Canada Loses a Musical Icon

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There's nothing like it in America. Maybe because we're too much of a "melting pot," or because our music roots are so diverse. It varies by genres, too: country music had a gaping hole with the deaths of legends like George Jones and Merle Haggard, and certainly the pop world would never be the same after the deaths of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. But in Canada, there's a "national identity" that resonates with Canadians. Perhaps it's that "content law," where they have to play Canadian artists on the radio. And now Canada is in mourning with the death of Gord Downie. Downie, the lead singer of The Tragically Hip, died last night (10/17) after a battle with a rare, aggressive, and terminal form of brain cancer. As I said, it's hard for Americans to understand what one musician can mean and how he/she can capture the essence of the nation. Maybe Bob Dylan is "our poet," given how many people in all forms of music have covered his songs. But for generation, The Tragically Hip was Canada. They didn't export to America with superstardom the way others did (e.g., Hank Snow and Anne Murray in country, Shania Twain in pop country, Rush and the Guess Who in rock, Neil Young in singer/songwriter), and maybe that's why Downie is so revered in Canada: he was Canadian, and it meant more to The Hip to be popular in Canada than anywhere else. How significant was Gord Downie? The Prime Minister of Canada cried as he gave a statement. CBC News postponed regular programming for wall-to-wall coverage of Downie's life and career. No, we in America don't have anything like it. Canada did, however. And now they have lost it with the death of Gord Downie. Downie was 53. The Tragically Hip: