Words: Mr. Happy!

In music, there are but eight notes, and everybody in the world knows what they are: Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti and do. Otherwise known as an octave. If you want to write a song, you have equal access to these eight notes, regardless of your income, your genetics, or your country of origin. 

Eight notes. Everybody in the world knows them. Everybody in the free world is free to arrange these eight notes in any combination they see fit. Add words to the mix, and you have a song. It is the most even of all playing fields.

And yet, in Canada, there is something wrong with our citizenry. We are unable to learn or master these eight notes. We are at a disadvantage as a nation. While people from other countries are able to arrange these eight notes into melodies and then add words to those melodies in order to create songs, Canadians need government assistance in order to do the same. 

This may sound ridiculous, but this is exactly what Canadian content rules speak silently, every single day.

In Canada, the state forces its radio stations to play 3.5 Canadian songs for every 10 songs played. If a radio station fails to do so, the government will punish that station with fines or possible removal of livelihood (their broadcast license). 

So, in other words, the Canadian government threatens private companies with fines and loss of livelihood in order to force them to hoist state-approved culture upon its citizens - citizens who have repeatedly told their government, through their democratic buying power, that they do not want it. 

Donna Murphy, Operations and Projects manager for the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, had the following to say; "I hesitate to think that if radio stations didn't have to play Canadian music, they just wouldn't…We believe they are public airwaves, granted by the government.  In a protected environment (one station has a frequency to the exclusion of other applicants) you have a responsibility to play Canadian music." 

But do we?  Do we have a responsibility to play Canadian music?  

To whom do we owe this responsibility?

Think of your favorite band.  Your favorite love song. The one song that makes your heart fill with joy every single time you hear it. Do you like it because you feel you owe something to the person who wrote it? Do you like it because, if you didn't buy this particular artist's records, he or she might not be able to pay the rent and the hydro that month? Do you buy extra copies so he or she can eat steak once a month instead of canned beans? If the group you love is INXS, do you feel some responsibility to the people and the economy of Australia? Do you carefully weigh the Gross National Product of Australia matched against its rate of inflation and debt load, divided by the country's relative confidence in itself and maturity as a society, multiplied by the monthly stipend now being paid to Michael Hutchence's orphaned child - and is it upon these nationalistic and economic and social criteria that you came to the conclusion that you liked that song? Or did you like the song because when he sang "And they can never tear us apart" - it moved you? Because it was powerful? Because it sounded good?  Because…it was a good song? 

Do we owe any musician a living? Do we owe the Canadian record industry a living? If Canadians, by a defect of citizenship, are unable as a population to arrange eight notes and some words in a pleasing manner, do we owe them special treatment, sympathy, and disability payments?  

Yes, disability payments. Because if we are somehow unable to do something, then we are disabled.  

People with physical disabilities receive direct assistance from our government. In contrast, the Canadian government tries to help its disabled musicians by bending our society so that it reaches down to their level of inability. They do this by forcing radio stations to play what they would otherwise throw in the dustbin. 

But our musicians are not disabled. And there is not anything wrong with Canadian musicians. We know this. We know this, because those who have awoken and escaped this artificial system designed to reward mediocrity, have achieved real success. Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Shania Twain, The Barenaked Ladies, Alanis Morissette. All were relatively successful at home, all were making a pretty good living in this artificial world that artificially rewards its musicians by airing their songs more often than their talent alone would dictate. It was only when they escaped this system that real success was visited upon them.  

Let's take an apples-to-apples comparison. In this case, we'll call it an Alanis-to-Alanis comparison. Same person, two different systems: 

State-sponsored Alanis (1991)

You're love ain't enough-OW!

You're just a party party party boy yeah

oh baby

You're just a party party party boy!

Free-market Alanis (1995)

Cause the joke that you laid on the bed that was me

And I'm not gonna fade

As soon as you close your eyes and you know it

And every time I scratch my nails down someone else's back

I hope you feel it...well can you feel it?

This is the same person in two different systems.

This system might have killed the Alanis Morissette we have come to know and love, robbing us of her talent and her passion and her importance. This woman, known as one of the greatest songwriters of our time, a woman who once sold more copies of a single album (Jagged Little Pill) than any woman in the history of recorded music, ever- this Alanis might not have ever happened. 

See, as bad as Alanis' first record was, her second one was even worse. But our artificial system of propping-up and playing records that are not good enough to be played, did a terrible thing to Alanis. This system made her…fairly successful. It's too easy for some Canadian artists to go along and cash the cheques. We're lucky Alanis did not.

So are these "Canadian Content" rules actually working? The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) issues very regular reports on the effectiveness of its programs. Unfortunately, it fails to mention if there are more Canadian artists making songs, more Canadian artists making a living, and if there is more Canadian music being purchased in record stores.  

One would think that, in a system that purports to care so much about Canadian artists, showing some kind of results for these people would be job #1. Not to the CRTC.  

In fact today, while 35% of all music played on Canadian radio stations is Canadian, only 10% of music purchased in the non-regulated aisles of Canadian record stores is Canadian. To put it another way, although exposed to only 65% non-Canadian music, Canadian music buyers choose to buy non-Canadian music 25% above the state-mandated level at which they are exposed to it. They buy Canadian music 25% below the level at which they are exposed to it. 

And if the CRTC refuses to look at results, look at this. Approximately four years ago, the CRTC increased its Canadian Content requirement for broadcasters to 35% - up from 30%. Let's forget about the philosophical validity of Canadian Content rules, let's just stick with results. The government increased the amount of Canadian music we hear by 5%. Did it have any effect on Canadian music sales?  

Yes. 

Before the change, the percentage of music bought at record stores that was Canadian was 15%.  

Now, it's 10%.

And when the CRTC made the change to 35%, they recommended bringing it up to "40% in five years."  

That was four years ago.