Pop Montréal

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Pop Montréal is a Canadian festival in Montreal , the largest city in the province of Québec . The name is used synonymously for the music scene that has established itself in the city and the surrounding region since the late 1990s and includes bands such as Arcade Fire or Godspeed You! Black Emperor brought forth.

history

Separation in Québec

Since the handover of New France to the English and the division into Upper and Lower Canada , the region of today's province of Québec has been a regular focus of conflict between the English- and French-speaking population of Canada. As part of the global anti-authoritarian movements in the 1960s, the first socialist separation groups were founded in Québec , as the francophone residents of Canada in particular felt they were disadvantaged and excluded from the country's actual economic boom. Demands for independence and a constant blockade followed, which at the end of the 1960s also degenerated into terrorist attacks and hostage-taking . However, two official referendums on the autonomy of the province narrowly failed.

Economic and cultural consequences

The consequences of the constant clashes between Québec and the Canadian government and the partial outbreaks of violence led to an economic depression in the province . They resulted in companies and upper class people turning their backs on the region and hardly any new companies settling in and around Montréal, the former trading center of Canada.

High unemployment , Verkommung of districts and many immigrants made Montréal finally to deprived area in Canada. But amid all the displeasure, such a state of affairs - a lot of time, a lot of space, multiculturalism - and also Wilhelminian-style and colonial- era buildings, affordable studios and rehearsal rooms, empty houses that can be occupied and low living costs also release positive, creative energies. And so in the 1990s many small artists, musicians and project groups settled in the city. Project theaters , galleries and exhibitions , creative workshops, rehearsal rooms, subground magazines , alternative shops, readings , small concerts , musician and design workshops and bohemian cafés shape the lively life of the city of Montréal .

See also

Music scene

Central labels

In the context of the developments in the 1990s, countless bands, cross-band projects and artist institutions have established themselves. Among the most important are the Montréal labels Constellation , Where Are My Records and Alien8, which initially created and organized performance opportunities and events for local musicians and artists from the region. In the meantime they limit themselves to looking after bands and their music distribution , they are both fundamentally anti- commercial and dogmatically pro-art-oriented.

In the context of the Montréal music scene, the Toronto label Arts & Crafts now also plays an outstanding role . It was founded by the musicians' group Broken Social Scene in 2002 and continues the subcultural ideas of the Montreal scene.

Styles of music

In the 1990s, after the end of the English music trends of Shoegaze and Manchester Rave, several bands and ensembles were formed in Canada and the USA that continued these styles . The Montréal music scene was influenced by this sound, which there is called dream pop . Constellation and Where Are My Records in particular are devoted to spherical, mostly instrumental, sprawling music that differs from classic song structures and lengths and integrates electronic music and sustaining rock . The most important representatives of this style, also known as post-rock , are the Montréal Godspeed You Black Emperor and the South Pacific, which was dissolved in 2003 .

Canadian music only met with a big response with the release of the second album by Broken Social Scene , which gave the music its international breakthrough. This style, known as Art Rock or Baroque Pop , is also characterized by large pop ensembles with a variety of instruments and orchestral abundance. The protagonists of this music genre are all organized in various bands and also have unusual song structures and consolidate electronic and rock elements. The associated labels such as Arts & Crafts are run by the musicians themselves and local artists are used for the cover and poster designs. In contrast to dream pop or post-rock, this music shows folk influences. Meanwhile, the Arcade Fire project around the Anglo-Francophone artist couple Win Butler and Regine Chassagne has positioned itself as the second main act of the scene.

Overall, the Montréal music scene cannot be tied to a single style of music; rather, it is characterized by the similar roots of the musicians, the band and song structures and nesting, the artistic environment and the regional and social origins. For example, The Stills are based on the straight rock sound, while the band We Are Wolves rather produce electronic punk .

The festival

In September 2002, local artist groups, subculture magazines such as Vice Magazine , various local music labels and other projects launched the Pop Montréal Festival . In the meantime, more than 300 local bands perform in all clubs, bars and squares of the city on five days at the end of September / beginning of October. In addition, there are various film screenings, plays, exhibitions, drawing circles and much more. The main location of the mainly artistic events is the area of ​​the colonial-era old town between Boulevard St. Laurent and Rue St. Denis , which separates the Anglophone part from the Francophone part of Montréal. Meanwhile some international musicians like Beck or Interpol took part in the festival.

Representative

Dream Pop / Post-Rock

Art rock / folk punk

Web links

Festival and music scene

Label