Print media
145-499: Great White Whale is the debut album by the Canadian rock band, Secret and Whisper . The album was in the works for about a year and was released on February 12, 2008. A music video was shot in Pittsburgh for the album's first single , "XOXOXO." The album reached number 17 on iTunes 's top 100 albums in its first week on sale. All lyrics are written by Charles David Furney; all music
290-495: A British usage of the 1600s referring to the "intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal". As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils and came to mean a state of agitation or depression. By the 1800s in the United States, the term "blues" was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase ' blue law ', which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. In 1827, it
435-610: A Deadman , Protest the Hero , Default , Bedouin Soundclash , Neverending White Lights , Hedley , Tokyo Police Club , Death from Above 1979 , Age of Daze , Metric , Broken Social Scene , Monster Truck , The Sheepdogs , Walk Off the Earth , City and Colour , No Sinner , Priestess and PUP . Arguably the most successful Canadian group of the decade was Nickelback . The album Silver Side Up sold over six million copies (6× Platinum) in
580-492: A Québécois version of a French reality music competition , several new artists including Marie-Élaine Thibert , Marie-Mai , Émily Bégin and Stéphanie Lapointe became better known among francophones after participation in the reality show. Charlotte Cardin , a finalist on TVA's singing competition La Voix in 2013, went on to critical and commercial success in pop and rock in French and English Canada. Quebec has also produced
725-484: A banjo or guitar. Regional styles of country blues varied widely in the early 20th century. The (Mississippi) Delta blues was a rootsy sparse style with passionate vocals accompanied by slide guitar. The little-recorded Robert Johnson combined elements of urban and rural blues. In addition to Robert Johnson, influential performers of this style included his predecessors Charley Patton and Son House . Singers such as Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller performed in
870-415: A break; the harmony of this two-bar break, the turnaround, can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of single notes that defy analysis in terms of chords. Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the harmonic seventh (7th) form. The use of the harmonic seventh interval is characteristic of blues and is popularly called the "blues seven". Blues seven chords add to the harmonic chord
1015-567: A center for electric blues from 1948 on, when Muddy Waters recorded his first success, "I Can't Be Satisfied". Chicago blues is influenced to a large extent by Delta blues , because many performers had migrated from the Mississippi region. Howlin' Wolf , Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed were all born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Their style
1160-399: A component of R&B. After World War II, new styles of electric blues became popular in cities such as Chicago , Memphis , Detroit and St. Louis . Electric blues used electric guitars , double bass (gradually replaced by bass guitar ), drums , and harmonica (or "blues harp") played through a microphone and a PA system or an overdriven guitar amplifier . Chicago became
1305-540: A fund to help emerging artists produce their videos. New wave , glam rock and heavy metal had become the most popular style of rock in the mid-1980s. Acts such as Platinum Blonde , Helix , Toronto , Parachute Club , The Box , Strange Advance , Spoons , Trans-X , Rational Youth , Men Without Hats , Norman Iceberg , Images in Vogue , Headpins , Sheriff , Frozen Ghost , Teenage Head , Idle Eyes , Eight Seconds , The Northern Pikes , Brighton Rock and Martha and
1450-426: A limited distribution infrastructure. Two internationally renowned bands to arise from this industry were Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Rush , both featuring acclaimed managers. Bachman–Turner Overdrive's manager, Bruce Allen , went on to produce Loverboy and eventually manage such major pop stars as Bryan Adams and Anne Murray. Randy Bachman (formerly of The Guess Who) released his new band's first album under
1595-525: A long and healthy career featuring continuing stadium tours. The Hip achieved a record for most number one debuts on the Canadian Albums Chart with a total of eight albums. They were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canada's Walk of Fame, Royal Conservatory of Music , have won over a dozen Juno Awards from more than thirty nominations, Our Lady Peace , from Toronto were one of
SECTION 10
#17328633011981740-610: A movement known as the Great Migration . The long boom following World War II induced another massive migration of the African-American population, the Second Great Migration , which was accompanied by a significant increase of the real income of the urban blacks. The new migrants constituted a new market for the music industry. The term race record , initially used by the music industry for African-American music,
1885-539: A multi-racial audience, and is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the musical sound of the Doo-wop vocal groups and the rockabilly singers who emerged in the 1950s. The Four Lads , from Toronto , were one of the first groups to capitalize on this sound and become a prominent act in the Canadian rhythm and blues scene, producing their first hit in 1952 called " Mocking Bird ". Their most famous hit
2030-506: A nation in 1867 , the country has produced its own composers , musicians and ensembles . From the 17th century onward, Canada has developed a music infrastructure that includes concert halls , conservatories , academies , performing arts centres , record companies , radio stations and national music video television channels. The success of the gramophone at the beginning of the 20th century allowed Canadian songwriters to broaden their potential audiences. Following quickly on
2175-421: A new dominant phase in the mid-1990s just as rock and roll was starting to be a predominant force in the Canadian charts once again. Indie rock was never supposed to be mainstream, but this is the path it took by the end of the decade. Musically, the late 1990s saw the rock genres of the early 1990s completely grow apart rather than fuse. Each of the genres multiplied and evolved in a fashion largely independent of
2320-436: A new wave of Canadian thrash metal bands began to rise up and earned a dedicated following like Anvil , Razor , Voivod , Sacrifice , Sword , Exciter and Annihilator , Canadian metal's biggest selling artist, with sales of close to 2 million units worldwide, with industrial bands Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly in the mix, as well as black/death metal band Blasphemy . Canada's most successful rock artists by
2465-456: A note with a frequency in a 7:4 ratio to the fundamental note. At a 7:4 ratio, it is not close to any interval on the conventional Western diatonic scale . For convenience or by necessity it is often approximated by a minor seventh interval or a dominant seventh chord . In melody , blues is distinguished by the use of the flattened third , fifth and seventh of the associated major scale . Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce
2610-645: A number of notable international recording artists who appeared on the Billboard record sales chart called Hit Parade first published in 1936. Among them was the World War II era bandleader , Guy Lombardo , who with his brother has sold an estimated 250 million phonograph records during their lifetimes. Over the course of his career, which began in 1944, Montreal 's jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards , and received many other awards and honors. Oscar Peterson
2755-437: A number of significant Anglophone artists, including Arcade Fire , Patrick Watson , The Dears , Godspeed You! Black Emperor , Riverbeds , Stars , The Stills , The Unicorns , Wolf Parade , Rufus Wainwright , Sam Roberts , Paul Cargnello , We Are Wolves , Corey Hart , Corky Laing , The New Cities , Chromeo , Simple Plan and the infamous spoken-word musical career of William Shatner . Quebec artists have dominated
