I just saw a commercial for a rerun of the MMVAs with clips from the two-hour live broadcast, and seeing all the biggest stars in pop culture, gathered on the streets of Toronto’s entertainment district. There were a decent amount of Canadians stars on that stage.
… And not the minor Canadian celebrities that MuchMusic has always trotted out in order to reach some kind of CanCon quota. We had Justin Bieber, we had Drake, Hedley, Shenae Gimes…
Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending the talent of these people. I know as much as the next guy that they are all pretty much fluff or drivel, at best. But they are certifiably famous. Famous in the annoying TeenBeat, CW, Perez Hilton kinda way…
Canadians have really entered the world arena... And they have done it as Canadians. The fact that the telecast of this awards rivalled the cheesiest the CW or Nickelodeon could come up with attests to that fact. Except it was distinctly Canadian.
The show is filmed live in the streets of a city that is currently being locked down for an International Political Summit, the G20. And its born of necessity. Toronto has no Kodak theatre. there is just no camera ready venue in Toronto. But that colours the semiotics of the product as much as if it were a conscious decision. But that openness, that inclusion, the agora created by including everyone and anyone that happened on Queen and John on Sunday evening (even though only a moron or a sadist would have approached it without a backstage pass) is the exact thing that you are seeing at the Grammys, the MTV Movie Awards, and the Oscars. Call it the influence of the internet. Call it the inevitable and long-awaited democracy and equality that has been growing for years. But the world is ready to see itself, in all its weird and varied, disparate and beautiful glory.
All the stars up on those stages are moving further and further away from the stick thin or big muscled empty vessel that characterized the 1990s. We want to see some PERSONALITY (even if it is in whitewashed and measured doses... so as not to scare the white bread). We want our Kate Perry's, our GaGa's , our Miley "cant be tamed" Cyrus... We want the people we put at the middle of our lives stories to be whoever the hell they are... just like we want to be, and still believe that we can be the star of our own story.
And thats what the MMVAs delivered. For the people, Of the people.
And thats what the MMVAs delivered. For the people, Of the people.
In short, Muchmusic, the most Canadian broadcaster i can think of that is not run by the Government, nailed it.
But they had help from popular opinion. Its kind of just our time to shine, the “celebrity” is more and more closely resembling the Archetype of the Canadian Hero. a misfit that has been developed over centuries of film, tv, books and theatre in the “other” North American country.
This particular idea, of the Canadian as a deviant antihero, is a theory I have been compiling for the better part of a decade. The Canadian Hero has always jumped out at me as being defined only as being the “other”. He’s an antihero. She’s quirky, he’s dark, she’s a deviant.
Being located just to North of the 49th parallel has given this country a complex, to be sure. Since the dawn of the TV age, and through the rise of Cinema, The USA has been the frontrunner on the world stage. And not just on the screen. They have led the way in arenas of business, politics, military, and definitely cultural production. And Canada has always lived on the edges of that bright shining spotlight.
We are the nice next door neighbour, the reliable, slightly dumpy yet utterly lovable cousin. we are the black sheep of the family.
Canadians are almost American, but not quite. And our National Identity has been built in defining the ways we are Not with a capital N. Not Republican, Not Warmongers, Not Mainstream, Not Closeminded. We are defined by the paradigm that surrounds the American Patriot.
However, in a post-911, post-Bush, post-Guantanamo, post-Economic Crash world it is just that person, the NOTS, that are being celebrated and pushed into the worlds eyes as heros and role models.
It is the deviants, the creative’s, the open-minded, open-armed friends of the world that we need at the forefront, and the US Cultural Machine has a ready pool of talent to draw from.
Its been building slowly since the fall of Bush and the rise of the Yes We Can ObamaNation. Popular Culture wants a leader that is Not everything they have had. an antonym to the last decade.
and we, as a nation, have been studying them carefully for a century. We mimic their products, their customs, their costumes, but just NOT QUITE. We are the Other.
And the world needs a little Other right now.
Hurray for the Other.
No comments:
Post a Comment