Oh Canada. Or rather oh Canadian Content aka CANCON.
You’ve probably heard of CANCON in one way or another. Maybe you’ve encountered it when looking for your favourite TV show on Netflix, only to see a whole bunch of productions of a dubious quality show up. Or you might be more familiar with it because of the radio.
You see, Canadian radio stations must play a certain percentage of Canadian content. Typically 30% of a station’s music played needs to be Canadian (this can change depending on where you live, border cities like Windsor play by slightly different rules). This 30% rule has led to some rather creative uses of the term “Canadian” when it comes to qualifying music and also some strange definitions from the CRTC as what exactly is “Canadian”.
We could spend an inordinant amount of time breaking down Cancon, however, there are people who have done that far better than I ever will (looking at you Alan Cross). Instead, let’s take a look at some sneaky Cancon, and how radio tries to outsmart the man.
CSNY – OHIO
With music and lyrics by Neil Young, this song just qualifies as Canadian. Even though it was recorded in Hollywood, has two Americans and a Brit on it, and is about an American political event. But hey, Neil was born Toronto! So this weirdly counts as Canadian content. But things are going to get stranger.
Heart – Barracuda
A band fully made up of Americans. However, they lucked out because Heart was: A) Living in Canada and B) Recording in Canada and C) Had a Canadian producer. So it counts as Canadian. Go figure.
Bonnie Raitt – Something to Talk About
People are talkin… talkin about people. And how this song is Canadian. Bonnie Raitt is American. There should be no doubt about it. The words and music however? By canuck Shirley Eikhard. The song was recorded in the states. However, it still counts.
So there you go, some of the weirdness of Canadian content. There’s a lot more out there… we haven’t even touch the Lenny Kravitz years.
– PV
