The Ugly Canada Thread

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

I swear they should just centralize Q107/CHOM/CHEZ and all of its similar stations and they play the same 100 songs every day and just have separate 'information updates' (a way to fool the CRTC into thinking they actually provide a news service) and 'traffic and weather on the 8' across Canada.

I do think though that the demographic for these stations is declining although the demographic catching up to it doesn't give me a lot of hope.

As you can imagine, I just loooooooooove radio stations who play up as part of their marketing schtick how *short* their news segments are.

It's almost like: "Don't be alarmed folks! And especially - don't touch that dial! This news segment won't be more than 30 seconds. You won't be contaminated!"

[esquire]

^ How things have changed... in the 80s practically every radio station had a news department. I even recall stumbling on a recording of a one hour special news feature on the AIDS crisis which was played on 58 CKY, a mainstream pop music AM station. CKRC, a country station, had a weekly open line show to discuss local issues. Unthinkable now.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by esquire

The Groundhog Day vibe you get from classic rock stations where the songs never change is probably very comforting to some, but I find it kind of depressing...

Sort of like Holiday Inn..no surprises.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ How things have changed... in the 80s practically every radio station had a news department. I even recall stumbling on a recording of a one hour special news feature on the AIDS crisis which was played on 58 CKY, a mainstream pop music AM station. CKRC, a country station, had a weekly open line show to discuss local issues. Unthinkable now.

I am old enough to remember when you couldn't really escape the news if you were watching TV at 6 pm. This was before the era of specialty channels.

But even before specialty channels came around, the number of generalist channels was starting to increase, and some of them began offering and advertising non-informational programs at 6 pm that were billed as "news alternatives"...

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I loathe standard radio. Awful stuff. World's worst "new country" or vomit-inducing technocrap, or (in some ways, worst of all), the same 5 songs on the rotation of Classic Rock stations (Carry on my Wayward son, Summer of '69, Life's been Good, some revolting Nickelback song, "Get the Lead Out" [never a deep cut])

Been with satellite XM for more than a year. Heaven!

Don't forget "Just Came Back to Say Goodbye" and "Voodoo Thing" by this CanCon legend:



Simply the worst of any classic CanCon rock. At least bands like Loverboy and Chilliwack have legitimate classics internationally. They're also hilarious to sing along to. My other nomination for shitty overplayed song would be "American Woman". The Guess Who have so many better songs but that one gets played to death.

The more recent equivalent to Colin James I think would be Hedley, Great Big Sea or Matthew Good. Then there's the whole new category of early 00's fake punk shite like Avril Lavigne, Sum41 and Simple Plan.

[GeneralLea]

In the GTA I'm honestly sure that a Heart song (*cough *cough* usually Barracuda, on some occasions Magic Man) is played at least once every two hours. It's kind of ridiculous that radio stations just replay a lot of thie rmusic, but I guess that is how it is.

Heck, I've heard the "hit" "I Gotta Feeling" a lot more often on the radio.....not sure why. Man.... the Black Eye Peas really just clumped well with a lot of the other forgettable 00's musical acts.

[vid]

EXCLUSIVE: People with a Thunder Bay accent hype a shitty beer. "You can taste the wheat!"

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Don't forget "Just Came Back to Say Goodbye" and "Voodoo Thing" by this CanCon legend:



Simply the worst of any classic CanCon rock. At least bands like Loverboy and Chilliwack have legitimate classics internationally. They're also hilarious to sing along to. My other nomination for shitty overplayed song would be "American Woman". The Guess Who have so many better songs but that one gets played to death.

The more recent equivalent to Colin James I think would be Hedley, Great Big Sea or Matthew Good. Then there's the whole new category of early 00's fake punk shite like Avril Lavigne, Sum41 and Simple Plan.

CanConCrap. Yeah, Colin James is on the list of under-talented, overplayed Canadian dreck. There is a lot of it. When I lived in Vancouver, I heard Bryan fucking Adams 7 billion times a day, and Tom Cock-ring and Red-Rider, plus Barney Bental and 54:40 (I, I, I, I have an Ocean Pearl.....). All horrible, all from Vancouver.

Chilliwack was also on all the time, but at least they had some good songs.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

CanConCrap. Yeah, Colin James is on the list of under-talented, overplayed Canadian dreck. There is a lot of it. When I lived in Vancouver, I heard Bryan fucking Adams 7 billion times a day, and Tom Cock-ring and Red-Rider, plus Barney Bental and 54:40 (I, I, I, I have an Ocean Pearl.....). All horrible, all from Vancouver.

Chilliwack was also on all the time, but at least they had some good songs.

Yes I forgot about Tom Cockring and Bryan Adams. I actually like Life Is a Highway but none of his other crap. BA is like the BM onctueux of rock music. “Everything I do, I do it for you...” Horrible dreck. 54-40 is also overplayed and crappy.

What I want to know is why does CanCon only seem to promote Canadian music that is too shitty to make it internationally?

