Lest you have any doubt that the Junos, Canada's version of the Grammies, is the music award show equivalent of the Arena Football League, allow me to reintroduce you to someone. He's a Canadian rock legend and recipient of eight Junos, including a Hall of Fame induction last year. His name is Tom Cochrane, and he's best remembered for the summer of 1992's feelgood, straight to car commercial rocker, "Life is a Highway." He's won the following Junos:
2003 - The Canadian Music Hall Of Fame Inductee
1997 - Best Album Cover: Songs of a Circling Spirit
1992 - Male Vocalist of the Year
1992 - Songwriter of the Year
1992 - Single of the Year: Life Is A Highway
1992 - Album of the Year: Mad Mad World
1989 - Composer of the Year
1987 - Group of the Year: Tom Cochrane and Red Rider
I'll pretend to ignore that they award a Best Album Cover Juno, and move directly to defending myself from accusations of music xenophobia. I'm not saying that Canada produces only subpar acts -- I own more than one Godspeed You Black Emperor! record, the Rufus Wainwright show I attended two months ago was the best I've seen in some time, and my enthusiasm for Rush is well-documented. My beef with the Junos is that non-Canadian acts are excluded from consideration. Maybe awarding homegrown talent is justified in an industry dominated by American and British acts, but when Cochrane's hackneyed metaphor set to sacchrine pop won in 1992, the same year that Nirvana effectively made disfunction mainstream, Canadians must have felt a little silly.
In keeping with the event's minor league mentality, Alanis Morisette sparked what passes for a scandal up there when, while hosting the event last night, she disrobed to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit adorned with a merkin and painted-on nipples. The "performance" was in protest of America's knee jerk wave of censorship following Janet Jackson's coup d'étit.
While I agree with Alanis' point, I'm much more intrigued by the picture that ran with CNN's article, which highlights Morissette's set.
Analogcabin @ 8:19 AM -------------------------
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