2900-594: A part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson 's " Cross Road Blues " as a "thinly veiled reference to Eleggua , the orisha in charge of the crossroads". However, the Christian influence was far more obvious. The repertoires of many seminal blues artists, such as Charley Patton and Skip James , included religious songs or spirituals. Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music, although their lyrics clearly belong to spirituals. The blues form
3045-569: A part of ragtime; Handy's signature work was the " Saint Louis Blues ". In the 1920s, the blues became a major element of African American and American popular music, also reaching white audiences via Handy's arrangements and the classic female blues performers. These female performers became perhaps the first African American "superstars", and their recording sales demonstrated "a huge appetite for records made by and for black people." The blues evolved from informal performances in bars to entertainment in theaters. Blues performances were organized by
SECTION 20
#17328633011983190-799: A popular solo artist in soft rock . Also notable is folk rocker Gordon Lightfoot's " The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald ", a song written in commemoration of the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on 10 November 1975. The incident is the most famous disaster in the history of Great Lakes shipping. The single reached #2 on the Billboard pop charts in November 1976, making it Lightfoot's second most successful (in terms of chart position) single, with " Sundown " having reached number one in 1974. Another of this period's most influential and popular rock bands, Heart , resulted from
3335-419: A recording career that began in 1926 and spanned forty years. These recordings were typically labeled " race records " to distinguish them from records sold to white audiences. Nonetheless, the recordings of some of the classic female blues singers were purchased by white buyers as well. These blueswomen's contributions to the genre included "increased improvisation on melodic lines, unusual phrasing which altered
3480-671: A rock band. Following the hard rock scene a small wave of acts emerged from all across Canada, including Moxy , A Foot in Coldwater and Triumph from Toronto, Trooper from Vancouver, and April Wine from Halifax . April Wine experienced massive success in Canada from the early-1970s to the mid-1980s, but also had some success in United States and Britain , though many music critics have felt their music has been overshadowed by more successful bands. Canadian cultural critics have noted that
3625-406: A separate genre arose during the black migration from the countryside to urban areas in the 1920s and the simultaneous development of the recording industry. Blues became a code word for a record designed to sell to black listeners. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of Afro-American community, the spirituals . The origins of spirituals go back much further than
3770-494: A single line repeated four times. However, the most common structure of blues lyrics today was established in the first few decades of the 20th century, known as the "AAB" pattern. This structure consists of a line sung over the first four bars, its repetition over the next four, and a longer concluding line over the last bars. This pattern can be heard in some of the first published blues songs, such as " Dallas Blues " (1912) and " Saint Louis Blues " (1914). According to W.C. Handy ,
3915-603: A term, because R&B was a category that included most forms of race music , which generally had adult-based lyrics. The Crew-Cuts , The Diamonds and The Four Lads would emerge from this new marketing of rhythm and blues to appeal to a white audience leaving an indelible mark on the Doo-wop days. Often Canadian records of this period were simply covers of pop hits, and rhythm and blues oldies. 1958 saw Canada produced its first rock and roll teen idol Paul Anka , who went to New York City where he auditioned for ABC with
4060-463: A wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music . The term 'Blues' may have originated from "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness. An early use of the term in this sense is in George Colman 's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). The phrase 'blue devils' may also have been derived from
4205-449: Is a cyclic musical form in which a repeating progression of chords mirrors the call and response scheme commonly found in African and African-American music. During the first decades of the 20th century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a particular chord progression. With the popularity of early performers, such as Bessie Smith , use of the twelve-bar blues spread across
4350-532: Is composed by Secret & Whisper Furney said the band might put both of the Japanese bonus tracks on iTunes if they receive enough public demand. All songs written and performed by Secret & Whisper All lyrics by Charles David Furney Seesaw Music Playground (SOCAN/ASCAP) Canadian rock Music television Rock music of Canada is a wide and diverse part of the general music of Canada , beginning with American and British style rock and roll in
4495-497: Is considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time. Nova Scotia -born and raised Hank Snow who signed with RCA Victor in 1936 and went on to become one of America's most innovative country music superstars. Rock and roll arose in the United States in the late 1940s after World War II , from a combination of the rhythms of African American blues , country and gospel music . Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in Canadian country records of
Great White Whale - Misplaced Pages Continue
4640-502: Is frequently played over sound systems at National Hockey League (NHL) games in both Canada and the United States. At the start of the 1990s Canadian rock took a distinctive turn. Just as artists from the 1970s competed with disco, artists from the 1990s were competing with Canadian hip hop and American hip hop on the Video and Radio charts. Glam metal and arena rock had lost its position as Hip hop, alternative rock and grunge became
4785-405: Is more difficult to travel nationwide as well due to the vast size, creating regional communities that revolve around major music scenes in cities such as Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal or Halifax, each with a handful of offshoot suburban town scenes that produce the next wave of fresh bands. Most notable is Arcade Fire , who have won numerous awards, including the 2011 Grammy for Album of
4930-709: Is often associated with solo piano, boogie-woogie was also used to accompany singers and, as a solo part, in bands and small combos. Boogie-woogie style was characterized by a regular bass figure, an ostinato or riff and shifts of level in the left hand, elaborating each chord and trills and decorations in the right hand. Boogie-woogie was pioneered by the Chicago-based Jimmy Yancey and the Boogie-Woogie Trio ( Albert Ammons , Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis ). Chicago boogie-woogie performers included Clarence "Pine Top" Smith and Earl Hines , who "linked
5075-491: Is often associated with the California blues style, performed a successful transition from the early urban blues à la Lonnie Johnson and Leroy Carr to the jump blues style and dominated the blues-jazz scene at Los Angeles during the 1940s. The transition from country blues to urban blues that began in the 1920s was driven by the successive waves of economic crisis and booms that led many rural blacks to move to urban areas, in
5220-684: Is part of Universal . He later joined London Records , where he worked until February 1964, when he then established RPM weekly trade magazine . From the first issue of RPM Weekly on February 24, 1964, to its final issue on November 13, 2000, RPM was the defining charts in Canada. The popularity of US rock on the two Canadian charts led to many existing groups, especially those devoted to country music, to change styles or to incorporate some rock style hits in their repertoires. Country rock and folk rock singers such as Gordon Lightfoot , Joni Mitchell , Leonard Cohen , Denny Doherty (of The Mamas &