[O-tacular]

Our hopeful Premier-to-be acting like the jackass he is.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4059919/jason-kenney-criticized-supervised-consumption-sites/

Idiotic, anti evidence, spiteful and judgmental bullshit. It’s funny how judgy conservatives are until the spotlight is on them. Then it becomes “I’m only human” and they expect compassion.

I hope Kenney chokes on his fat foot the next time he puts it in his mouth. Hopefully there’s also some more “Ring of Fire” style comments from rank and file UCP MLA’s to scare the general populace away from voting for them. Based on the reaction to his comments so far and his unrepentant response, his arrogance could be his undoing.

[Gresto]

Don't dare denigrate Cochrane. OK, "Life Is A Highway" sucks, but there are loads of treasures in his oeuvre.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

What I want to know is why does CanCon only seem to promote Canadian music that is too shitty to make it internationally?

Because Canadian record labels have limited capacity to market bands abroad or the bands that are given money are bands that are signed to Canadian subsidiaries of foreign labels and are designed to not compete with the major artists of that foreign label.

The A and B touring circuits stretch things very thin with the distances bands have to travel and the limited number of concerts they can put on. As a consequence you don't get a lot of bands making the jump from local and regional circuits to the A and B circuits. The lack of numbers results in a production output that constantly feels rarified and lacking in depth (songs tend not have stories that accompany them because of such little interaction between artists).

Due to these problems, Canadian artists leave for Hollywood, Nashville or New York to get signed with the large labels there. But again, that requires a commitment and the music ends up not meeting as much of the MAPL (especially the publishing criterion).

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Don't forget "Just Came Back to Say Goodbye" and "Voodoo Thing" by this CanCon legend:



Simply the worst of any classic CanCon rock. At least bands like Loverboy and Chilliwack have legitimate classics internationally. They're also hilarious to sing along to. My other nomination for shitty overplayed song would be "American Woman". The Guess Who have so many better songs but that one gets played to death.

The more recent equivalent to Colin James I think would be Hedley, Great Big Sea or Matthew Good. Then there's the whole new category of early 00's fake punk shite like Avril Lavigne, Sum41 and Simple Plan.

So many people are happy that Hedley is no longer being played on radio stations including me. Never mind that the lead singer is an asshole and did all that horrible stuff. I really hate the song "Anything" by them.

Another horrible CanCon one is Marianas Trench who sound just like Hedley. I really hate the song "Pop 101" by them.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

CanConCrap. Yeah, Colin James is on the list of under-talented, overplayed Canadian dreck. There is a lot of it. When I lived in Vancouver, I heard Bryan fucking Adams 7 billion times a day, and Tom Cock-ring and Red-Rider, plus Barney Bental and 54:40 (I, I, I, I have an Ocean Pearl.....). All horrible, all from Vancouver.

Chilliwack was also on all the time, but at least they had some good songs.

You forgot such 80's Canadian gems as Prism, Loverboy, Trooper and the ultimate mullet band Triumph (I swear everytime I see the movie FUBAR, I think it is Triumph).

[GeneralLea]

That was that ******** song. Anything. It's practically the epitome of what Hedley represents. Terrible music video, generic poppy vocal range....stupid poppy gimmicks. Reminds me of Nickelback, but even poppier. I made myself listen to the Nickelback record from last year.....man it's just dreck.

A good example (amongst many many ones) of Canadian musicians leaving for the US is Lady Gaga. She was huge in the late 00's.....now she's still around, but not too that scale she was before.

[Acajack]

Lady Gaga is Canadian??????

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Loco101

So many people are happy that Hedley is no longer being played on radio stations including me. Never mind that the lead singer is an asshole and did all that horrible stuff. I really hate the song "Anything" by them.

Another horrible CanCon one is Marianas Trench who sound just like Hedley. I really hate the song "Pop 101" by them.

Yes I have mistaken their songs for Hedley before. Whiny, inauthentic bitch music.

It’s funny there was some decent CanCon in the 90’s that doesn’t get a lot of airplay now but did back then. I’m thinking of bands like Rhymes with Orange, the Killjoys, Econoline Crush, the Odds, the Age of Electric, Limb Lifter, the Trews. Then of course you have heavy rotation favourites that aren’t bad like the Tragically Hip. More Indie stuff like Tegan and Sara, Wintersleep, Metric, Feist, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade are also decent.

Then there’s the new rock bands I detest like The Dudes and the Arkells. Then you get into the Nickelback knockoffs like Theory of a Deadman and Three Days Grace and Default. Shudder...

[niwell]

^Not too long ago my friend and I got drunk and played 90s cancon on youtube all evening. The Odds and Age of Electric / Limblifter (kinda the same band) are some of my faves. There was a real legitimate early indie Canadian sound that has actually aged pretty well.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Lady Gaga is Canadian??????

Yeah she’s from New York.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by niwell

^Not too long ago my friend and I got drunk and played 90s cancon on youtube all evening. The Odds and Age of Electric / Limblifter (kinda the same band) are some of my faves. There was a real legitimate early indie Canadian sound that has actually aged pretty well.

Yes they did have a unique and identifiable sound.