Canadian content regulations and the formation of a national scene

Abstract

This article addresses the ongoing impact of Canadian Content Regulations as applied to commercial radio. While commercial broadcasters have repeatedly called for a relaxation of the regulations in response to the changing music industry, particularly the increased impact of the Internet, it is possible to demonstrate that the regulations have had a positive impact on Canadian listening habits. An examination of the ‘national’ charts provided by Last.fm, a website that tracks users’ listening habits, shows that Canadian users listen to Canadian tracks in excess of the amounts currently regulated for radio. Commercial broadcasters’ claims that the regulations prevent them from competing fairly with new technology thus run counter to such evidence. As official charts, and hence commercial playlists are still reliant on older modes of tracking music, via in-store purchases, an incomplete picture of the current state of the industry exists, and it is this picture that seems to shape the claims made by the commercial industry. Additionally, this paper explores the rise of a successful Canadian ‘scene’, spearheaded by bands such as Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, that demonstrates the impact of policy in creating a national music culture that is confident enough to no longer have to be explicitly Canadian, either sonically or lyrically. Cancon regulations would appear to have aided in situating Canadian acts comfortably within a wider music culture within Canada.

Inside Out: The Internationalization of the Canadian Independent Recording Sector

“…At the same time, these technological networks have realigned the power centres of the industry and reconfigured the relationships among the various businesses involved in the commercialization of music in a way that opens up possibilities for smaller players in the industry, including individual artists and the "independent" sector (Henderson, 2008). Via the Internet and other new media, these players have the potential to reach an enormous, geographically dispersed audience more or less instantly and on a global scale, without the costly and elaborate logistics entailed in distributing physical copies of recordings.…”

“…the increasingly international orientation of the canadian independent recording sector presents major challenges for existing federal policies for the music industry, as well as for the place of canadian cultural industries in policy in general. First, it is at odds with much of the protectionist orientation of canadian cultural policy, which for most of its history placed more emphasis on protecting canada's culture from foreign content than on promoting it internationally (edwardson, 2003;Henderson, 2008). Prioritizing the export of canadian music to other markets is by no means necessarily at odds with strengthening canadian cultural production, although it could be argued that this may encourage producers to create material that is appealing to other markets at the expense of being identifiably canadian (edwardson, 2008).…”

The place of popular music in Scotland's cultural policy

“…In particular, the section of the White Paper on broadcasting proposes "an increase in productions that reflect life in Scotland and of Scots" (p. 317). One might look to Canada, for instance, which requires a 35% Canadian music content quota on commercial radio to support domestic talent (Henderson, 2008). Unfortunately for Scottish musicians, EU regulations prohibit a similar policy from being instituted in Scotland (EP, 2011).…”

Challenging expectations : perceptions of Canadian music and the localized practices of experimental artists

“…Within the majority of the work surrounding the musical components of the country's media production, a model of the artist is constructed: an individual who displays the desire for a modest amount of success while still maintaining a sense of nationalistic pride in the larger Canadian music scene. Scott Henderson (2008) describes the success of artists as their ability to "interact, contribute to and promote each other's work, and help to build a Canadian scene that can be confident without being overly self-conscious" (p. 314). Groups such as Broken Social Scene and the Arcade Fire, both of whom have received significant amounts of critical and commercial success within the past decade, are often used as examples of the type of success that artists strive for within the dominant discourse surrounding music production (Henderson, 2008, p. 313).…”

“…According to this perspective, policy initiatives can play a dual role: not only do they foster an increase in the quality and quantity of Canadian cultural goods, they can also facilitate greater involvement in a marketplace that is overpowered by the force of the American industry. Analysts who support the idea of policy as a means of encouraging greater Canadian cultural production (Wagman 2001, Henderson 2008, Edwardson 2008 argue that cultural funding and the inclusion of more Canadian content in radio and television broadcast helps to stimulate the national industry by providing increased opportunities for artists.…”