It’s no secret that in most people’s minds, the Junos don’t stack up to their American counterpart: the Grammys. This speaks to how Canadian music in general is perceived compared to American music. However, the Junos have the potential to help Canada’s music scene flourish.
This year, the Junos added a new category for hard/metal album of the year. This category not only recognizes existing Canadian talent in this area, but also allows it to develop.
While Winnipeg’s KEN Mode took home the first ever hard/metal album of the year award, they’re far from the first Canadian heavy metal band. Fellow nominee Anvil has been on the scene since the ‘70s — and there were countless others before them. Up until this point, the Junos have just been ignoring metal, hardcore, heavy rock, death metal and all their sub-genres.
The addition of new categories paves the way for artists in these genres. A case in point is the electronic album of the year category, which was added to last year’s Juno Awards. With a burgeoning Canadian electronic scene, the Junos couldn’t shelve the artists into different categories anymore. This year, electronic music was front and centre with Deadmau5 performing a heavily electronic set at the awards show.
The Junos should work hard to not only introduce these categories, but to also actively promote them. Both categories were relegated to the non-televised awards gala in their inaugural years. Instead, they should be a main focus of the awards show to demonstrate the growth and emergence of Canadian music scenes. If the Junos don’t show them, people will continue to ask where Canada’s developing music scenes are.
