TWO FACES OF THE JUNO AWARDS Great artist lineup but awards don't reflect new talent Ben Rayner – Toronto Star It's an awkward time to be the Juno Awards.
A good time, all in all: This weekend's slate of Juno events in Halifax will culminate tomorrow night in arguably the most star-studded and high-profile ceremony in the awards' 35-year history.
Shoring up a roster of homegrown performers that includes such internationally proven success stories as Nickelback, Michael Bublé, Bryan Adams, Buck 65 and Toronto's very own Broken Social Scene this year will be the platinum-plated presences of American hip-hop outfit Black Eyed Peas and U.K. superstars Coldplay — not to mention the buxom draw of expat B.C. sex kitten Pamela Anderson, who will be giggling behind the podium as host of CTV's Juno broadcast from the Halifax Metro Centre.
Still, the disparity between the public face of the Junos that will be presented to TV viewers tomorrow night and the old-guard stance of the nominees list itself suggests the behind-the-scenes powers that be haven't quite figured out what to do with their new position.
This year's Junos arrive at a moment when Canada's recent surge to prominence as an exporter of not just workmanlike arena rock and trilling songbirds of the Céline/Shania/Sarah variety, but of globally admired, hipster-approved independent talent, has become almost enshrined. Thanks to the cross-border acclaim and solid international record and ticket sales enjoyed by the likes of Broken and Buck, the Arcade Fire, Metric, Stars, the New Pornographers and Feist, "Canadian" has become a stamp of "cool" in the taste-making pages of Pitchfork and the NME. Believe it or not, the word "Canadian" actually raises eyebrows.
Our domestic music industry, beset though it is by the omnipresent Internet boogeyman, has a lot to crow about these days. And a large platform from which to crow:
The Juno broadcast has drawn record numbers of viewers each year since CTV took over from CBC in 2002 and started glitzing the thing up, luring a reported 1.34 million fans to the tube last year alone.
This year, the network is aiming even higher, making the broadcast available to 11 MTV and VH1 networks around the globe and a potential audience rather optimistically pegged at a half-billion.
Meanwhile, the decision to jog the ceremony out of its Toronto/Hamilton rut and move it around from city to city, starting with St. John's in 2002 and Ottawa, Edmonton and Winnipeg in subsequent years, has lent the aura of a bona fide "event" to the proceedings.
Old habits die hard, though. It does nothing, for instance, for the Junos' credibility to have two former Canadian Idol contestants, 2004 winner Kalan Porter and last year's runner-up Rex Goudie, competing for artist and album of the year while Neil Young and his acclaimed commercial comeback, Prairie Wind, are sloughed off to the "adult alternative album of the year" ghetto.
Yes, record sales determine who makes it onto the shortlist for some of the major categories, explaining why a seasonal toss-off like Diana Krall's Christmas Songs can be in the running for album of the year and why perennial hitmakers Nickelback and Bublé dominate the nominations. Symbolically, though, the heavy Idol presence — Porter's old nemeses Theresa Sokyrka and Jacob Hoggard (as a member of Hedley) are also up for trophies — speaks to the mainstream recording industry's continued, short-sighted pursuit of short-term gains over long-term vision.
This is what the majors are pushing, when artists like the Arcade Fire, Death from Above 1979 and Broken — acts with committed international followings and a shot at lasting careers — can move units in the six-figure range on independent labels with minimal budgets and a fraction of the staff?
With all due respect to the Canadian Idol kids, the odds we'll be seeing them on the Junos 10 or even five years from now aren't great. Ask Ryan Malcolm.
Why not at least grant Montreal's Arcade Fire, whose unstoppable 2004 album Funeral ranked amongst the most highly acclaimed in the world last year and has sold nearly half a million copies worldwide, a token spot in the group of the year category?
Instead, we get rote nominees with a much-diminished presence in the public consciousness, such as Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo and Our Lady Peace vying with Nickelback and its cookie-cutter spawn, Theory of a Deadman.
"You know how it is with the Junos. It's to remind the Canadian music industry that it's still working," shrugs Broken Social Scenester Kevin Drew. "We're gonna go down there as a group of friends and play our hearts out on television, and then we're gonna come home as a group of friends and all the stuff in the middle will be filler. It's just another time to remind our friends and ourselves that we're all doing well and life is to be lived and things are good."
Drew and the BSS extended family took home an alternative album of the year Juno in 2003 for their underground hit You Forgot it in People. But as with most performers who earn awards in the non-marquee categories, their moment of triumph didn't make the Sunday-night broadcast and was relegated to the invite-only "gala" soiree the night before, during which the bulk of the trophies are handed out. This year, only seven of the 39 Junos will actually be presented on air.
"It's all about the night before, really," says Drew. "That's when the true talent is out. You've got the bluegrass and the children's records and the gospel and all that.
"I always like going the night before because then you feel like you're with your peers and you feel like you're with the people who are trying hard to get their stature advanced, who are working hard to make sure they can still make music. They're the ones with families. They don't have the cars and the bling and you're not gonna see them on MuchMusic's version of Cribs.
"Besides that, it's just another three-day weekend to have lots of drinks and talk to people who are really not that significant to the idea of (artistic) creation. But you've gotta love `em because, you know, they need jobs."
Given the underlying reason for the Junos' existence — i.e., to stimulate sales of domestic albums — it would make sense to hand at least a couple of "lesser" winners a trophy on camera, rather than letting Nickelback make four separate trips to the podium in honour of a record that's already moved several million copies.
This year, mind you, there's even less floor space for homegrown acts, since they've had to cede two performance spots to ratings-grabbing imports Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas.
The latter's presence is particularly rankling to Canadian hip-hop artists, who have been fighting for increased recognition at the Junos ever since the Rascalz returned their rap album of the year trophy in 1998 because the category wasn't part of the broadcast.
"It kind of goes to show you what they feel is important or not," offers Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishall, who is up in the rap recording category this year for Fire & Glory and, aside from the Peas, will be the only visible hip-hop act. "You know, as far as I know, the Black Eyed Peas aren't in the rap category. It's just one of those things. I guess they're going to let me go onstage and present an award, but I think I'm the only real Canadian hip-hop artist represented on the broadcast.
"A few years ago, after the Rascalz gave back their award, the next year they had us back and made us all win with `Northern Touch.' And that's the way it is. Unless you force their hand, they don't really care. They're always gonna do what they want." |