5365-540: Is the best-selling Canadian artist of all time, and when her 1997 album, Let's Talk About Love was released in Canada, it broke the record for the highest opening weekly sales for any album, selling 230,212 copies, a record which still stands. Alanis Morissette, along with Shania Twain, are the only Canadian artists, male or female to have sold two million units in Canada, receiving the Double diamond award Other female Canadian musicians have achieved international success in
5510-660: The 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , and becoming one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . In 1969, drummer Corky Laing , from Montreal, joined pioneering American hard rock band Mountain . Another one of the most prominent players of the late 1960s and early 1970s rock scene was Neil Young , who was a member of the folk rock band Buffalo Springfield , before joining Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young . Young also recorded music with Crazy Horse throughout his solo career. The song " Ohio ", written by Neil Young and recorded with CSNY,
5655-511: The African-American culture . The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz , rhythm and blues , and rock and roll , and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale , and specific chord progressions , of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch , are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce
5800-475: The American South sometimes referred to as a jitterbug or a one-string in the early twentieth century) and the banjo are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. The banjo seems to be directly imported from West African music. It is similar to the musical instrument that griots and other Africans such as
5945-590: The Count Basie Orchestra were also concentrating on the blues, with 12-bar blues instrumentals such as Basie's " One O'Clock Jump " and " Jumpin' at the Woodside " and boisterous " blues shouting " by Jimmy Rushing on songs such as "Going to Chicago" and " Sent for You Yesterday ". A well-known big band blues tune is Glenn Miller 's " In the Mood ". In the 1940s, the jump blues style developed. Jump blues grew up from
Great White Whale - Misplaced Pages Continue
6090-1141: The Félix award for Best Anglophone Artist for her English-language debut, Unison , but she refused the award as she did not view herself as an Anglophone artist. After the controversy caused by this incident, Dion has been careful not to clearly declare herself as either federalist or sovereignist . Recent Quebec performers include Richard Desjardins , Daniel Boucher , Marie-Chantal Toupin , Éric Lapointe , Vilain Pingouin , Mes Aïeux , Les Trois Accords , Kaïn , Dumas , La Chicane , Les Colocs , Cindy Daniel , Daniel Bélanger , Paul Cargnello , Laurence Jalbert , Jean Leloup , Celine Dion , Les Stups , Dan Bigras , Isabelle Boulay and more recently Cœur de pirate . Some bands, such as Les Cowboys Fringants have known success in Europe (primarily in France) while Karkwa , Vulgaires Machins and Malajube are also recognized elsewhere in Canada. In 2003, TVA began to broadcast Star Académie ,
6235-548: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 : Backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time I said, backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time And I can't get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy: Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, It may be sending you baby, but it's worrying
6380-579: The Igbo played (called halam or akonting by African peoples such as the Wolof , Fula and Mandinka ). However, in the 1920s, when country blues began to be recorded, the use of the banjo in blues music was quite marginal and limited to individuals such as Papa Charlie Jackson and later Gus Cannon . Blues music also adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals , including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment. The style also
6525-741: The Theater Owners Booking Association in nightclubs such as the Cotton Club and juke joints such as the bars along Beale Street in Memphis. Several record companies, such as the American Record Corporation , Okeh Records , and Paramount Records , began to record African-American music. As the recording industry grew, country blues performers like Bo Carter , Jimmie Rodgers , Blind Lemon Jefferson , Lonnie Johnson , Tampa Red and Blind Blake became more popular in
6670-409: The degrees of the progression. For instance, for a blues in the key of C, C is the tonic chord (I) and F is the subdominant (IV). The last chord is the dominant (V) turnaround , marking the transition to the beginning of the next progression. The lyrics generally end on the last beat of the tenth bar or the first beat of the 11th bar, and the final two bars are given to the instrumentalist as
6815-468: The "AAB" pattern was adopted to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lyrics are often sung in a rhythmic talk style rather than a melody, resembling a form of talking blues . Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative. African-American singers voiced their "personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times". This melancholy has led to
6960-399: The '60s alongside dances like "The Twist" and "The Mashed Potato". The first Canadian-made and produced rock recording to achieve international popularity was "Clap Your Hands" in 1960 by a Montreal quartet , The Beaumarks . Shortly thereafter, they appeared on American Bandstand and a charity concert at Carnegie Hall . Bobby Curtola from Port Arthur, Ontario had several songs on
7105-438: The 1920s, among them "the big three"— Gertrude "Ma" Rainey , Bessie Smith , and Lucille Bogan . Mamie Smith , more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, was the first African American to record a blues song, in 1920; her second record, "Crazy Blues", sold 75,000 copies in its first month. Ma Rainey, the "Mother of Blues", and Bessie Smith each "[sang] around center tones, perhaps in order to project her voice more easily to
7250-428: The 1920s, when the record industry created the marketing categories " race music " and " hillbilly music " to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively. At the time, there was no clear musical division between "blues" and "country", except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that was sometimes documented incorrectly by record companies. Though musicologists can now attempt to define
7395-520: The 1930s–1940s, and in American blues records from the 1920s, rock and roll did not acquire its name until the 1950s. "Rock" or its forerunners electric blues ( Chicago blues ) and rhythm and blues ( Jump blues ) was first heard in the late 1940s by Canadians who were living close enough to the American border to tune into American radio station broadcasts. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio , disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for
SECTION 50
#17328633011987540-466: The 1950s had moved to the US, where the population level and media exposure would eclipse that of Canada. Ronnie Hawkins , an Arkansas born rockabilly singer, moved to Canada in 1958, becoming a prominent figure in Canadian blues and rock devoting his life to popularizing Canadian musicians. He formed a backing band called The Hawks , which produced some of the earliest Canadian rock stars. Among them were
7685-561: The 1960s and 1970s. German born frontman, John Kay, would later become a Canadian citizen and was the only member of Steppenwolf to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame . Steppenwolf is most famous for the songs " Born to Be Wild ", " Magic Carpet Ride " and " The Pusher ". "Born to be Wild" is the group's biggest hit, making it to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968, becoming one of
