Canada & Music

Music in Canada

History of music of Canada has mirrored the history and evolution of the country. From early British-style patriotic songs and the folk traditions of the many founding cultures, to the international success of cutting-edge alternative music bands, music has been an ever evolving part of Canada's cultural life. In recent decades, Canadian music, in all its forms, has come to be one of the most fully developed expressions of the Canadian identity.

The country's tradition of folk music, with its basis in every region and community in the country, is complemented by strong domestic and international contributions to popular music. Before the explosion of modern popular (Pop) music in the 1950s, Canada produced several notable stars. Bea Lillie of the World War I era, songwriter Shelton Brooks, doo wop group The Four Lads, bandleader Guy Lombardo, pop stars Gisele MacKenzie and Robert Goulet, jazz virtuosos Maynard Ferguson, Moe Koffman, and Oscar Peterson, and pop-country stars Wilf Carter and Hank Snow were all well-known.

Canada Country music evolved out of the diverse musical practices of the Appalachian region of the United States. Appalachian folk music was largely Scottish and Irish, with an important influence also being the African American country blues. Parts of Ontario, British Columbia and the Maritime provinces shared a tradition with the Appalachian region, and country music became popular quite quickly in these places.

Canadian Music country as developed by Carter, Snow and Earl Heywood, used a less nasal and more distinctly pronounced vocal style than American music, and stuck with more traditional ballads and narratives while American country began to use more songs about bars and lovers quarrels. This style of country music became very popular in Canada over the next couple decades. Later popular Canadian country stars range from Stompin' Tom Connors to Shania Twain.

Canada Jazz is a genre of African American music (with influences from French Impressionism era music), present in Canada since at least the 1910s. In 1919 and 1920 in Vancouver, Jelly Roll Morton, a legendary New Orleans pianist, played with his band. During this period, Canadian groups such as the Winnipeg Jazz Babies and the Westmount Jazz Band of Montreal also found regional acclaim.

Canada and blues : The blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes, often with a repetitive twelve-bar structure, which evolved in the United States in the communities of former African slaves. Canadian blues refers to the blues and blues-related music (e.g. blues-rock, folk blues, etc.) performed by blues bands and performers in Canada.
In Canada, there are hundreds of local and regionally-based Canadian blues bands and performers. As well, there is a smaller number of bands or performers that have achieved national or international prominence. These bands and performers are part of a broader Canadian "blues scene" that also includes city or regional blues societies, blues radio shows, and blues festivals.

Canadian hip hop developed much more slowly than the rock scene. Although Canada certainly had hip hop artists right from the early days of the scene, the infrastructure simply wasn't there to get their music to the record-buying public. Even Toronto, Canada's largest and most multicultural city, had difficulty getting an urban music station on the radio airwaves until 2000, so even if a Canadian hip-hop artist could get signed, it was exceedingly difficult for them to get exposure.

Canada Rock music: Ronnie Hawkins, an Arkansas-born rockabilly singer, became the most prominent figure in Canadian rock beginning in 1958. He did more than any other to popularize Canadian hard rock. He formed a backing band called The Hawks, which produced some of the earliest Canadian rock stars. Among them were the members of The Band, who began touring with Bob Dylan in 1966 and then struck out on their own in 1968, releasing well-remembered albums like Music from Big Pink and The Band. ...and etc.