Music in Toronto

While driving in Toronto, I mostly flipped between Boom 97.3 (branded as 70's, 80's, and 90's hits) and CHFI ("Adult Hits").  Intuitively, these would seem like overlapping formats.  But "Adult Hits" includes the 00's and parts of the '10's, which forced me to conceptualize the likes of Britney Spears and Justin Bieber as "adult" hitmakers.  And in fact, the math checks out.  Britney's debut album was released 28 years ago, which is roughly the time between Bill Haley and the music I was hearing on the radio as a nine-year old.  Britney is very much part of the "oldies".  Teenage Bieber fans at the time of his debut are now college graduates in their late-20's/early-30's.  

One thing appeared to be constant across the radio dial -- repetition.  I drove around sparingly for two weeks and would somehow hear the same Bryan Adams songs over and over.  Glass Tiger (playing the CNE this year) and Gowan were also all over the format, which was a welcome refresher for me.  But still, with decades of music to draw from, how can this degree of repetition occur, Can-Con regulations or no Can-Con regulations?

Sonic Boom on Spadina feels more like a destination hangout than a music store these days.  The days of the cavernous warehouse on Bloor Street catering to hardcore crate diggers are long gone, it's hard to believe that this is still the same business under the same name.  Sonic Boom now carries vinyl (including a healthy rare and valuable vinyl section), CD's, turntables, books, music-related merch (pins, toys), and I doubt that their clientele has ever skewed so young.  It's the vibe you get when stepping into a place like Indigo, but for music instead of books.  People are there to stroll, browse, and chill, in addition to buying.  It's great to see, and I have never had this much fun shopping there.  

My biggest and most important music-related endeavor of the trip was cataloguing all my vinyl.  My discogs catalog began as a way to organize my classical music CD's.  I couldn't keep all the multiple recordings of the same works straight in my head.  Then I began to catalog all my CD's as well, partly to have an organized list, and partly because I found it to be fun and relaxing work in the evenings.  But the most valuable items in my collection are undoubtedly on vinyl.  I managed to catalog about 400 records -- nearly my entire collection.  About two-thirds of it is techno/electronic, mainly from the 90's and early 00's.  Gemini says I'm sitting on a "goldmine" -- an exaggeration, a typical AI asskiss -- but there are some valuable records in there.  Seven of them have a median price over 100 CAD in the Discogs marketplace.  My most valuable record overall is my 1991 pressing of "Loveless" that I first wrote about in a 2003 post.  All this cataloguing work is pushing me towards switching this blog to an exclusively YT format.  I still enjoy writing, but I could review rare and notable CD's and vinyl forever, and talk about what this music means to me.  There's no question that all this vinyl is far too interesting and valuable to be sitting in storage, and I'll have to come to a decision about it soon (sell, ship out, and/or show and tell).        

Boy George, "We Will Dance Again"

Let’s be real here.  This song is trash.  The fact that it was AI-generated helps explain why the backing track sounds like a parody of karaoke reggae .  The lyrics are clunky and awkward, to put it mildly.  There’s no obvious symbiotic connection between the music and lyrics – why is this a reggae song?  Couldn’t it have been house music, or acoustic pop, or any number of other genres while still broadcasting the same message?  There’s nothing about the lyrics that scream “cool reggae vibes” in the least.  The song comes across like something that was written and recorded in a day, in order to meet a deadline.  This won’t be blaring out of a car window or a club near you anytime soon.

And yet, it’s better than nothing, which is exactly what the music industry’s response to the Nova Festival massacre has been up until now.   Boy George is at least doing something.  He’s doing it for a cause he believes in, even if it costs him financially.  In the long term, he may even benefit.  Many loony left wing and right wing cranks have discovered that ditching a defensible political position and catering in Jew-hate to those who crave that sort of thing, is a financially lucrative career decision.  There’s a lot of money is Jew-hate right now.  There's also something to be gained by joining the other side.  Boy George may yet discover that after a career in the global pop sphere, he’d be better off focusing on more of a niche audience, the kind that will be receptive to the message of "We Will Dance Again". 

There’s really only one line in the song that matters: “But if you’re ever confused/I stand with the Jews”.  There’s nothing controversial about that.  His loyalty to his Jewish friends is commendable, he should be praised for it.  But the old line about being more Catholic than the Pope comes to mind.  Diaspora Jewish musicians can’t even defend their own.  Why does the responsibility fall on Boy George to do it?  This particular issue shouldn't be controversial in the least.  Hundreds were slaughtered at a music festival.  No matter your opinion on subsequent events, the event was horrific.  Kent State keeps an archive of music related to the 1970 shootings, which people still talk about decades later.  The shootings inspired dozens of recordings.  Boy George's song is the first Nova-inspired music by a major artist.  Why shouldn't there be more such songs?