VIEWS
mainstream, it is still there. The
trail that Bob Marley blazed is
undeniable.
THE GRAND
ILLUSION
By: Brian Kotler
C
anada is the country where
most of us currently reside.
The population is approximately 35
million. It is almost 10 million
square kilometers in size with ten
Provinces and three Territories.
Major cities are Toronto, Montreal,
Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa,
Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg
and Hamilton. You will find reggae
music, reggae fans and reggae
artistes in all of these places. While
it may not be Top 10 or
While a few Toronto radio
personalities do make an effort to
play more than just the Canadian
artistes of Toronto, most don’t.
Special
kudos
goes
to
Rootzreggaeradio.ca
who
consistently plays music from
artistes across Canada and the
globe. The excuses why the vast
majority don’t are very lame and
untrue. Just because they don’t
like the producer or how the artiste
looks or ‘whatever’ the excuse,
should not stop good quality music
from being played! Toronto based
artistes need to recognize that
there is a huge market outside of
the Greater Toronto Area; they
should explore and be introduced
to Canadian Music from all its
reggae
communities.
ReggaeXclusive Entertainment
Magazine, being the only one of its
kind, has an awesome ‘Reggae
Radio Listing’, read and utilize it.
Canadian Reggae Music artistes
are watching from the outside. Few
exceptions
are
the
ReggaeXclusive
Recognition
Awards and the Caribbean Music
and
Entertainment
Awards.
Unfortunately we have seen
enough of those ‘other’ Award
shows, Sound Clashes and so on
that are supposed to be
representative of Canada yet all
the contestants, nominees or
players live within 80 km of each
other. How many times do I see
charts, events or panels with
‘Canadian’ and ‘Reggae’ in the title
but its only people from the 416,
905 and 647 that are involved, with
maybe occasional ‘rare’ exception
of an outsider. Now, that isn’t truly
Canadian! We should be working
together and not just for ourselves.
It’s time to reach out across all of
Canada.
It is not lost in my psyche that
Toronto is where the majority of the
‘movers and shakers’, ‘Elders’ and
‘big promoters’ reside, but it is time
to overlook personal interests,
cliques, repetition, favouritism and
greed. Especially in an industry,
culture and music that signifies
‘One Love’. It is expected that any
artiste from outside the major
market must ‘bring their A game’ to
the table, then and only then can
the full potential of an industry that
has penetrated every country in
the world reach its full potential. No
longer on an international stage
will any artiste hailing from Canada
be considered any less than that of
any other country.
It seems that when awards and
other accolades are being
bestowed it’s another Toronto
Artiste only party, according to my
opinion. Meanwhile the rest of the
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