VANOC: promoting Canadian music, at a price

Everyone knows that the Olympics are a chance to showcase the world's best in athletics; VANOC, however, has taken this opportunity to showcase some of the world's best in music.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) has utilized their city as a veritable showcase of Canadian talent, offering countless opportunities for visitors to catch many Canadian artists performing in numerous venues and on dozens of stages in the city.

While their aim to promote Canadian artists is admirable, it has not come without controversy.

In examining VANOC's choices regarding music and the upcoming Olympics, we've sectioned it off into three categories: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.The Good

While most will be venturing to Vancouver to catch the world's best athletes compete for their countries, Vancouver will also be the site of countless fantastic musicians, most of which will be Canadian performers.

One must applaud VANOC for securing an eclectic mix of Canadian musicians to showcase to the world. Commercially-successful acts like Feist and City and Colour will perform alongside mid-level acts, such as Stars and Broken Social Scene, and smaller, often independent, bands like The Rural Alberta Advantage and The Wooden Sky.

Olympic Village in Vancouver will also house performance pavilions for each of the provinces to showcase their independent artists.

Representing Saskatchewan is Regina's Library Voices. The band, on the success of their EP, Hunting Ghosts (& Other Collected Shorts), and in preparation for the April 13 release of their debut LP Denim On Denim (Youngsoul/EMI), was chosen by the Saskatchewan Arts Board has four performances in Olympic Village and a performance at the Figure Skating awards ceremony at BC Place.

"I think it's really awesome; it's a good platform," said Carl Johnson, singer/guitarist for the eight-piece band. "I mean, you might as well use it to promote Canadian talent, and I think they've done a really good job of that.

"I think it just shows they're kind of aware of the music scene in Canada right now, you know? [.] It's really inclusive."

The band's performance at the awards ceremony will include two songs, one from both their current release - the infectious "Step Off the Map and Float" - and one from their upcoming album, first single "Drinking Games". Johnson explains that the band got to choose which songs they wanted to be representative of their band.

"They said to submit two songs for approval, and those were the two that we submitted," said Johnson, who became a fan of figure skating at the influence of his sisters.

"They wanted an upbeat one, and 'Step Off the Map and Float' kind of fit their climate. And 'Drinking Games' just made sense because it's the first single from our new album."

As for whether the band knows what to be expecting upon arrival in Vancouver, Johnson explains that, despite all the anticipation, they're still not sure what this sort of once-in-a-lifetime experience will be like.

"There's definitely a lot of procedure, and it's a pretty large operation and we're just a small part of it," said Johnson. "But we won't really know [what to expect] until we get there. But it should be pretty exciting."

The Bad

VANOC first came under scrutiny in late November when The Edmonton Journal published an article entitled "When silence isn't golden". In the article, VANOC was exposed as silencing the performers.

"It seems like an awful relic from China's Cultural Revolution, but the sad truth is that government-imposed loyalty pledges are still in force," read the article, published Nov. 27 without an author. "This week, artists have begun to protest contracts that muzzle them from uttering anything the leadership deems 'negative'. Is this Iran we're talking about? Myanmar? Somalia?

"Actually, it's happening right now in Vancouver - to Canadians secured to work in the Cultural Olympics festival of the 2010 Games. Although some who signed the job agreements were apparently unaware of the clause, the contract includes a provision that gets to the heart of free speech as we know it. 'The artist shall at all times refrain from making any negative or derogatory remarks respecting VANOC (the organizing committee), the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement generally, Bell and/or other sponsors associated with VANOC.'"

Carey Mercer, the Vancouver-based frontman for Frog Eyes and member of Canadian supergroup Swan Lake, wrote an opinion editorial for music Web site Stereogum in response to The Edmonton Journal's piece.

"The Olympics always has a 'cultural component', a cultural Olympiad, and this year, to quote their puke-in-my-mouth inducing Web site, they have made a back-patting hullabaloo about including 'cutting edge indie rock'. And each and every 'cutting edge' performer that has agreed to play has signed a contract that includes the above clause. A clause that states, in case you skimmed over it, that these artists must never say anything negative about an entity that will spend $900-million on 'security'. An entity that has already infuriated anti-poverty and anti-homeless groups who accuse VANOC of not living up to its promise of providing affordable housing," said Mercer in his Op-Ed, titled "How The Vancouver Olympics Is Fucking Over Your Favourite Artists, And Why You Should Care".

"I feel bad for these musicians. They've unwittingly gagged themselves. I think they would speak out against this treatment, if they had not unwittingly signed a contract that legally forbids them to do so. I choose to believe that they were unaware of this clause."

In his piece, Mercer highlights the inaccuracies of the committee and, similar to The Edmonton Journal's piece, compares the clause to that of totalitarian governments.

"When artists are not allowed to critique their government, or the governing agency that endows them with grants and funding, then what they are asking for is nothing more than propaganda. Propaganda, for some reason, rankles that sensitivity towards freedom of expression that seems to be hard-wired into our culture."