Northern Exposure: Canadian Content, Cultural Identity, and the Creation of a National Music Industry

This article examines the rationale behind the introduction of the CRTC's Canadian Content rules for radio broadcasting. It argues that CanCon was the result of a convergence of two separate campaigns to achieve national economic and cultural objectives. The former was RPM magazine's campaign to cultivate a domestic music industry through radio exposure for Canadian artists. The latter was an attempt by the Liberal Party to strengthen Confederation through the celebration of Canadian productions. The success of CanCon suggests that a national music industry could have only emerged through the efforts of this joint public-private initiative.