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Anglo-Canadian Pop Music

Jane Siberry (photo by George Whiteside/courtesy Duke Street Records).Bryan Adams is the best-known rock musician of his time (photo by Ken Regan/Camera 5).Foster's multifaceted career has made him one of the most influential international figures in popular music (courtesy Shankman-De Blasio, Inc/David Foster).Michael Timmins (left), Margo Timmins, Alan Anton and Peter Timmins (right) (courtesy Geffen Records Inc)Don Messer, Marg Osborne, Charlie Chamberlain and the Islanders perform at radio Station CFCY, 1948 (courtesy Library and Archives...

Article

Anne of Green Gables

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), became an instant bestseller and has remained in print for more than a century, making the character of Anne Shirley a mythic icon of Canadian culture. The book has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, been translated into at least 36 languages, as well as braille, and been adapted more than two dozen times in various mediums. A musical version first produced by the Charlottetown Festival in 1965 is the longest running annual musical theatre production in the world, while the award-winning 1985 CBC miniseries starring Megan Follows is the most-watched television program in Canadian history. Thousands of tourists visit Prince Edward Island each year to see the “sacred sites” related to the book, and the sale of Anne-related commodities such as souvenirs and dolls has come to constitute a cottage industry.

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Anvil

Anvil. Heavy metal band, formed in 1978 in Toronto and consisting of guitarist-vocalist Steve “Lips” Kudlow, drummer Robb Reiner and bassist Sal Italiano.

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Apocalypsis

R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis is a theatrical musical pageant in two parts — Part 1: John's Vision is adapted from the book of Revelation, about the end times, while Part 2: Credo is a serene and ecstatic meditation on the majesty of God. A massive and complex production that requires at least 500 performers, Apocalypsis was commissioned by the CBC in 1976 and premiered at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario, on 28 November 1980, as part of the city’s 125th anniversary. William Littler called it “one of the most spectacular events in the history of Canadian music.” In 2015, Toronto’s Luminato Festival closed with an acclaimed, $1.5 million production featuring a cast of nearly 1,000 musicians, singers, conductors, dancers and actors. The score to Part 1 and Part 2 are published separately and available through Schafer’s Arcana Editions (Part 1, 1981; Part 2, 1986).

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April Wine

A staple of Canadian classic rock, April Wine was one of the most popular and commercially successful Canadian rock bands of the 1970s and early 1980s.

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Arabic Music in Canada

In 1986 there were 107,000 people of Arabic extraction in Canada. The first immigration, in 1882, brought only Syrians and Lebanese who, even in the 1970s, formed a majority of Arab-Canadians, though 17 nations were represented to some degree in the total.

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Ararat

Ararat, Atom Egoyan's movie-within-a-movie, is about the 1915 slaughter of Turkey's Armenian minority, an atrocity that is still officially denied by the Turkish government.

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Arcade Fire

Montreal’s Arcade Fire are an eclectic indie rock band with baroque and pop undertones. They are known for their expansive membership and almost orchestral instrumentation, serious lyrical and thematic concerns, an anthemic yet iconoclastic sound and dramatic build-ups to moments of catharsis. The band’s breakthrough debut album, Funeral (2004), is widely considered one of the best rock albums of the 21st century. Their third album, The Suburbs (2010), won Juno Awards, a Grammy Award and the Polaris Music Prize. Their theatrical, exuberant live shows have made them a popular touring act and enhanced their worldwide popularity. They have been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and more than two dozen Juno Awards, winning twice for Songwriter of the Year and three times each for Alternative Album of the Year and Album of the Year.

Article

Arcade Fire

Indie rock/baroque pop band, formed in 2001 in Montréal, by Win Butler (lead vocals, guitar), Régine Chassagne (vocals, multi-instrumentalist), William Butler (multi-instrumentalist), Richard Reed Parry (multi-instrumentalist), Sarah Neufeld (violin), Tim Kingsbury (bass, guitar, keyboards) and Jeremy Gara (drums).

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Arcade Fire (Profile)

People in tuxedos fighting over hot dogs. That's the indelible image Win Butler and Régine Chassagne took home from their first trip to the Grammy Awards back in 2006. Their group, Arcade Fire, had received two nominations.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on February 21, 2011