Regarding Canadian music, I thought I’d post an idea I had a few years ago–
Dr. J’s Proposal for Canadian Content Laws in the US
As I understand it, half of the music played on the radio in Canada has to be of Canadian origin, presumably to help keep them from becoming USA North.
So I made two mental lists of bands/musicians from Canada:
Worth listening to: Rush, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies (who I add tenatively–they are very easily played to death)
Not worth listening to: Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain
I’m leaving many acts out, I’m sure, but it seemed that for every bad Canadian band I could think of, I could come up with a good one. So I could postulate that about half of Canadian music is worth listening to.
What does this mean for Canadian radio? If they distribute the Canadian acts evenly (that is, not all-Shania-and-no-Rush) over the 50%, that means that 25% of the music on Canadian radio is worth listening to even if the entire American half is utter crap.
I would then maintain that nowhere near 25% of the music on American radio is worth listening to.
Therefore, I propose that the USA adopt Canadian Content Laws similar to those found in Canada. It can’t hurt.
While I’m at it, I further propose the Faith Hill Act, which bans the re-making of great songs if you’re only going to destroy them. The Act is named in honor of Faith Hill’s pop-country cover of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart”, which will make any good rock fan’s small intestine jump out of his gut and try to strangle him.
Similarly indicted under this bill would be Lenny Kravitz for his “American Woman” and Madonna for her recent “American Pie”, which I have yet to hear but fear I will be unable to avoid it. (I also understand that Leann Rimes did “Purple Rain” on a recent album, which would be grounds for execution.)
Dr. J