Numerous writers have come up with chronicles on the Canadian popular music. The latest book documenting the Canadian popular music is by Ryan Edwardson. The book dubbed “Canuck Rock: a History of Canadian Popular Music” focuses on demonstrating the history of rock music in Canada.
Edwardson brings out the relationship between rock music and Canadian identity. According to Ryan, government policies and regulations imposed on the popular music led to the country’s identity being entrenched in the music.
The book is organized systematically to bring out the various evolution stages of the popular music. Generally, the book is well organized and in spite of the writer focusing more on socio-cultural aspects, he does not engross the reader in literary conjecture.
The author does not include musical examples nor does he analyze any music. Rather, he focuses on the evolution of the music industry raging from the industrial managers to recording studios.
The book is a priceless resource, a pleasurable read, and a valuable addition to the already existing literature about the Canadian popular music.
Whenever a person hears the term “rock music”, a picture of drunken nights and smoky bars comes to mind. Most people do not have clear information about rock music. The music is associated with all sorts of negative images and some people refrain from associating themselves with rock music.
However, by reading Ryan Edwardson’s book, one is capable of having a clear picture of what rock music actually means. Ryan accurately describes rock music and all that it entails thus making it possible for people to discern it exhaustively.
Besides, the book helps one understand the evolution process of the Canadian music industry. “Canuck Rock” is a determined assessment of the inception and development of trendy music in Canada starting from the late 1950s to today.
A person with limited knowledge about the popular music need to go through this book to appreciate how it has come about, and how varied stakeholders have contributed to ensure that the Canadian popular music enjoys its current pride.
Edwardson does not focus on English music only; he also focuses on the Quebec music panorama, thus helping readers have a clear view of the global and continental archetypes of the music.
In the book, Edwardson quotes a member of the Quebec band claiming that the band influence does not come from Canada, but from different countries like North America (176).
Apart from competition from foreign music, the Canadian popular music has faced immense political influence. Edwardson manages to bring out the extent of political influence in the music industry by showing how numerous musicians have opted to move to other countries.
From the book, one can comfortably claim that the Canadian identity is, to some extent, curved out of the popular music. Besides showing the chronology of events that have taken place in the music industry, Edwardson has also looked at the current issues that are affecting the music industry.
For instance, he has discussed the rise of music television and Napster. He has also focused on the impacts of technology on sales and distribution of music. He reinforces his arguments with information from other countries like Britain and the United States.
By reading the book, one understands how popular music influences the social, economic, cultural, and technological growth in Canada.
Actually, one may be right to claim that music has shifted from being a consolation for baby boomers through arbitrate class, gender, and generational distinctiveness to embracing a national character.
The main argument in the book is that, before the establishment of Cancon regulations, Canada did not have music industry. Radio stations did not give the Canadian music airtime thus making it hard for the country to identify with its music.
In his book, Edwardson paints radio stations or the media at large as the chief obstacle that made it hard for the Canadian music industry to grow.
He includes tales of how radio presenters scorned Canadian artists, and how they destroyed their music albums without even taking time to listen to the music therein.
The book argues that Cancon regulations helped to restore sanity in the country, thus leading to the emergence of the music industry in Canada.
By writing this book, Edwardson intended to establish a new perspective about the Canadian popular music. He managed to help his readers develop this perspective by taking them through a chronology of events that have taken place in the music industry since the inception of the popular music to date.
He uses varied personal anecdotal and views throughout the book. Various songwriters and singers express their opinions and share their experiences on how the Canadian popular music has evolved. All these factors reinforce the credibility of Ryan’s arguments in the book.
By looking at where popular music is today, one may think that the industry has not gone through hardships. Nevertheless, Edwardson claims that the Canadian musicians had a hard time in trying to establish themselves in their country.
Most of the Canadians did not believe in the quality of local music. Hence, they preferred listening to foreign music from the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Besides, most of the country’s radio stations were not willing to play local music since they dismissed it as low quality music (Edwardson 56-57).
Ryan persuasively illustrates how the Canadian popular music transformed from being un-national with respect to support, location, intent, content, and influence, to being one of the aspects of the Canadian culture.
Edwardson is consistent in presenting information that supports his arguments. He gives a linear account of events and phenomena that took place during the evolution process.
In this way, he has managed to show how the unfolding of one element even led to another thus helping the reader understand the path that the Canadian popular music has taken since its inception.
The research in support of Edwardson’s arguments is credible. He has referred to previous writings and interviews on the subject matter. Besides, to reinforce his arguments, he has referred to numerous historical events.
Moreover, he has included numerous personal quotes extracted from various publications and archives. This clearly shows that Edwardson had done a thorough research prior to writing his book.
Apart from conducting thorough research before writing his book, Ryan also presents his ideas and information clearly. He organizes his information and ideas in numerous chapters. Moreover, he ensures that information in these chapters is in order of its occurrence starting with the oldest and ending with the latest happenings.
Edwardson touches on quite a few genres of pop music to ensure that readers understand his information.
Moreover, he compares the Canadian music industry with other industries like the American and the British music industries thus helping the reader understand the disparities and effects that the other industries had on the Canadian music industry. The book is tremendously informative on the evolution of the Canadian music industry, as from late 1950s onwards.
