CANADA UNCOVERED
‘Songwriters have to be prepared to think globally’
Canada has always made a huge contribution to global music, often through stars covering Canadian songwriters’ work. But now the country’s developing greater self-confidence, earning respect as a global hotbed of musical talent.
In the 1950s, Buddy Holly scored a No. 1 hit with his cover of Paul Anka’s It Doesn’t Matter Anymore. And thus began a fine tradition of Canadian songwriters creating smash hits for international artists — without those songwriters always being recognized for their work.
Anka was, of course, an exception, going on to enjoy global fame in his own right. But how many Nazareth fans headbanging to This Flight Tonight knew they were listening to a Joni Mitchell cover? And did Europe’s teenage clubbers realize that Bryan Adams wrote Heaven when they busted a move to the DJ Sammy and Yanou version a decade ago? The granddaddy of all Canadian coverable songs is surely Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, interpreted by almost everyone from Jeff Buckley to Alexandra Burke and even military choirs.
In one sense, you can argue this doesn’t matter — music’s beauty is that it transcends borders, countries and languages to speak to us all. But from a different perspective, so-called “small” countries such as Sweden and Iceland enjoy huge reputations for their musical creativity, whereas Canada, until recently, was seen at best as an addendum to the United States and its vast and diverse talent pool.
But industry experts say this is changing. Mike McCarty, chief membership and business development officer at music rights group SOCAN, says, “I call it ‘the Drake effect.’ The impact Drake and his generation are having on Canada’s reputation in the global music world is every bit as significant as the Guess Who were in their day. If the Guess Who (was) really the first big bang of Canadian music, then Drake has put Canada on the map for the internet generation.
“Before Drake came along, you can reference great hip hop and ragga artists like Kardinal Offishall and Choclair, but with a few exceptions like Snow, essentially urban music was struggling to break outside of Canada. Then Drake started uploading his mixtapes to MySpace, breaking the invisible barrier in the U.S. for Canadian urban music, and now he’s global.”
Namechecking Shawn Mendes and The Weeknd as other artists forming part of this musical Maple Leaf revolution, McCarty says there are more than 70 Canadian songwriters living in Canada who have contributed to this urban music explosion — a fact inviting visions of Canada as R&B’s Nashville or Brill Building.
Vincent DeGiorgio, a renowned songwriter and music publisher who has enjoyed hits all over the world and is president of the Canadian Music Publishers Association, agrees: “What we’re seeing now is Canada learning how to export its culture — and I mean all of its culture, not just pockets of it.
“If you look at the success of a country like Sweden, they learned how to export their culture through music. The focus has to be not just on bands and solo artists, but on songwriters who sell their talents around the world.”
For DeGiorgio, the industry’s focus is now on co-writing rather than cover versions of classic songs by other writers: “Cover versions used to be a gold mine for musicians and publishers, but not anymore.
“You might get some live performances on talent shows or a song re-recorded for a placement in film or TV. But for the most part, almost all current artists take part in the writing of their songs.
“Today, it’s about trying to create the repertoire that people will remember in 20 years’ time. Songwriters have to be prepared to think globally and flex their muscles, in part because the Canadian market is so self-contained.”
Although the cover version may no longer be popular in Canada or elsewhere, reports of its demise may yet prove exaggerated — at least in the live arena. A recent study by Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Chicago estimated that almost 80 per cent of musicians’ pay is now derived from live work — and this is reflected in ticket prices that can reach up to $400 for so-called “heritage” acts such as Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones.
Music lovers who can’t afford these exorbitant prices have turned to younger, more energetic acts who earn a living interpreting other artists’ works.
Tyler Kyte, a member of Canadian “supergroup party band” Dwayne Gretzky, says: “In an era where DJs are a huge thing, we’re all about trying to re-create the experience people get from the original songs.
“If you look at the audience during our shows, they are singing along to each other while we play, which is pretty much the best feeling you can have as an artist.”
The success Dwayne Gretzky has experienced in the past two years, going from audiences of 15 in bars to selling out two nights at Toronto’s Opera House last month, suggests that music may still be as much about the singers as about the songs themselves.
If the Guess Who (was) really the first big bang of Canadian music, then Drake has put Canada on the map for the internet generation.