Andrew Sutherland
A&E Reporter

(Andrew Sutherland) Canadian Music Week runs from March 10 to 14, featuring over 700 acts at 50 different venues.

Canadian Music Week (CMW) descends on Toronto this month, showcasing a plethora of homegrown indie rock talent, but for those Canadian musicians who fall outside the indie genre, it’s just another week.
“They service a different niche of the market than we do,” said Denny Christianson Director of the Humber’s music program.
“We don’t have any involvement with Canadian Music Week, we have found that it is overly expensive in terms of what we could hope to gain in profile and recruiting.”
Fourth-year Humber music student Lucas Gadke, 21, agrees that Canadian Music Week isn’t necessarily the best platform for all types of Canadian talent.
“We pat ourselves on the back for having a Canadian music week, but we should really be showcasing it all year round,” said Gadke.
Gadke plays in a country-tinged band called Rucksack Willies, which is exactly the kind of band CMW isn’t interested in.
“CMW has nothing to do with rockabilly, or country,” said Jay McEwen, director of publishing for Runaway Music.
Runaway represents music festival performers such as Plants and Animals, Patrick Watson and K’naan, who recently spoke at Humber for black history month.
“CMW has room to evolve, but all of these festivals get overshadowed, it all just becomes indie rock,” said McEwen.
“We have a songwriter on our label, Todor Kobakov, who released a solo piano album called Pop Music. It’s classically inspired songs, meant to make classical more acceptable for a pop culture.”
The album even features appearances by indie rock musicians like Emily Haines from Metric, and Tunde Abebimpe of TV on the Radio.
“He’s a Canadian musician, but CMW isn’t going to do anything for him,” said McEwen.
“Don’t call it Canadian Music Week if you aren’t going to showcase all types Canadian musicians.”
Canadian Music Week runs from March 10 to 14, and features over 700 acts at 50 venues across the city.