Comments on: Musical Spikes: One of These Things Doesn’t Belong Here

By: Kwende Kefentse

Kwende Kefentse — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:54:19 +0000

Good points all. I think there’s also something to be said for that “screwface” attitude in building a tough and rigorous, but sturdy music scene from which to launch.

It’s strange though, when “foreign” artists find it more welcoming than the “native” artists who have built that scene. I like what Sam suggested in that artists from the city might be carrying around the albatross of being “Toronto’d”. Seems very likely.

Here’s a great mix of music from that early 90’s Toronto scene from the Grand Groove blog:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/562088481eb67992/#

By: Sean Conforti

Sean Conforti — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:02:55 +0000

I think you’re onto something there at the end of your post Sam. As a nation, Canada has a serious identity crisis; we do seem to celebrate our diversity to a fault. The fault being that we don’t necessarily have a specific culture, and the worry runs rampant that we are just the little brother of the U.S., that what we have is nought but their left-overs – this idea is very prevalent in Canadian fiction. So perhaps it’s not so much a fear of letting our own stuff out and having it eaten up and gotten over too quickly, as it is an over-emphasis on foreign artists derived from the multicultural atmosphere of the nation – which is typified by Toronto. Perhaps we are so focused on our diversity that we inadvertantly (subconsciously as a culture) give credit where it’s due to foreign artists, while giving our own domestic talent a much harder time?

By: sam

sam — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:03:19 +0000

Kwende you raise good questions here. The stand out for me is how do local music scenes and sounds function in a world of globally-oriented cities? K’Naan, Drake and Zaki may simply choose to live in Toronto because of its relatively high quality of life (take Frank-n-Dank for example, were they in Toronto to launch their career or just on a vacation from The D?) and relatively big ‘cultural’ scene, but what does the greater international success of musical ‘transplants’ to the city say about the development of a local sound in the Toronto urban music scene?
Toronto definitely has the cultural and media industries which a musician needs to launch their career. Toronto is also seemingly welcoming to new residents (e.g. people not born in the city) as seen with the recent demographic stats. Toronto also celebrates its cosmopolitanism almost to a fault. Is it simply these factors that make the city attractive?
As you mentioned, early 1990s Toronto hip-hop was a real scene, there was definitely a ‘sound’ being nurtured (the Beatfactory RapEssentials comps being a great example). Maybe this sound was too idiosyncratic to touch a cord with a wider audience. Or maybe the screwface capital audience is too insecure to let its own music out for fear of it being got over too quickly.

By: mat

mat — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:29:17 +0000

not available comes up for me too.
even after i refresh in safari.

By: Kwende Kefentse

Kwende Kefentse — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:31:18 +0000

Seems to be working fine…Maybe give your browser a refresh?

By: Michael Wells

Michael Wells — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:37:36 +0000

I get “This video is no longer available” on these links. Can you check and re-set?

Thanks

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:48:39 +0000

Memetic…

You bring up an excellent point…but that’s Toronto no? Even those of us who were born there often still consider ourselves to be some sort of hybrid, nuh true?

I don’t know what it is about the city that welcomes people the way it does…and isn’t that ironic considering it’s also the Screwface capital?

Thanks for the music…there could never be too much.

By: Kwende Kefentse

Kwende Kefentse — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:21:47 +0000

Tru ’nuff tru ’nuff – there’s a lot of exciting stuff going on in the electro scene in Toronto. Significant spikes there too no doubt. I don’t know the “native” to “foreign” rate though.

It’s hard to determine what that even means in a city like Toronto, but I think for the sake of argument we can say, native = “was born in a GTA hospital or went to either primary/middle/secondary school in a GTA school”. Foreign = “Everything else”? Even that is a weird differentiation.

What’s interesting is that it seems like Toronto has very low barriers for entry – people are able to feel as if they are a a part of the city easily and relatively quickly. More tolerance maybe? But why?

By: Fin

Fin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:04:54 +0000

Don’t forget TO stole these ones from Mtl: http://www.vimeo.com/1124192