The music of Canada has reflected the diverse influences that have shaped the country. Indigenous Peoples [Aboriginal peoples in Canada], the Irish, British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage.
The influence and innovations of Canadian hip hop came to the foreground in Canada when Music videos became an important marketing tool for Canadian musicians, with the debut of MuchMusic in 1984 and MusiquePlus in 1986. Now both English and French Canadian musicians had outlets to promote all forms of music through video in Canada. The networks were not just an opportunity for artists to get their videos played—the networks created VideoFACT, a fund to help emerging artists produce their videos.
Canadian women at the end of the 20th century enjoyed greater international commercial success than ever before. Canadian women set a new pinnacle of success, in terms financial, critical and in their immediate and strong influence on their respective genres. They were the women and daughters who had fought for emancipation and equality a generation before. Like Alanis Morissette and most notable is French-Canadian singer, Celine Dion, who became Canada’s best-selling music artist, and who, in 2004, received the Chopard Diamond Award from the World Music Awards for surpassing 175 million in album sales, worldwide.
- Sebastian Bach – rock singer
- Randy Bachman – rock singer, guitarist
- Tal Bachman – singer (son of Randy Bachman)
- Back Alley John – blues singer, songwriter, harmonica player
- Bad News Brown – rapper
- Bahamas – folk singer-guitarist
- Carroll Baker – country music singer
- Buddy Banks – jazz double-bassist
- Del Barber – singer-songwriter
- Jill Barber – singer-songwriter
- Matthew Barber – singer-songwriter
- Emilie-Claire Barlow – singer-songwriter
- Kim Barlow – singer-songwriter
- Laura Barrett – singer-songwriter, kalimba player
- Mary Barry – singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, jazz, blues, chanson
- Yank Barry – rock singer, composer, guitar, percussion
- Miguel de la Bastide – flamenco guitarist
- Isabel Bayrakdarian – soprano
- Kevin Bazinet – pop singer
The turn of the millennium was a time of incredible nationalism, at least as far as Canadian radio is concerned. The 1971 CRTC rules (30% Canadian content on Canadian radio) finally come into full effect and by the end of the 20th century radio stations would have to play 35% Canadian content. This led to an explosion in the 21st century of Canadian pop musicians dominating the airwaves unlike any era before. In 1996, VideoFACT launched PromoFACT, a funding program to help new artists produce electronic press kits and websites. At about the same time, the CD (cheap to manufacture) replaced the vinyl album and Compact Cassette (expensive to manufacture). Shortly thereafter, the Internet allowed musicians to directly distribute their music, thus bypassing the selection of the old-fashioned “record label“. Canada’s mainstream music industry has suffered as a result of the internet and the boom of independent music. The drop in annual sales between 1999 – the year that Napster‘s unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing service launched – and the end of 2004 was $465 million. In 2007, Canada joined the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks, whose outcome will have a significant impact on the Canadian music industry. In 2010 Canada introduced new copyright legislation. The amended law makes hacking digital locks illegal, but enshrine into law the ability of purchasers to record and copy music from a CD to portable devices.
The early 2000s saw Canadian independent artists continue to expand their audience into the United States and beyond. Mainstream Canadian artists with global recorded contracts such as Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne, Michael Bublé, Drake and Justin Bieber reached new heights in terms of international success, while dominating the American music charts.