7830-511: The 1980s) finally came into full effect and by the end of the decade, radio stations would have to play 35% Canadian content. This led to an explosion of Canadian bands ruling the Canadian airwaves unlike any era before. This includes The Headstones , The Tea Party , Matthew Good Band , Moist , Sloan , The Gandharvas , Change of Heart , Skydiggers , Eric's Trip , Limblifter , Salmonblaster , supergarage, The Misunderstood, Shyne Factory , Doughboys , Crash Test Dummies , The Lowest of
7975-417: The 1980s, in particular the need to conform to the taste of a Canadian audience that has had its standards and expectations formed by constant exposure to US and British acts for the prior three decades. The popularity of Chilliwack , for example, rose dramatically after the band turned from the experimental nature of its first few LPs to a mainstream pop style consistent with the US style. The band first hit
8120-425: The 1990s, setting new pinnacles of success in terms financial, critical, and in their immediate and strong influences on their respective genres: Sarah McLachlan , Céline Dion , Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain . Alanis Morissette kicked off another revolution in Canadian music, launching an era in which Canadian women like Avril Lavigne would rule the pop charts worldwide. Quebec-born singer, Celine Dion
8265-424: The 21st century was dominated by post-grunge and continued to see the expansion of alternative rock, pop-punk, hard rock, and indie rock both artistically and commercially. The main musical phenomenon was the emergence of a new generation of singer songwriters that were the direct consequence of the previous generation's intellectual ambitions. The biggest factor that has contributed to the resurgence of rock music in
8410-451: The 9-bar progression in " Sitting on Top of the World ", by Walter Vinson . The basic 12-bar lyric framework of many blues compositions is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of 12 bars in a 4/4 time signature . The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme. They are labeled by Roman numbers referring to
8555-601: The African American community. Kentucky-born Sylvester Weaver was in 1923 the first to record the slide guitar style, in which a guitar is fretted with a knife blade or the sawed-off neck of a bottle. The slide guitar became an important part of the Delta blues . The first blues recordings from the 1920s are categorized as a traditional, rural country blues and a more polished city or urban blues. Country blues performers often improvised, either without accompaniment or with only
8700-520: The African call-and-response tradition that transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar, the blues form itself bears no resemblance to the melodic styles of the West African griots . Additionally, there are theories that the four-beats-per-measure structure of the blues might have its origins in the Native American tradition of pow wow drumming. Some scholars identify strong influences on
8845-568: The Canadian edition of Sesame Street from 1989 to 1995. Henderson also acted as director of the Canadian Association of Recording Arts and Sciences ( CARAS ) and as president of the Songwriters Association of Canada ( SOCAN ). Music videos assumed a major role in the promotion of pop rock recordings in 1980s for US exposure. Videos produced many mainstream pop-rockers that saw huge success in and outside of Canada. Success in
SECTION 60
#17328633011988990-402: The Canadian music charts beginning with "Hand In Hand With You" in 1960. His biggest chart-topper came in 1962 with the song, "Fortune Teller", which was also successful internationally. In 1966, he won an RPM Gold Leaf Award (The Gold Leaf Awards, which were in effect the first Juno Awards) for being the first Canadian to have a gold album . The CHUM Chart debuted on May 27, 1957, under
9135-550: The Canadian recording industry made rock a major focus of its activity. In 1971, the Canadian content law was passed ensuring Canadian artists weren't overrun by American media outlets. The Juno Awards began as a reader poll conducted by Canadian music industry trade magazine RPM Weekly in December 1964. A similar balloting process continued until 1970 when the RPM Gold Leaf Awards, as they were then known, were changed to
9280-501: The Juno Awards. The first Juno Award ceremony was held in 1975 and played a role in addressing the concern about Canadian content. This led to increased production and with the international popularity of The Guess Who and Neil Young at the end of the 1960s, opened markets outside Canada to the country's musicians. Success abroad usually ensured success in Canada. The early 1970s were a golden age for Canadian music. Many performers from
9425-545: The Low , 13 Engines , Odds , I Mother Earth , Big Sugar , Glueleg , Age of Electric , Rymes with Orange , Mudgirl , Strapping Young Lad , Bif Naked , Rheostatics , The Watchmen , Moxy Früvous , Rusty , Our Lady Peace , The Philosopher Kings , Junkhouse , Wide Mouth Mason , Pure , Thrush Hermit , cub , The Killjoys , Sandbox , Treble Charger , Big Wreck , The Weakerthans , Propagandhi and The Planet Smashers . Although many of them have not been overly successful in
9570-651: The Muffins were along for the new Canadian music video ride. Although many of them, in fact, were only "one-hit wonders". In the late 1980s, the Canadian recording industry continued to produce popular acts such as Blue Rodeo . Alternative rock also emerged as an influential genre, with independent artists such as The Tragically Hip , 54-40 , Sarah McLachlan , Spirit of the West , The Waltons , Cowboy Junkies , The Pursuit of Happiness , and The Grapes of Wrath all gaining their first widespread attention during this time. Also
9715-592: The Papas ), David Clayton-Thomas (of Blood, Sweat & Tears ), Andy Kim , Zal Yanovsky (of The Lovin' Spoonful ), John Kay (of Steppenwolf ), and Ian & Sylvia found international audiences. One important example was a Winnipeg band called Chad Allan & the Expressions, which had a 1965 hit with a version of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates ' " Shakin' All Over ". They would eventually evolve into The Guess Who ,
9860-481: The Radar , as well the Canadian edition of Time magazine. It can be difficult for an indie group to break through in Canada as there is no nationwide rock station. On the other hand, although rock bands may get some exposure from outlets such as MuchMusic and CBC Radio 3 , bands must largely rely on building an audience city by city, as each commercial radio station makes its playlist decisions independently. Similarly, it
10005-536: The Slugs , Payola$ and Glass Tiger . As well, the era produced the country cowpunk of k.d. lang . Bryan Adams would emerge as Canada's superstar of the 80s having been awarded the Order of Canada , and the Order of British Columbia and inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998 for his contribution to popular music and his philanthropic work. Also notable is Loverboy who accumulated numerous hit songs in Canada and
10150-457: The Top 10 charts in Canada with 1973s "Lonesome Mary", but are perhaps best remembered for three America hit songs from the 1980s "My Girl (Gone Gone Gone)", "I Believe" and "Whatcha Gonna Do". Even though those three hits were their only popular singles in the US, the band has released over a dozen albums with 23 Canadian hit singles . Bill Henderson , the founder of the band, was musical director for
10295-604: The United States and 800,000 copies (8× Platinum) in Canada. The band has won multiple Juno Awards, an American Music Award , and a MTV Video Music Award Their hit single " How You Remind Me " reached the top on the Canadian Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, making them the second Canadian band to accomplish this, the first being The Guess Who with "American Woman" in 1970. Nickelback has also sold over 50 million albums worldwide, making them
