Toonsday Tuesday in Tunesville ... and Bless You

[ForeverAutumn]

I think that was much more true - the concept of un-deserving bands getting air-play because of Canadian content rules, that is - through the '80s when midling acts like Saga and Honeymoon Suite and Glass Tiger and Platinum Blonde etc... were littering the Canadian airwaves, than it is today. I don't see it as a big a factror with the resurgence in Canadian music that is going on today.

Now granted I listen to really no terrestrial radio, (or sattelite for that matter) , mostly because the radio in Montreal is incredibly bad, so I don't really know if bands like Metric and the Constantines and the Weakerthans and Broken Social Scene and The Stars and The New Pornographers, (I'll leave Feist and The Arcade Fire out of the discussion for now); are getting played on the radio. I am pretty confident in saying that they don't get played in Montreal nor Ottawa. Are they beeing played in Toronto?

To me, I see Canada today the way Britain was in the early '80s, -- a country that is producing way more high quality music than it's population size would have you think possible, and content rules have little to do with it.

I didn't mean to imply that Metric was undeserving. I hope that you didn't take it that way. What I meant was that there are lots of wonderful Canadian artists that wouldn't get any radio play if not for CanCon rules. And I think that this applies even more now than in the 80's. In the 80's bands had to sign a big record deal to get on the radio. It was more about marketability than music. But today, so many bands are on independant labels or even just promoting themselves that they wouldn't have got the time of day in the past. But radio stations are forced to find good Canadian content and if the big record labels don't have an Avril Lavigne or Alanis Morisette to push, then they have to find alternative music to fill the requirement. I think it's a good thing.

I haven't heard The Weakerthans or The Constantines on the radio here. But I have heard Metric, The Stars, BSS, and The New Pornogrophers on 102.1 which is the closest thing to a mainstream alternative station that we have here. Unfortunately, to get to those bands you have to put up with Nickelback, Billy Talent and Fall Out Boy in high doses. (where's the little barfy emoticon when you need it?).

And I never heard Fiest on the radio until Apple picked her up.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

I haven't heard The Weakerthans or The Constantines on the radio here. But I have heard Metric, The Stars, BSS, and The New Pornogrophers on 102.1 which is the closest thing to a mainstream alternative station that we have here. Unfortunately, to get to those bands you have to put up with Nickelback, Billy Talent and Fall Out Boy in high doses. (where's the little barfy emoticon when you need it?).

And I never heard Fiest on the radio until Apple picked her up.

Well you guys are doing way better than us in MTL, (at least in radio if not in hockey - had to get a Leafs dig in there), independent music and radio are mutually exclusive concepts here.

Not sure I agree with your now versus '80s comparison, the rules are the same now as then (I think) yet 90% of the Cdn. content then was dreck - so the music was (and is) getting on the radio whether good or not, it just happens that now the music is of a much higher quality, IMO. I think the major record labels point is a bit of a red herring because in the '80s there really were no indie-labels, at least not to the extent there is now, so it was major label or nothing, now, thankfully there are lots of alternatives for talented young bands.