However, the book does not give details of how the music industry looked like prior to this period. After reading this book, I would wish to understand how the Canadian music industry operated before 1945.
In spite of the author managing to bring out the picture of the evolution of the Canadian popular music, Henderson (Para. 6-10) posits that Edwardson deliberately fails to engage with numerous sources that address issues of performance, identity politics, and popular music.
He deliberately refuses to use the available resources addressing issues that he repeatedly revisits throughout his book. Numerous questions remain answered in this book despite the effort made by the author.
For instance, he does not look into the effects of feminism on the Canadian popular music. Various historians and other intellectuals have come up with information on the impacts of feminism on the Canadian music industry.
Regrettably, Edwardson did not take time to consult these materials thus conspicuously left such a crucial matter unaddressed in his book.
In demonstrating the trend of evolution taken by the music industry, Edwardson looks at varied genres of music. For instance, he looks at hip-hop. Nevertheless, he does not show how race has contributed to the growth or stagnation of the music industry in Canada.
It seems that in coming up with his book, Edwardson tried as much as possible to distance himself with issues to do with gender, race, and social status knowing very well that these factors are some of the issues that go hand-in-hand with all aspects of national development.
He did not intend to focus on issues that might trigger some opposition in his readers. In his approach, Edwardson assumes a doubtful view (Testa 791). Consequently, the approach leads to his book becoming too much materialistic. With the book leaving numerous questions unanswered, this biasness affects the quality of the book.
Throughout his book, Edwardson does not rely on latest materials about pop music in Canada. Instead, he relies on an older book by Nicholas Jennings. Nicholas is renowned for his effort to account for Canadian popular music between 1960s and 1970s.
However, his book does not account for the latest developments that have occurred in Canadian pop music. By referring to Jennings work in compiling his writings, it is hard for him to convince his readers that he has actually dug deep into the latest developments in the pop music industry.
Edwardson repeatedly refers to Jennings’ interviews as well as his personal opinions on popular music. Nevertheless, he does not build on what he gets from Jennings. Consequently, there is limited originality in this book.
Most of the chapters in the book help the reader understand how the music industry in Canada works and how it has evolved. However, there is nothing new in spite of the numerous researches that support his arguments.
For people who are conversant with the Canadian pop music industry, this book adds little to what they already know.
Edwardson’s book hardly adds something new to the field of Canadian popular music. The book contains information that is already known to the public.
He relies on Jennings work, available information from the archives and publications. Edwardson has made no effort to expound what he obtained from other scholars, thus affecting the originality of his work.
However, this argument does not seek to undermine the work done by Ryan Edwardson in any way. Actually, he has done a credible work by gathering brilliant anecdotes that help the reader understand Canadian popular music industry.
Nevertheless, he does not adequately tackle the issues of nationalism and regionalism in his book. Moreover, he does not entirely tackle the issue of dawn of “MuchMusic”, which is one of the landmarks in the Canadian music industry. The main problem arises in the shortness of his chapters.
Most of his chapters are about twenty pages each. Consequently, most of the discussions in the chapters are abruptly terminated only after arousing the interest of the reader. For instance, the book does not exhaust the discussion about Beatlemania and Canadian Britishness.
The book would be of immense value to individuals seeking to learn more about the Canadian popular music. The book offers clearly articulated information that might be of enormous help to students. Nevertheless, scholars and other academics may feel frustrated due to lack of new discoveries in the book.
In spite of Edwards managing to put across his objectives, a lot could have been done to make the book even more useful. For instance, most of the chapters discuss weighty issues shallowly thus affecting the quality of the book.
In a bid to enhance the quality of this book, Edwardson could have made the chapters wider to give room for an exhaustive discussion of all the vital issues regarding the Canadian popular music. Scholars ought to use what is available to come up with new ideas in a bid to expand the literary work.
Repeating what already exists, even if it is in a different version does not make any difference. Edwards uses scholarly articles and information from artists in compiling his book. However, he distances himself from some of the extremely crucial issues like race and gender, thus making his books resemble the already existing literary works.
No available documentations about the Canadian popular music account for effects of race and feminism on the music industry. Edwardson could have built on what is known to come up with new ideas regarding the Canadian popular music.
Currently, his book adds to already existing literature about the Canadian popular music. Nevertheless, the book does not bring new information about the music industry. Throughout, the book lacks sustained examination of the matter at hand.
Instead, the reader gets the insight of the depth of the matter. In a bid t make the book more appealing and informative, the writer could have ensured that he exhaustively interrogated the issues at hand and come up with decisive conclusions.
The credibility of any literary work depends on the sources used in its compilation. Articles compiled using peer reviewed sources and publications tend to be more credible. Besides, writers that use statistical information and graphics to explain their work appear professional.
In compiling his book, Edwardson has employed numerous scholarly articles and anecdotes from various artists that have come into direct encounter with the Canadian popular music. The use of anecdotes from artists reinforces the accuracy of the book’s contents.
Works Cited
Edwardson, Ryan. Canuck Rock: A History of Canadian Popular Music. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Print.
Henderson, Stuart. Canuck Rock: A history of Canadian Popular Music by Ryan Edwardson, 2009. Web.
Testa, Bart. “Canuck rock: a history of Canadian popular Music (review).” The Canadian Historical Review 91.4 (2010): 790-793. Print.