The fact that the city is a multi-cultural city, a city where both Anglophones and Francophones live side by side, enables the city to attract a diverse array of individuals.

To the typical independent musician that I work with, associating with a corporation usually equals disaster. Feist’s association with apple computers has provided the kindling for many of her die-hard hands to toss out her “indie”-credibility. It’s a very hard decision to make for an artist as there is nothing they fear more than being labeled as a “sell-out.”

Since integrity for the artistic community is of utmost value it is easy to understand why large corporations, such as the ones you listed, would want to associate and piggy-back on their integrity; unfortunately, most of these associations result in the music scene being crushed. This happens in many ways, but the most frequent way is because the rent is driven too high by the infiltration of high paying businesses that want to be associated with a region.

Musicians may be cool, but they are also poor. This gentrification has happened many times in Toronto. Yorkville has completed its transformation, Liberty Village is nearly there, and Kensington Market has a big bulls-eye on it.

I might be the perfect example of this effect. I’m 24 and my wife and I are fortunate enough to be living in downtown Toronto, but only because we are currently residents of University of Toronto’s subsidized student family housing, where she is working on her master’s degree. When our term is up here, we will be forced to move out of the downtown core and into a region of the city where there is “no scene”. My studio is still located in downtown Toronto, but on a whim that may be forced to relocate out of it’s hip area if the rent is forced up. This is the main reason why artistically creative groups share an anti-corporate sentiment.

Your point about folk (and I would add country and bluegrass) is well taken. As a guitarist, who started playing in the mid 1960s, I was actually unaware of their influence on playing and …. on my own playing. I was of course a big fan of Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page and Johnny Winter (who’s fade from the public ear is tragic). I never realized how influenced they were by these other traditions. Hendrix spent a good deal of time in Nashville and then in the Village around folkies.

Is your research looking beyond pop into broader music scenes? For example, Portland is noted for its indie-rock scene, but has a strong jazz & blues scene, folk/bluegrass, decent symphony & opera and groups such as Portland Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest festival, Third Angle “new music” and lots of others. Local/international favorite Pink Martini plays rhumba, camp hits and their own songs in multiple languages.

I think you’re right about the interplay and “thick job markets” but that the influence is probably broader than what’s popular with kids at the moment. I’ve long thought that the folk revival of the early 60’s made the rock of the late ’60’s possible, because it taught so many musicians to actually play guitar. Listen to the three chord strumming of ’50’s Elvis vs. the guitars of Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Bloomfield in the ’60’s and you hear the debt popular music owes the blues. Or follow the incredible journey of the Beatles through the musical universe.