ALFRED PRESENTS: Bands that are only popular in Canada (and rightfully so!)
 

Many Canadian bands have achieved great popularity and success outside of Canadian soil. Some bands are good, some bands are bad. But we here at MB know that bands that achieve mainstream popularity are almost always pure sh*t :usehead: ! Among the bands that have found success are Nickelback, Billy Talent, Three Days Grace, and Sum 41. But for every Canadian band with a non-Canadian following, there are the bands who have not been recognized outside of Canada that get large amounts of radio play and exposure here.

I blame this primarily on the CRTC. For those of you that don't what that is, basically they are an organization that regulates the amount of MANDATORY Canadian content that TV and Radio stations must play. Because of this, bands who have little to no popularity internationally are propped up in the Canadian media as big, important, world-class acts.

So how will I assess a band's TRUE popularity? Simple: Last.fm listener count. Because Last.fm caters to users from all around the world, and especially people who download music and play it on their computer (ie. NOT radio listeners), it will be an excellent way to measure the popularity of a band. The bands that I listed above all have a listener count in the ballpark of one million (1,000,000) listeners, or more. Bands featured in this thread will have a significantly lower listener count. Oh, and they'll all suck.

HEDLEY

Last.fm listener count: 59,482

In terms of appearing-to-be-but-not-actually-being-that-popular, Hedley (fronted by a Canadian Idol third place finalist!!!) are by far the worst offenders. Since the release of their debut album, Hedley's hit singles have been all over the radio in Canada, even though they have almost always failed to chart in the United States (though one of their songs did somehow manage American Top 40 once.)

Hedley's sound can be compared to that of Good Charlotte. At the start of their career, they played whiny, teeny faux-pop-punk, and later in their career switched their sound to even lighter, poppier, and occasionally electro-influenced powerpop. Oh, and they love ballads.

You can catch Hedley headlining over acts such as Our Lady Peace (402,157 listeners) at some piece-of-sh*t music festivals, multiple times a day on mainstream pop radio (but only Canadian radio!), and on whiny teen girls' facebook statuses (I'm not perfect, but I keep trying).

Check 'em out!

This thread is awesome. Just last night I was talking with some friends about how awful canadian music is

Yay, Canada.

Hahahaha, awwww, yeah. Canada is rather crap. Looking forwards to this.

There's a lot of really good Canadian bands that are big in the US and elsewhere as well. In fact, I can't really think of any that aren't at least known outside here, except for Hedley.

Last.fm listener count: 340

This band has possibly the most confounding situation of any band I will post about in this thread. They have less listeners on Last.fm than most of the hardcore bands I listen to that I consider "obscure., yet they have a song that plays daily on Canadian pop radio stations.

Due to this band's relative newness to the music industry, I do not know much about them, but I do know that their single "About Us" is one of the worst songs on Canadian radio right now. The song is made up almost entirely of its chorus. I don't know whether to applaud them for a sorta kinda unique song structure, criticize them for melodic repetitiveness, or stab myself in the ear because the hook is so damn annoying.

Take a listen, but don't say I didn't warn you. Pop rarely gets any more manufactured than this.

I would just like to point out that while Canada has some terrible music (as shown in this thread), many a great band has come from our country. What about Godspeed You! Black Emperor, F*cked Up, and the Arcade Fire? Those are just a few of Canada's "good" bands.

Haha, dude I love this thread already. Keep it up. And don't forget to mention Stereos, they seem like they'd fit in here nicely.

Canadian "popular" isn't really saying much judging by these numbers.