The music created and produced across the prairies and in the urban centers of Western and Northern Canada represent an eclectic range of musical genres, a combination of traditional, Indigenous, folk, and immigrant sounds with popular contemporary music practices. Much of what happens musically across the prairies and in Canada’s northern cities, towns, and communities, is affected by experiences that transpire when one lives in an expansive geographical setting that is sparsely populated. For some musicians isolation from large urban centers and a bustling scene is detrimental, but for others it is this very isolation and expansive space that acts as a catalyst for their creativity and contextualizes their music production.

                        © Tracy Kolenchuck

Objectives:

To produce case studies of artists whose creativity, performance, and music production practices have been substantively affected by isolation and space while living in western or northern Canada

Artists:

Saskatchewan's blues artists Little Miss Higgins and Foy Taylor

Saskatchewan Indigenous hip-hop MC Eekwol

Yellowknife's Dene singer-songwriter Leela Gilday

Western hip-hop artist and self-proclaimed half-breed Kinnie Starr

Inuit throat-singer Tanya Tagaq

Nunavut's Lucie Idlout

Saskatchewan Hip-Hop Artists including Def3, DJ Quartz, Mils, InfoRed, Stinson, Merky Waters, Aries, Truth

Saskatchewan-born folk singer Gary Fjellgaard

Alberta's trans-identified country musician Rae Spoons

British Columbia's MotherMother