10440-541: The United States, making four multi-platinum albums. The band's hit singles, particularly " Lovin' Every Minute of It " and " Working for the Weekend " have become hard rock staples, and are still heard on classic rock radio stations across the US and Canada. Loverboy received five Juno Awards, Canada's highest award for music, in one year, a record that still stands today. The band would later receive an additional three Juno Awards, bringing their total to eight, which at that time
10585-558: The United States, they remain extremely popular in Canada having much more vitality than their contemporaries from other countries. The Barenaked Ladies brought a spotlight on to the Canadian indie market when their album sales began to steamroll based simply on word of mouth and their live shows. The Yellow Tape , released in 1991, became the first indie release by any band to achieve platinum status (100,000 copies) in Canada. The album Stunt became their greatest success, buoyed by " One Week ", which coincidentally spent one week at
10730-553: The Year , the 2011 Juno Award for Album of the Year , and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album for their third studio album, The Suburbs . In the 1960s, some French Canadians of Quebec were beginning to self-identify as Québécois (Quebecers). [See the Quiet Revolution .] The tensions between Quebec and English Canada have, at times, played out on Quebec's music scene as well. For example, in 1991, Céline Dion won
10875-420: The back of a room". Smith would "sing a song in an unusual key, and her artistry in bending and stretching notes with her beautiful, powerful contralto to accommodate her own interpretation was unsurpassed". In 1920, the vaudeville singer Lucille Hegamin became the second black woman to record blues when she recorded "The Jazz Me Blues", and Victoria Spivey , sometimes called Queen Victoria or Za Zu Girl, had
11020-544: The beginning of the 20th century. They are now lost. Other recordings that are still available were made in 1924 by Lawrence Gellert . Later, several recordings were made by Robert W. Gordon , who became head of the Archive of American Folk Songs of the Library of Congress . Gordon's successor at the library was John Lomax . In the 1930s, Lomax and his son Alan made a large number of non-commercial blues recordings that testify to
11165-441: The blues are also closely related to the religious music of the African-American community, the spirituals . The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery , with the development of juke joints occurring later. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music
11310-647: The blues from the melodic structures of certain West African musical styles of the savanna and sahel. Lucy Durran finds similarities with the melodies of the Bambara people , and to a lesser degree, the Soninke people and Wolof people , but not as much of the Mandinka people . Gerard Kubik finds similarities to the melodic styles of both the west African savanna and central Africa, both of which were sources of enslaved people. No specific African musical form can be identified as
11455-568: The blues in the same year in Missouri ; and W.C. Handy , who first heard the blues in Tutwiler, Mississippi , in 1903. The first extensive research in the field was performed by Howard W. Odum , who published an anthology of folk songs from Lafayette County, Mississippi , and Newton County, Georgia , between 1905 and 1908. The first non-commercial recordings of blues music, termed proto-blues by Paul Oliver , were made by Odum for research purposes at
11600-460: The blues is usually dated after the Emancipation Act of 1863 , between 1860s and 1890s, a period that coincides with post- emancipation and later, the establishment of juke joints as places where African-Americans went to listen to music, dance, or gamble after a hard day's work. This period corresponds to the transition from slavery to sharecropping, small-scale agricultural production, and
11745-516: The blues narrowly in terms of certain chord structures and lyric forms thought to have originated in West Africa, audiences originally heard the music in a far more general way: it was simply the music of the rural south, notably the Mississippi Delta . Black and white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as " songsters " rather than blues musicians. The notion of blues as
11890-411: The blues, usually dating back to the middle of the 18th century, when the slaves were Christianized and began to sing and play Christian hymns , in particular those of Isaac Watts , which were very popular. Before the blues gained its formal definition in terms of chord progressions, it was defined as the secular counterpart of spirituals. It was the low-down music played by rural blacks. Depending on
12035-479: The boogie-woogie wave and was strongly influenced by big band music. It uses saxophone or other brass instruments and the guitar in the rhythm section to create a jazzy, up-tempo sound with declamatory vocals. Jump blues tunes by Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner , based in Kansas City, Missouri , influenced the development of later styles such as rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Dallas-born T-Bone Walker , who
12180-468: The collaboration of two sisters from Seattle with a supporting band from Vancouver. Some popular francophone bands of the time included the rock group Beau Dommage from Montreal led by Michel Rivard and the progressive rock group Harmonium also of Montreal. Artists like The Kings , Prism , Crowbar , Nick Gilder , Ian Thomas , Goddo , Harlequin , Mahogany Rush , Moxy , Streetheart , Max Webster and Ironhorse saw their greatest success during
12325-410: The emerging new wave ruled the landscape, Canadian groups such as D.O.A. , The Viletones , The Forgotten Rebels , Rough Trade , Diodes , Teenage Head , The Demics , The Young Canadians and Subhumans emerged and continued in the 1980s with popular bands like SNFU , Dayglo Abortions and Nomeansno . Rough Trade were particularly notable for their 1980 hit " High School Confidential ", one of
12470-479: The emphasis and impact of the lyrics, and vocal dramatics using shouts, groans, moans, and wails. The blues women thus effected changes in other types of popular singing that had spin-offs in jazz, Broadway musicals , torch songs of the 1930s and 1940s, gospel , rhythm and blues , and eventually rock and roll ." Urban male performers included popular black musicians of the era, such as Tampa Red , Big Bill Broonzy and Leroy Carr . An important label of this era
12615-429: The expansion of railroads in the southern United States. Several scholars characterize the development of blues music in the early 1900s as a move from group performance to individualized performance. They argue that the development of the blues is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people. According to Lawrence Levine, "there was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon
12760-745: The first Canadian rock group to have a No.1 hit that reached the top on the Canadian Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, with " American Woman " in 1970. Their success paved the way for a new wave of Canadian singer-songwriters, including Stan Rogers , Murray McLauchlan , Bruce Cockburn and Willie P. Bennett . Unlike the generation before, the late sixties American and British counterculture and hippie movements had diverted rock towards psychedelic rock, heavy metal, progressive rock and many other styles, most dominated by socially and politically incisive lyrics. The music
12905-412: The first decade of the 21st century is the rise of paid digital downloads . The vast majority of songs bought on paid download sites are singles bought from full albums; songs that are bought on a song-by-song basis off artist's albums are considered sales of singles, even though they have no official single for purchase. The boom of independent music at the turn of the millennium changed the dynamics of
13050-598: The first explicitly lesbian-themed pop songs to crack the Top 40 anywhere in the world. Things changed course in the 1980s, the changing fast-paced culture was accompanied by an explosion in youth culture. Until the mid-1960s, little attention was paid to rock by Canadian daily newspapers except as news or novelty. With the introduction during the 1970s of the " rock critic ", coverage began to rival that of any other music. The 1980s saw Canada support and promote many of its own talent in pursuit of true originality. Canadian rock generally had been discouraged by market forces before
