Music
This is how DJ culture evolved in Canada
As Red Bull 3Style arrives in Vancouver for the Canadian National Finals here's a brief history of country's DJ scene, from disco to the present day.
Canada is a big country. Of course it is. It has the longest coastline of any nation on Earth. So it's not surprising that it's also home to some of the world’s most exciting cultural hotspots. From Montreal on the east coast to Vancouver in the west, Canada's reputation for producing amazing music precedes it. And the country's DJ scene is a massive part of its musical hotchpotch.
As Red Bull 3Style touched down in Vancouver for the Canadian National Finals, we’ve put together a brief history of Canadian DJ history.
Tiga
© Jeremy Deputat/Red Bull Content Pool
01
The beginnings of DJ culture in Canada
Montreal and Toronto were home to Canada's earliest DJ scenes. The former was a destination for international disco fans and kept up with the times when Tiga opened Sona in the mid-90s, offering three floors for wax-spinning selectors. Toronto, meanwhile, was the centre of Canadian rock ’n’ roll before its Yonge Street venues were turned into clubs and strip joints, giving the city’s first DJs a place to play. These were joined in the ’90s by the Comfort Zone – a beloved, grimy forerunner of Berlin’s Berghain – and the killer RPM.
02
Vancouver’s first clubs
Vancouver's most influential club was Graceland. This old photo-finishing factory was the first place in the city to play house music in the late-80s and was pivotal in kick-starting the city’s DJ-driven scene. One of its main men on the decks, DJ Czech, took the idea of DJ residencies to their logical conclusion by moving into an apartment attached to the club. Celebrities also had an important role to play in the birth of DJing in the city. It opened on Davie Street as a cocktail bar and became a gay club in 1984. It continues to book cutting-edge local and international DJs to this day.
03
The first big home-grown Canadian DJs
The first national DJ to become a major star was Chris Sheppard. He cut his teeth at Toronto’s RPM club, became a regular on TV and national radio, and his Pirate Radio Sessions compilations shifted huge numbers across Canada. These days, of course, Canadian DJ culture is represented by star names such as Richie Hawtin, Tiga, and A-Trak, who won the DMC World Championship in 1997 at the age of 15.
04
Pivotal moments in Canadian clubbing
Canadian DJ culture, and dance music generally, took off when rave arrived in the early ’90s. Canadian clubbers of a certain vintage still get misty-eyed about Montreal’s 1993 Solstice rave, which featured Tiga, Richie Hawtin and John Aquaviva. It was one of the major rave events of an era that paved the way for dance music domination in Canada. Back in 2000, DJs and clubbers were forced into saving Toronto's party scene when the local authorities threatened to ban any dance music events taking place after 3am. Wonderfully, 20,000 ravers met at the iDance Rally outside City Hall before the vote and their good vibes prevented the ban from being implemented. Hurrah!
Richie Hawtin heats up in Miami
© Ian Witlen/Red Bull Content Pool
05
The best Canadian clubs in 2017
In Montreal, New City Gas and Stereo rule the roost, with the latter booking the most progressive acts in modern-day dance music. In Toronto, the city’s mind-blowing Rebel has just applied to increase its capacity from 6,000 to 15,000, which will make it the biggest club in the world. Calgary’s HiFi Club, on the other hand, caters for just 200 people and yet attracts the biggest and best DJs in the game. Back in Vancouver and Celebrities remains many clubbers’ favourite venue, but Fortune Sound is another major draw. It installed the city’s first Funktion-One sound-system and will host Canada's Red Bull 3Style National Final.
06
Canada’s modern-day DJ scene is off the hook
Canadian DJ culture is heaving with big names at the moment, and from all the myriad sub-genres of party music. Grandtheft, Zeds Dead and Keys N Krates became major players in the global boom in electronic dance music after moving from hip-hop to arena-slaying bangers, via dubstep. Hudson Mohawke’s co-star in TNGHT, Lunice, is on a big, bad bass tip and drops his debut solo album on LuckyMe very soon; Jacques Greene is one of modern house music’s brightest stars; veteran DJ Skratch Bastid is a regular Red Bull 3Style judge; and the Smalltown DJs duo, who set-up Calgary’s HiFi Club, are building their own influential and world-renowned scene. The list could go on and on.
Skratch Bastid
© Alfred Jürgen Westermeyer/Red Bull Content Pool
07
Vancouver's musical landmarks
The Commodore Ballroom opened in 1929 and over the years it's hosted legendary performances by a wide range of musical legends, from Duke Ellington and Sammy Davis Jr to some of the world’s biggest modern-day acts. It’s up there with Celebrities as a Vancouver musical icon. Elsewhere, Beat Street Records is one of Elton John's preferred record-shopping destinations; the Inspiration Lab at Vancouver’s Public Library – the city’s answer to Rome's Colosseum – is a hub of ground-breaking digital creativity; and Vancouver Art Gallery’s beautiful performance space FUSE is the go-to place for weird and wonderful music.
Think you have what it takes to get the crowd on your side? Don't miss Red Bull Turn It Up 2024, the crowd-judged DJ competition where DJs will have to spin and adapt on the fly to some of todays best music.