In this day and age a lot of music you hear tends to be generic, and done so on purpose. Music being generic or paint by numbers is intended so songs can be imagined by whomever is listening can place themselves in it, why so many songs about small towns use the same imagery, typically American imagery. While songs are inspired about and in Canada they don’t use specifics in most cases. This is something that has bothered me for years.
At a time where the word “authentic” gets thrown around as a buzz word, making it in my opinion inauthentic, we have Canadian singers, and songwriters obsessed with seeming American. Now I get that America is a much bigger market but yet Canadians seem to want to hide their heritage from people. This isn’t just in music but in other art forms as well as comedy (outside of Canada) and acting. It was once not an issue with artists like Stompin’ Tom Connors, Paul Brandt, The Great Big Sea/Alan Doyle, The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies and Guess Who just to name a few, all sang and name dropped Canadian places and cities without hesitation. Heck even Johnnie Cash sang “Girl from Saskatoon.” Where did that go? I really don’t know.
Now I see artists dropping lyrics with Nashville area codes, songs purely about American cities and states as well as name dropping American food establishments that have never existed in Canada, while supposed to be about where the artist(s) are from. They sing about warm climate places like Mexico and the Caribbean rather than the places at home. This also connects to the spelling of songs with artists opting to use American spelling over the Canadian/British spelling in words like colour, they don’t use a “u”.
Now this isn’t to say some artists don’t sing about Canada specifically. A popular song from Tim Hicks is “Stronger Beer” which is about the differences between Canada and the United States and how Canada is a superior in many ways. An emerging artist Daylin Jorgensen’s song “Ripped Jeans” mentions Wetaskiwin, a city 70 km south of Edmonton. Songs like “Let ‘Em Lie” from Kyle McKearney and Don Amero speak of the events of finding bones at the sites of residential schools, while not naming schools, locations specifically it is of distinct Canadian events and or history. These are country examples.
If established artists who are have made it big in Canada and making a name for themselves in the United States won’t then why will emerging artists, who often chase trends, sing about their home and native land. We have seen instances of Canadian artists making negative headlines for speaking about how the US is better than Canada, while they are trying to establish themselves in America, i.e the Josh Ross incident back in June of 2025. What message does that send to Canadian artists and songwriters.
In times like we have now where Canada and the US are at serious odds diplomatically, this would be the time to begin showing the Canadian heritage. It may not make you rich or get you more spins on the radio but it would actually be “authentic.”
An clip from Tom Green’s “The Tom Green Farmcast” with Paul Langlois of The Tragically Hip, looks at exactly what I am talking about.
– Everett
