Category Archives: Media

I am disappointed to see that Selfie, the generic dance tune by the Calgary-based DJ duo The Chainsmokers, has stalled in its assault on the Canadian pop chart. Worse, it is slipping down the American Billboard chart, its return to obscurity imminent.

Not that I care for the Valley Girl for a new generation any more than I cared for, say, Valley Girl. But I respect an artist willing to take a chance on a shameless cash-in, the better to cheapen an already overripe fad. By selling-out so effectively, The Chainsmokers have joined the pantheon of pop-music opportunists, their song destined to remain in our hearts every bit as long as did The Streak, Pac-Man Fever, Fuddle-Duddle, Where’s the Beef? and Who Shot J.R.? Oh and Valley Girl. Continue reading →

“I don’t think I could even name a Canadian music video.”

So stated a barista at my neighbourhood coffee shop this week. A gentle reminder, not that one was needed, of how the Much have fallen.

And reason enough, me thoughts, to accept an invitation from Louis Calabro’s people to chat with the man who, when not supervising the recently held Canadian Screen Awards, has been busy preparing for Sunday’s Prism Prize gala. Well, not so much a gala, as a get-together — to celebrate outstanding achievement in the field of excellence in Canadian music videos. Continue reading →

Some years ago, at an outdoor festival on Randall Island in New York City, I had the misfortune of observing Bo Diddley’s attempt at rapping. Now, as the ads demonstrated, Bo Diddley was capable of a great many things. Hiphop, it turns out, was not one of them. This, despite the fact that Bo’s classic 1955 recording I’m a Man is pretty much a rap number.

Well, yesterday, a rather fun piece in the Huffington Post began to make the rounds on the Facebook and elsewhere. “Worst Rap Songs by White Non-Rappers,” it’s called, a supposedly ‘definitive’ list from Ottawa expat Joshua Ostroff in response to recent rapping missteps by Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. (Surprising, really, that media are not willing to take those two artists seriously as rappers.) Said list, we’re told, was assembled via the sort of intrepid research that is a few minutes’ worth of combing YouTube. And yes, there are some pretty awful examples of rap among its 30 entries. Continue reading →