The New York Times named Pitchforkmedia.com "the best site for music criticism on the web."
It's become The Rolling Stone for Generation Txt. The site gets over 1.5 million readers monthly and now they have moved into physical media with the publication of the coffee table tome, Pitchfork 500 - Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to Present.
Six editors and a whack of contributors, including Stuart Berman of Eye Weekly, detail the 500 best tracks beginning in 1977 with Bowie's Heroes and running chronologically to Panda Bear's Bros from 2006. It's a fine read and, like all lists, there are quibbles and a difference of opinion but what I find most startling is that no Canadians show up until Godspeed You Black Emperor and The New Pornographers in 2000. From there Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Feist and Wolf Parade make the grade. But zippo, zilch, nada, no one, nothing prior to the new millennium.
Pitchfork is associated with underground indie bands so you should know that this is not some obscure music snob's best of. Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Metallica, Smiths, Stone Roses, Billy Bragg, Kraftwerk, AC/DC, Duran Duran ... are included. Hip hop, pop, rave, many genres are represented but, alas, no Canucks. Not one of our multi-million record-selling millionaires, nor the bands held up as examples of how to succeed, get any cred in this book.
So what does that tell us?
That for most of rock 'n roll history, Canadians have not been at the cutting edge. The industry (major and indie) in this country has been feeding the world cheap Cancon versions of more adventurous artists, nothing more than pale imitations of what the rest of the world is buying. For the better part of 40 years, Canadians have contributed nothing to popular music other than more of the same. And that copycat mentality is still so prevalent today, even here in Durham region, with too many bands willing to be a second-rate Oasis or worse ... Nickelback wannabes. We have gotten to the stage where musicians in Canada are now imitating the imitators. No wonder the music industry is dying.
However the good news is that the trajectory of modern music has finally come around to the Great White North. Innovation has moved from Liverpool to Detroit to New York to Manchester to Seattle and now to Toronto and Montreal (and Guelph.) While many bands are still looking to Nirvana as an inspiration, they fail to see what those in the know know; that the best new music is being made here. Much of that music is being gathered under the Arts and Crafts record label and they are steering their bands away from the majors and their outdated business models. A and C do their own thing their way.
The world, from a reading of this indie 500 list, prizes Canadian sounds and not Canadians who sound like American or British bands. With so much music to choose from these days, authenticity is becoming the most valued element. Could it be that even the Yanks are finally cottoning on to what's been here all along; Canadian musicians whose influence and inspiration is Canada. Brilliant!
William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at
wmacg@yahoo.com.
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