13195-410: The four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans. Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa . The origins of
13340-417: The genre took its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performers. However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. Call-and-response shouts were an early form of blues-like music; they were a "functional expression ... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure". A form of this pre-blues
13485-400: The gramophone's spread came World War I . The war was the catalyst for the writing and recording of large numbers of Canadian-written popular songs, some of which achieved lasting international commercial success. The 1920s saw Canada's first radio stations, this allowed Canadian songwriters to contribute some of the most famous popular music of the early 20th century. Canada has produced
13630-751: The hell out of me. Hokum blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom 's " It's Tight Like That " (1928) is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being " tight " with someone, coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Blues songs with sexually explicit lyrics were known as dirty blues . The lyrical content became slightly simpler in postwar blues, which tended to focus on relationship woes or sexual worries. Lyrical themes that frequently appeared in prewar blues, such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and drought, were less common in postwar blues. The writer Ed Morales claimed that Yoruba mythology played
13775-430: The highly competitive world of popular music, including Joni Mitchell, Ginette Reno , Diane Dufresne , Diana Krall , Avril Lavigne , Loreena McKennitt , Amanda Marshall , Holly Cole , Chantal Kreviazuk , Diane Tell , Jann Arden , Deborah Cox , Sarah Harmer , Susan Aglukark , Melissa Auf der Maur , Emily Haines , Kittie , Bif Naked , Nelly Furtado , Colleen Rennison and Feist . The early first decade of
13920-454: The huge variety of proto-blues styles, such as field hollers and ring shouts . A record of blues music as it existed before 1920 can also be found in the recordings of artists such as Lead Belly and Henry Thomas . All these sources show the existence of many different structures distinct from twelve- , eight- , or sixteen-bar . The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known. The first appearance of
14065-434: The individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington's teachings, and the rise of the blues." Levine stated that "psychologically, socially, and economically, African-Americans were being acculturated in a way that would have been impossible during slavery, and it is hardly surprising that their secular music reflected this as much as their religious music did." There are few characteristics common to all blues music, because
14210-427: The larger US market remained the major goal of most, if not all, post-1970 Canadian rock acts; a goal in fact reached with some greater or lesser degree of consistency by several, among them Bryan Adams, Kim Mitchell former guitarist and vocalist of Max Webster , Aldo Nova , Loverboy , Saga , k.d. lang , Red Rider , Corey Hart , Alannah Myles , Lee Aaron , Tom Cochrane , Honeymoon Suite , Haywire , Doug and
14355-997: The last decade. Canada joined 50 other nations in 2008 to update its Copyright Act , and in doing so aimed to allow artists and others to seek compensation for their work, no matter how it is distributed. In 2010 Canada introduced new copyright legislation. The amended law makes hacking digital locks illegal, but enshrine into law the ability of purchasers to record and copy music from a CD to portable devices. The wide and diverse sound in 21st century rock has resulted in such acts as The Glorious Sons , Mother Mother , Arkells , Devin Townsend , Strapping Young Lad , Billy Talent , Silverstein , Thornley , Sam Roberts , Joel Plaskett , Avril Lavigne , Cleopatrick , Finger Eleven , Simple Plan , Marianas Trench , Gob , Hot Hot Heat , Immaculate Machine , The New Pornographers , Sum 41 , Evans Blue , Parabelle , Three Days Grace , The Trews , Matt Mays & El Torpedo , Alexisonfire , Theory of
14500-411: The late '70s period. Many acts have had equally vital, if less remunerative careers outside the mainstream in punk rock and its derivations, generally distinguished by a tendency to extremes of one sort or another. Whether in instrumental intensity, lyric content, or performance style Canadian pop music evolved with the times, reflecting worldwide trends. In the late 1970s, as punk rock, disco , and
14645-604: The late 1960s came to the forefront in the following years, among them The Bells and Andy Kim from Montreal, Chilliwack from Vancouver , Five Man Electrical Band from Ottawa , Lighthouse from Toronto, Wednesday from Oshawa, and The Stampeders from Calgary . With the introduction in the mid-1970s period of rock music on FM radio stations, where it was common practice to program extended performances, musicians were no longer limited to songs of three minutes' duration as dictated by AM stations. The still nascent Canadian music industry had little independent music media and
14790-634: The late 1970s were a lesser era for Canadian music. Many of the acts who had defined the earlier half of the decade were no longer recording, and the new artists emerging in this era simply didn't seem to be able to capture the Canadian pop zeitgeist in the same way. Nevertheless, a number of established Canadian acts, including Rush, Bachman–Turner Overdrive, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, Bruce Cockburn, April Wine, Pat Travers , FM , and Neil Young, remained influential and recorded some of their most popular material of all during this period, and former "The Guess Who" lead singer Burton Cummings emerged as
14935-763: The late 1980s worked in a relatively generic, mainstream pop rock style of the day. Some from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, may be ascribed to more specific substyles like Colin James , David Wilcox and Jeff Healey to blues-rock (see Canadian blues ). With Stompin' Tom Connors , Great Big Sea and Ashley MacIsaac to folk rock, that saw the start for both styles, a very large following all across Canada. Most notable would be Stompin' Tom Connors who typically wrote about Canadian lore and history, some of Connors' better-known songs include Big Joe Mufferaw , The Black Donnellys , Reesor Crossing Tragedy , Sudbury Saturday Night and The Hockey Song (aka "The Good Old Hockey Game"), that
15080-580: The long and short lists of the Polaris Music Prize . Among them, Arcade Fire , Patrick Watson , Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Karkwa have all won the award. Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts , chants , and rhymed simple narrative ballads from
15225-586: The low rate of literacy among rural African Americans at the time. Reports of blues music in southern Texas and the Deep South were written at the dawn of the 20th century. Charles Peabody mentioned the appearance of blues music at Clarksdale, Mississippi , and Gate Thomas reported similar songs in southern Texas around 1901–1902. These observations coincide more or less with the recollections of Jelly Roll Morton , who said he first heard blues music in New Orleans in 1902; Ma Rainey , who remembered first hearing
15370-413: The members of The Band , who began touring with Bob Dylan in 1966, and then struck out on their own in 1968. As the late fifties gave way to the sixties, stars of the previous decade were still producing hits, but they were quickly losing ground as they struggled to find material that clicked with this new and energetic generation. However, " The Stroll " continued to be a popular dance craze well into
