Music Industry

Why Are So Many Canadian Artists Do So Well on American Radio?

If it weren’t for Canadian artists, the American music landscape would be much, much different. FYIMusicNews.ca points us to this article from Utmost which explains why we hosers do so well on American radio.

What do Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, and Shania Twain have in common with J Biebs, The Weeknd, and Drizzy? If you were thinking that they’d all be the first to die in a straight to DVD horror movie, you’d probably be right, but that’s not exactly what I was thinking of. What these people really have in common is that they’re all from Canada.

The Canadian music industry has always seemed like the overrepresented minority in the global music industry landscape. Even with a population of just 10% of the United States, Billboard’s Top 40 has always seemed to host a great number of Canadian artists. Some of music’s biggest stars have come from the land of moose and hockey. Now, seemingly more than ever, Canada’s artists have become a dominating force in not just American charts, but charts across the globe. Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake, and The Weeknd are some of the music industry’s biggest names right now, and they all hail from the North. Why is this? What makes Canada such a great breeding ground for the chart topping music we all enjoy? Maybe, it’s in the maple syrup…

…or maybe the answer lies with radio. Getting on prime time radio in the United States has been the key to mainstream success for literally every artist since the dawn of the broadcasting industry. The exposure that comes with radio is immense. With so many other listening mediums now available to consumers such as internet streaming and mp3s, you would assume that most people would opt out of listening to the radio, but the data collected seems to say otherwise. The average adult in America now spends 1.8 hours per daylistening to the damned things. Most of this time is spent in the car during work commutes or in stores while shopping. Even with so many different formats to listen to music, radio is still one of the industry’s biggest promotional tools for artists.

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Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39044 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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