You can keep your moose jokes and maple syrup memes. The real national treasure of Canada? Hooks. Irresistible, arena-filling, soul-stirring hooks. And guess what? The legends who brought them to life aren’t just living off royalty checks—they’re still in the studio, still on the road, and still making magic.
Bryan Adams is aging like a fine rye whiskey, still belting out choruses that could ignite a stadium. Arcade Fire is busy redefining indie rock with every record, sounding like a symphony composed on a hangover. Alanis Morissette is out here releasing fierce, reflective new tracks that prove angst ages beautifully. And that’s before we even get into Rush, The Tragically Hip, Metric, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Sarah McLachlan, or The New Pornographers—a lineup that should be studied in schools as proof of Canadian sonic dominance.
So here’s to the artists who’ve been dropping bangers since before Spotify was a twinkle in the algorithm’s eye. They didn’t fade away—they evolved. Hit the stream and get reacquainted with the northern lights of music.