SOCAN, JUNOs partner with CIMA for Episode Seven of “Breaking Down Racial Barriers”

Story by SOCAN | Thursday September 10th, 2020

SOCAN and The JUNO Awards are partnering with the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) for Episode Seven of the online roundtable discussion series “Breaking Down Racial Barriers,” which will examine “Black Representation in the Corporate & Organizational Entertainment Industry: Record Labels, Streaming Companies & Industry Associations.”

The event, scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 6:00 p.m., will feature discussion from:

  • Erin Ashley Lowers, Culture & Music Journalist / DSP Content Programmer
  • Joel Naga, Marketing Manager, Warner Music Canada
  • Chris Smith, Manager & Agency Owner, Chris Smith Management / 21 Entertainment
  • Bushra Junaid, Outreach and Development Manager, Ontario Arts Council
  • Kardinal Offishall, Rapper, Executive, Philanthropist
  • Katrina Lopes, Artist Manager, KL Management

It will be hosted, as always by Ian Andre Espinet, of Iconic Arts & Entertainment x Black Star Graphic Design, and David “Click” Cox, Artist Manager & Consultant, CLK Creative Works.

For more info, click here, and to register, click here.

CIMA recognizes this moment in time as a movement, and is seizing the opportunity to have difficult, yet critical conversations in an effort to identify the structures and behaviours that perpetuate anti-Black racism within the music entertainment industry. These Black-led discussions – presented by CIMA with supporting partner ADVANCE, Canada’s new Black music business collective – will provide the larger industry with a forum to listen, and challenge existing ways of thinking, explore unconscious bias, and examine the collective role played in perpetuating anti-Black racism in the music industry. The accumulated knowledge therein will be used to compile a report containing actionable suggestions for change.

Photo by Brad Ardley

Patrick Curley to receive 2020 Christopher J. Reed Award

Story by Eric Parazelli | Monday September 14th, 2020

The Professional Music Publishers’ Association (APEM) will honour Patrick Curley with its eighth annual Christopher J. Reed Award on Sept. 24, 2020, during the Pop Montreal festival.

A songwriter and lawyer, Curley is the founder and President of Third Side Music, a Montréal-based music publishing company with offices in Los Angeles.

Since 2005, Third Side Music has become one of North America’s most active and respected music publishing companies with a catalogue of more than 55,000 works by Canadian and international artists.  The company, which also acts as a North American sub-publisher for a variety of partners, is especially recognized for its activities in the audio-visual music sector, and as a grantor of hundreds of music licences for films, TV series, advertising, videogames, etc.

Curley has been invited to participate in numerous international events such as MIDEM, CMJ, ALAI, Canadian Music Week (CMW), North by Northeast (NXNE), and the Paris Sync Summit, besides being invited to speak as an expert by McGill University, Trebas Institute, the Professional Music Publishers’ Association (APEM), and SOCAN. Originally from Jonquière, Québec, Curley is a committee member of the Mechanical Licensing Collective in the U.S. and, since 2014, a member of the Board of SOCAN, an organization he joined as a music creator in 1990.

Named after one of Canada’s most influential music publishers, who died in 2012, the Christopher J. Reed Award is presented annually to an outstanding music-publishing advocate who has demonstrated a high level of commitment to the profession, as well as to copyright compliance and the rights of creators, and has made an exceptional contribution to the practice and recognition of the music publishing profession.

To attend the ceremony, click on here for live (limited number of seats), or here for online.

Photo by courtesy/courtoisie. Left to right/De gauche à droite : Ivan Doroschuck of/de Men Without Hats; Jimmy Rankin; Carole Pope of/de Rough Trade.

Songs by Men Without Hats, Rankin Family, Rough Trade inducted into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame

Story by Howard Druckman | Thursday September 10th, 2020

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame celebrated the induction of four songs with a spate of televised presentations with that aired nationally on various television programs from September 4-17, 2020.

Two global electro-pop hits by Montréal’s Men Without Hats – “Safety Dance” and “Pop Goes the World,” both written by the band’s frontman and lead singer Ivan Doroschuck – were inducted on Sept. 2, and celebrated on City-TV’s Breakfast Television on Sept. 17. Similarly, Jimmy Rankin’s “Fare Thee Well Love,” which launched the career of The Rankin Family,  was inducted on Sept. 4 on Global Television’s The Morning Show. And Rough Trade’s gender-bending single “High School Confidential” – co-written by the band’s Carole Pope and Kevan Staples – was inducted on Sept. 10, on CTV’s Your Morning.

“Safety Dance” skyrocketed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, propelling the album Rhythm of Youth to sell more than two million copies worldwide. It helped the band win three ADISQ Awards for Best-Selling Single, Group of the Year, and Rock Album of the Year; a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist; JUNO nominations; and a 2008 SOCAN Award. “Pop Goes the World” was a gold-selling single and earned a JUNO nomination for Single of the Year; reached the No. 2 spot on RPM’s Top 100 singles chart in 1988; and was Billboard’s No. 20.  The album on which it appeared went platinum in Canada, won an ADISQ Award, and a PROCAN (one of the precursors of SOCAN) Award for the most-played English-language Canadian single on Canadian radio in 1988.

“Fare Thee Well Love” was the career-launching hit for The Rankin Family, the multi-platinum-selling Celtic-folk-pop band from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, who led Canadian music’s “Celtic wave” of the 1990s. The song was voted CBC listeners’ No. 1 East Coast Song of All Time, went gold before the end of 1992, crossed over to No. 1 on both RPM Canadian country and adult contemporary album charts; and by 1996, reached quintuple-platinum sales.

“High School Confidential,” written as an anthem to teenage hormones, found its openly gay and sexually explicit lyrics, paired with Rough Trade’s  captivating live shows and a controversial television moment, propelling the band from the underground Toronto club scene to the national spotlight.  The single had some words bleeped out on radio, and subsequently rose to the Top 10 on RPM’s Top 100. Then Rough Trade infamously performed the song at the 1980 JUNO Awards where Pope, on live national television, made a gesture to touch herself that was then considered “obscene.”

Following the televised presentations of these song inductions, fans will be able to view the permanent exhibitions honouring CSHF inductees and song inductions at the National Music Centre, located at Studio Bell, in Calgary. The National Music Centre is the physical home of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and will continue to honour and preserve the legacy of new inductees through exhibitions which feature stories, exclusive artifacts, and one-of-a-kind memorabilia.