caribbean Pop Culture in Canada; Or, the Impossibility of Being to the Nation.” Small Axe 9 (2001) 123-139.