So Montreal, what’s the big deal?

Posted by admin on Jan 23, 2008 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

Canada seems to get a bad rap when it comes to culture. Somehow we’ve ended up with the reputation of borrowing from everyone else. From our food, to our music, everything looks, smells, touches and tastes like the rest of the world. It seems as though multiculturalism has lived up to its name: everyone has stuck to his or her own thing, and as a result, Canada has no mass culture to call its own.

If one exception can be found, it’s Montreal. This city has its own distinctiveness that seems to be seeping into the rest of culture. I can’t get into it too deeply, but I’ll use music as an example. (Also, I don’t really know much about anything else, so I might as well not bother, right?)

Take the band Broken Social Scene, for example. As a conglomeration of solo artists yearning for a bigger sound, many of their members come and go. Yet, their sound remains the same; something dissimilar from the rest of popular music. Being the original group of the music label “Arts & Crafts,” they helped begin a trend in Montreal of artistic pop music that was followed by groups such as Stars, Metric and Miracle Fortress, along with solo artists such as Jason Collett, Feist and Amy Millan (all of whom are, or have been, members of B.S.S. at some point in time.

One cannot talk about modern music from Montreal without bringing up the Arcade Fire. The most popular new group to come out of Montreal, rivaled only now by perhaps Feist (because of a certain iPod commercial), their music has been some of the most highly acclaimed Canadian music in years. The Arcade Fire’s albums were given a 9.7 and 8.4 by the often overly critical Pitchforkmedia.com, and their debut is the youngest album listed in the top ten of “The Top 100 Canadian Albums.” Their distinct sound has brought them global recognition and allowed them to share the stage with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie.

So what’s the big deal about Montreal? Well, the people there seem to be the only Canadians willing to step it up a notch and create something that will have a global impact. While the rest of the world still thinks of hockey and maple syrup when our name is mentioned, hopefully one day they will think of art. And when that day comes, we will have these people and this city to thank.