15515-480: The mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern popular music called rock . Canada has produced many of the genre's most significant groups and performers, while contributing substantively to the development of the most popular subgenres , which include pop rock , progressive rock , country rock , folk rock , hard rock , punk rock , heavy metal and indie rock . Since before Canada's emergence as
15660-400: The most successful Canadian rock groups of the 1990s; their 1997 effort Clumsy was certified Diamond in Canada and going Platinum in the U.S. which was something that a lot of the Canadian rock groups didn't do in that time. In 1996, VideoFACT launched PromoFACT, a funding program to help new artists produce electronic press kits and websites . This helped Indie rock , that would see
15805-516: The music industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Other chord progressions, such as 8-bar forms, are still considered blues; examples include " How Long Blues ", " Trouble in Mind ", and Big Bill Broonzy 's " Key to the Highway ". There are also 16-bar blues , such as Ray Charles 's instrumental "Sweet 16 Bars" and Herbie Hancock 's " Watermelon Man ". Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are occasionally used, such as
15950-501: The music industry. At about the same time, the CD (cheap to manufacture) replaced the vinyl album and cassette tapes (expensive to manufacture). Shortly thereafter, the Internet allowed musicians to directly distribute their music, thus bypassing the selection of the old-fashioned " record label ". Canada's music industry has suffered as a result of the challenging times for the better part of
16095-410: The name Bachman–Turner Overdrive in spring 1973, which won two Juno Awards despite being largely ignored in the US. Their second album Bachman–Turner Overdrive II hit No. 4 in the U.S. BTO II was certified gold in eight countries. It also yielded their best-remembered and most enduring single, " Takin' Care of Business ", written by Randy Bachman. 1974's album Not Fragile went straight to
16240-519: The name CHUM's Weekly Hit Parade, to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in Canada. During the 1960s Canadian music was regarded with indifference and Canadian recording artists were forced to turn toward the United States to establish their careers. In 1960 Walt Grealis of Toronto started in the music business with Apex Records , the Ontario distributor for Compo Company (founded in 1918 ), Canada's first independent record company that today
16385-419: The new sound of the next generation. Canadian publications devoted to Canadian rock and pop music, either exclusively or in tandem with more general editorial content directed to young readers, was expanding rapidly in the 90s. It was a decade of incredible nationalism, at least as far as English-Canadian music was concerned. The 1971 CRTC rules (25% Canadian content on Canadian radio, increased to 30 per cent in
16530-407: The number one spot on the storied Billboard Hot 100. Also notable is The Tragically Hip who signed a long-term record deal with MCA in 1987, but were largely unrecognized until 1989s Up to Here . The Hip went on to establish themselves as one of the most influential bands in Canada. They never had a major breakthrough in the United States, but their Canadian fan base alone was enough to sustain
16675-606: The only Canadian rock band to achieve this. Also very notable is Avril Lavigne, who is one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the United States, with over 10.25 million copies certified by the Recording Industry Association of America. The end of the decade was notable for a surprising number of ambitious indie rock albums. The Canadian indie rock scene has been the focus of national and international attention in many publications, such as Spin , The New York Times Magazine , Rolling Stone , Under
16820-418: The others. Perhaps the most dramatic change in lifestyle affected the girls. They were the daughters of the women who had fought for emancipation and equality in the 1960s. Canadian women by the end of the decade enjoyed greater international commercial success than ever before in the popular music field. As Alannah Myles, Lisa Dalbello and Lee Aaron had a decade earlier, four women in particular rose out of
16965-489: The propulsive left-hand rhythms of the ragtime pianists with melodic figures similar to those of Armstrong's trumpet in the right hand". The smooth Louisiana style of Professor Longhair and, more recently, Dr. John blends classic rhythm and blues with blues styles. Another development in this period was big band blues. The " territory bands " operating out of Kansas City , the Bennie Moten orchestra, Jay McShann , and
17110-458: The religious community a musician belonged to, it was more or less considered a sin to play this low-down music: blues was the devil's music. Musicians were therefore segregated into two categories: gospel singers and blues singers, guitar preachers and songsters. However, when rural black music began to be recorded in the 1920s, both categories of musicians used similar techniques: call-and-response patterns, blue notes, and slide guitars. Gospel music
17255-456: The savannah, are conspicuously absent. According to the historian Paul Oliver , "the roots of the blues were not to be found in the coastal and forest regions of Africa. Rather... the blues was rooted in ... the savanna hinterland, from Senegambia through Mali, Burkina Faso, Northern Ghana, Niger, and northern Nigeria". Additionally, ethnomusicologist John Storm Roberts has argued that "The parallels between African savanna-belt string-playing and
17400-510: The single direct ancestor of the blues. However the call-and-response format can be traced back to the music of Africa . That blue notes predate their use in blues and have an African origin is attested to by "A Negro Love Song", by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , from his African Suite for Piano , written in 1898, which contains blue third and seventh notes . The Diddley bow (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of
17545-458: The song, " Diana ". This song brought Anka instant stardom and he became the first Canadian to have a number one on the US Billboard charts in the rock and roll era. "Diana" is one of the best selling 45s in music history. He followed up with four songs that made it into the Top 20 in 1958, making him one of the biggest teen idols of the time. Most Canadians with successful recording careers in
17690-446: The songs "can't be sung without a full heart and a troubled spirit", conditions that have inspired countless blues songs. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when Hart Wand 's " Dallas Blues " became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics, the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. Early traditional blues verses often consisted of
17835-406: The southeastern "delicate and lyrical" Piedmont blues tradition, which used an elaborate ragtime-based fingerpicking guitar technique. Georgia also had an early slide tradition, with Curley Weaver , Tampa Red , "Barbecue Bob" Hicks and James "Kokomo" Arnold as representatives of this style. The lively Memphis blues style, which developed in the 1920s and 1930s near Memphis, Tennessee ,
17980-528: The suggestion of an Igbo origin for blues, because of the reputation the Igbo had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved. Other historians have argued that there is little evidence of Sub-Sahelian influence in the blues as "elaborate polyrhythm, percussion on African drums (as opposed to European drums), [and] collective participation" which are characteristic of West-Central African music below
18125-507: The techniques of many blues guitarists are remarkable. The big kora of Senegal and Guinea are played in a rhythmic-melodic style that uses constantly changing rhythms, often providing a ground bass overlaid with complex treble patterns, while vocal supplies a third rhythmic layer. Similar techniques can be found in hundreds of blues records". The lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. For instance Blind Lemon Jefferson 's "Rising High Water Blues" (1927) tells of
