Singing the Body Electric

Absolutely. I feel like that's in line with a lot of Canadian bands that came up in the same era: Barenaked Ladies, Odds, Moxy Früvous, Spirit of the West, etc.

I don't necessarily think that wasn't in line with broader musical trends that extended to the US, but I do think the way they flourished in Canada as big acts relates back to something I might have talked about in the Patio Lanterns post. Which is that ironic subversion of the American markers of the genre presented earnestly is kind of baked into a lot of Canadian music, at least since the late '80s when the industry became even more corporate and polished and—after the more seamless integration into the '60s folk and '70s hard rock scenes—it became a lot more difficult to be cool as a musician while also being openly Canadian. (Even just thinking of all the times I've seen Tom Cochrane's Life Is a Highway mocked or puzzled over for mentioning Vancouver.)

But then, as proven by more self-deprecating rockers like Kim Mitchell or the Northern Pikes, if you don't want to try to break America, there's a market at home for leaning into being smaller, more specific, and not being afraid to be funny or tonally inconsistent if you have a creative desire to play around with your sound—especially since CanCon laws will give you a boost in terms of releasing more singles.

Even thinking of The Tragically Hip, which reigns supreme as Canada's rock band—while I wouldn't call any of their songs novelties, a lot of them are potentially the only songs in existence about a specific topic. Their one hit designed to potentially get them bigger careers was about New Orleans, but once they realized they'd prefer to make their careers in Canada, they started singing about Bill Barilko, Hugh MacLennan, the Christie Pits Riots, David Milgaard, Kingston prison breaks, and so on.