I (heart) music ... well only one certain kind of music from a very small portion of Canada!

The 2007 'best-of' season is officially open with I (heart) Music publishing this years edition of Hottest Bands in Canada. In this article, the good people at I (heart) Music poll a fairly large group of well known Canadian bloggers (such as the peeps from Said The Gramophone and Chromewaves). As such it tends to be a just as good, if not even better, expose into the state of the Canadian Blogosphere as it is about Canadian music. Looking at this years list I have to say that it leaves me deeply frustrated for numerous reasons.

First the positives. I think the article did a good job of including artists that often get looked over in the wider Canadian music scene (ie. The Luyas, Woodhands, Plants and Animals, Handsom Furs) while still giving the big whigs proper recognition (ie. The Weakerthans, Julie Doiron, The Acorn, Sunset Rubdown). I have few quibbles with the entire top 10 for that matter.

But now the negatives. Generally when I look at lists like this I try not to pick on particular artists who made it at the expense of others, but I just can not get past the fact that Wolf Parade made the list while the Frog Eyes didn't. How can a band who has publicly declared to be on 'hiatus' make the top 15 on a list that is counting down the hottest bands of the year? Are they really that hot that they don't even have to currently exist? If that's the case The Guess Who should be on this list as I rarely can turn on Power 97 without hearing them? More importantly, how can a band that has made it on the list in previous years get cut after making what is widely regarded their best album to date?

Then there is the who eastern-bias thing. Now I recognize that I was born and raised in Alberta which makes me a bit over-sensitive to issues like this, but I can't help but see this as a failure of the article. Of the 33 bands that made the list, 3 call a province west of Ontario home. 3!!!! And of those three one (The New Pornographers) hails from Canada's third largest city Vancouver, while Calgary's Chad VanGaalen is spending significant chunks of the year in Sackville NB (Julie Doiron recently referred to him as a Sackville artist at a recent show at the WECC). Seriously, if bands like The Great Bloomers and Plants and Animals who have yet to release full-length albums surely artists like Chet, or Boats! deserve some consideration. I really shouldn't let this bug me so much, but articles like this only contribute to the false idea that you need to be from Ontario or Quebec to really become an important artist in this country.

On top of this, looking at the article it's clear that the Canadian blogosphere has a very narrow idea of what constitutes 'good' music. Of the 33 bands on the list, the only group that challenges the whole guy/girl with a guitar thing is the Junior Boys (and maybe Caribou as well). There is hardly any electronic stuff, no experimental stuff, and certainly no hip hop. Now I recognize that the Canadian music scene does consist of way more guitar-based bands than anything else, but that doesn't mean there aren't artists that do well while not falling into this mold. Where is Ghislain Poirier, Cadence Weapon, Grand Analog, Drumheller or Secret Mommy?

If this list is supposed to represent the tastes and opinions of a good chunk of Canadian music writers I can't help but be deeply concerned. Is the Canadian blogosphere becoming this narrow minded? I certainly hope not.

By the way, if I were to submit an entry into this list it would probably look something like this;

1.) Frog Eyes
2.) Ryan Beattie (of Chet and Himalayan Bear)
3.) Sandro Perri
4.) Ghislain Poirier
5.) Sunset Rubdown
6.) Cadence Weapon
7.) Julie Doiron
8.) Nelly Furtado (who is NOTICEABLY absent on the I Heart Music piece)
9.) The Weakerthans
10.) Nick Frasier of Drumheller