18270-481: The top of the charts, and the single " You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet " hit No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the UK. One of the largest exports to date is Rush, that boasts 25 gold records and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records, making them one of the best-selling rock bands in history by 2005. Rush currently place third behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold and platinum albums by
18415-446: The trance-like rhythm and call-and-response, and they form a repetitive effect called a groove . Characteristic of the blues since its Afro-American origins, the shuffles played a central role in swing music . The simplest shuffles, which were the clearest signature of the R&;B wave that started in the mid-1940s, were a three-note riff on the bass strings of the guitar. When this riff
18560-444: The trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove . Blues music is characterized by its lyrics , bass lines , and instrumentation . Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern , consisting of a line sung over
18705-410: Was " Moments to Remember ", which first reached the Billboard magazine charts on September 3, 1955. Emerging in the mid-1950s, on near equal-footing to American popular music , Canadian popular music enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad. By 1954 the name "rock and roll" had become the common name of the popular music of the day. Rhythm and blues (R&B coined in 1949 ) was too broad
18850-532: Was a formally trained musician, composer and arranger who helped to popularize the blues by transcribing and orchestrating blues in an almost symphonic style, with bands and singers. He became a popular and prolific composer, and billed himself as the "Father of the Blues"; however, his compositions can be described as a fusion of blues with ragtime and jazz, a merger facilitated using the Cuban habanera rhythm that had long been
18995-504: Was a free-born black woman from Pennsylvania who was working as a schoolteacher in South Carolina, instructing both slaves and freedmen, and wrote that she "came home with the blues" because she felt lonesome and pitied herself. She overcame her depression and later noted a number of songs, such as "Poor Rosy", that were popular among the slaves. Although she admitted being unable to describe the manner of singing she heard, Forten wrote that
19140-503: Was an attempt to reflect upon the events of the time— civil rights , the growing unrest in America over the war in Vietnam , and the rise of feminism . In many instances, the "message" within the song was simplistic or banal. Although only two of the five original members of Steppenwolf were born in Canada ( Jerry Edmonton and Goldy McJohn ), the band was among the biggest in Canadian music in
19285-399: Was closely related to ragtime , which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music". The musical forms and styles that are now considered the blues as well as modern country music arose in the same regions of the southern United States during the 19th century. Recorded blues and country music can be found as far back as
19430-457: Was heard in slave ring shouts and field hollers , expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content". Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. Although blues (as it is now known) can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and
19575-416: Was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues , Delta blues and Piedmont blues , as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues . World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to
19720-545: Was in response to political events of the time and has since become an America social icon of the period. "Ohio" was written about the death of four students at Kent State University . The students were shot by Ohio National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest on the campus in May 1970. With the introduction of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission 's (CRTC) broadcast regulations in 1970,
19865-440: Was in the sense of a sad state of mind that John James Audubon wrote to his wife that he "had the blues". In Henry David Thoreau 's book Walden , he mentions "the blues" in the chapter reflecting on his time in solitude. He wrote his account of his personal quest in 1845, although it was not published until 1854. The phrase "the blues" was written by Charlotte Forten , then aged 25, in her diary on December 14, 1862. She
20010-567: Was influenced by jug bands such as the Memphis Jug Band or the Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers . Performers such as Frank Stokes , Sleepy John Estes , Robert Wilkins , Kansas Joe McCoy , Casey Bill Weldon and Memphis Minnie used a variety of unusual instruments such as washboard , fiddle , kazoo or mandolin . Memphis Minnie was famous for her virtuoso guitar style. Pianist Memphis Slim began his career in Memphis, but his distinct style
20155-467: Was most received by a single group or individual aside from Bryan Adams. Music videos became more and more important as a marketing tool for Canadian bands by the mid-1980s with the debut of MuchMusic in 1984 and MusiquePlus in 1986. Now both English and French Canadian musicians had outlets to promote their music through video in Canada. The networks were not just an opportunity for artists to get their videos played—the networks created VideoFACT ,
20300-659: Was nevertheless using musical forms that were compatible with Christian hymns and therefore less marked by the blues form than its secular counterpart. The American sheet music publishing industry produced a great deal of ragtime music. By 1912, the sheet music industry had published three popular blues-like compositions, precipitating the Tin Pan Alley adoption of blues elements: "Baby Seals' Blues", by Baby Franklin Seals (arranged by Artie Matthews ); "Dallas Blues", by Hart Wand ; and " The Memphis Blues ", by W.C. Handy . Handy
20445-420: Was played over the bass and the drums, the groove "feel" was created. Shuffle rhythm is often vocalized as " dow , da dow , da dow , da" or " dump , da dump , da dump , da": it consists of uneven, or "swung", eighth notes. On a guitar this may be played as a simple steady bass or it may add to that stepwise quarter note motion from the fifth to the sixth of the chord and back. Hart Wand 's " Dallas Blues "
20590-430: Was published in 1912; W.C. Handy 's " The Memphis Blues " followed in the same year. The first recording by an African American singer was Mamie Smith 's 1920 rendition of Perry Bradford 's " Crazy Blues ". But the origins of the blues were some decades earlier, probably around 1890. This music is poorly documented, partly because of racial discrimination in U.S. society, including academic circles, and partly because of
20735-507: Was replaced by the term rhythm and blues . This rapidly evolving market was mirrored by Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues chart . This marketing strategy reinforced trends in urban blues music such as the use of electric instruments and amplification and the generalization of the blues beat, the blues shuffle , which became ubiquitous in rhythm and blues (R&B). This commercial stream had important consequences for blues music, which, together with jazz and gospel music , became
20880-444: Was smoother and had some swing elements. Many blues musicians based in Memphis moved to Chicago in the late 1930s or early 1940s and became part of the urban blues movement. City or urban blues styles were more codified and elaborate, as a performer was no longer within their local, immediate community, and had to adapt to a larger, more varied audience's aesthetic. Classic female urban and vaudeville blues singers were popular in
21025-536: Was the Chicago-based Bluebird Records . Before World War II, Tampa Red was sometimes referred to as "the Guitar Wizard". Carr accompanied himself on the piano with Scrapper Blackwell on guitar, a format that continued well into the 1950s with artists such as Charles Brown and even Nat "King" Cole . Boogie-woogie was another important style of 1930s and early 1940s urban blues. While the style
#197802