The alternative music scene is niche and dominated by international acts. I wanted to shed some light that Canada has just as good, if not better, artists than there are abroad. Community is important to me, and I wanted to highlight a scene that has been distilled over the years as a result of algorithm based digital landscapes.

A few months ago, I came across one of the artists featured on the compilation and thought, “Wait, what? This band is LOCAL?!” It sparked an old MySpace habit of mine where when I discovered new music, I wanted to know who the artist was, who else they played with, and what other local bands I might not have known about.

We don’t have the luxury of the user curated MySpace Top 8 guiding us anymore!

Before algorithms dictated our lives, we had the pleasure of discovery through physical media. I used to live for these style compilations to find my new favourite band. They became the soundtrack of my summers. 

In the late 00s and early 2010s, I used to run a record label and we used to do digital compilations of up and coming Canadian artists. This project was a little bit of a headnod to my past self that I could still do this, on a different scale with the current platform and resources I have. 

Mix-Tapes and Burned CD-Rs were a love language all of their own in their time. That evolved to sharing around the AUX cord in your car, and now it’s a “Jam” on Spotify. Unfortunately, instead of something very curated, online streaming platforms expose us to an infinite abyss of content. It’s not curated. It’s impersonal. Content flows like water, and thus we’ve given it that value. Always another show, movie, or song to listen to. 

Societally, we’ve normalized offloading the part of our brain that needs novelty and curiosity to AI or an algorithm. “Let the algorithm recommend it, and if I still don’t like it, maybe AI can make me something I’ll find entertaining.”

AI has invaded artistic spaces, and is nearing a dystopian future seen somewhere between The Matrix and Wall-E. Even the upcoming Toy Story 5 movie is exploring the problem with screens and its adverse impact on children.

We can’t turn on a device anymore with it listening, watching, recommending, or generating content for us to consume, based on a profile it’s building about us with every click.

It’s erased the culture and connection pieces we used to rely on from VJs, radio DJs, and our friends and family. At its core, AI is sloppy and a mere half-baked imitation of what humans have the capacity of creating when they put in the time and effort to struggle through the friction of making art. 

That struggle to create something isn’t just what makes us human, it’s what makes us feel something. The thirteen artists featured on the compilation demonstrate just that.

Canada is home to some incredibly talented writers and musicians. AI is trying to devalue those creatives and what we do.

If we don’t show up and demonstrate culture as critical to our wellbeing, of what it means to be human, and constantly remind each other real art can only be created and curated by humans, not algorithms, then we let LLMs win. 

People create culture and connection, not the algorithm.