CBC’s 100 Most Popular Canadian Songs of the Millennium (So Far)
Another way to phrase that headline might be “What will Canadian classic rock and oldies look like in the future?” Let’s go to CBC Music for the answer. They did some number-crunching on what seem to be the most popular Canadian songs of the 21st century–at least to this point.
Nostalgia is one main reason every city still has a classic rock station, which regularly plays bands like Rush, the Tragically Hip, Bryan Adams, Kim Mitchell, Alannah Myles and so on. But what is the new classic rock? As rock from the ’70s, ’80s and even ’90s slowly changes from classic to, for lack of a better word, oldies, what music will rise to stake a claim on nostalgia?
It will be the music of the new millennium, and to find out what that will sound like, we asked Neilsen Soundscan, which tracks the amount of radio plays each and every song gets across the country. Nielsen compiled the Canadian songs that have received the most radio rotations in the new millennium, which began on Jan. 1, 2001. The result: this list of the 100 most popular songs, from 2001 to present.
The full results are in the gallery above, and while we think you’ll be really surprised by the number one song, there are a few trends worth noting. First off, if you’re wondering what classic rock stations will sound like in 10, 20 years, the answer is Nickelback and Hedley. The B.C.-based groups both have seven songs in the top 100, and Chad Kroeger has two as a solo musician, statistically making Nickelback the most played Canadian band of the new millennium. After that, female musicians takeover, with Shania Twain, Nelly Furtado and Avril Lavignelanding 15 songs, combined, on the list.
