The New Music

Its a great show, a good take on popular music and they show a lot of Indie rock and the non- mainstream music. I liked it better with George rather than Hannah, mostly 'cause he did a book section. Usually the episode is composed of interviews with Bands and solo artists, some special episodes are done on site in other places, like New York, Tokyo or Vancouver.

It has featured many of my favorite bands, unfortunately not in detail. They also ask more popular artists for their opinions or lack there of. Another thing that they do is feature art expos. I have never seen any of the episodes from before 2002 but from what I have heard they have always been good. Currently It airs new episodes every week at 9:30 on much music and repeats are aired throughout the week on both much music and city-TV.

A great Canadian rock show produced by City-TV. The New Music predates the debut of the Nation's Music Station MuchMusic by 4 years - although during the 5th or 6th season, the show began to air on MuchMusic (at least until the early 90's - is it still in production?). Early episodes featured intimate profiles (consisting of backstage interviews, concert performances and music videos) of artists and bands like Iggy Pop, the Ramones, U2, the English Beat, Gang of Four, the Specials, Police, Madness, The Clash, the Cars, the Deadboys, The Pretenders and countless others. Many of these acts were up-and-coming at the time, and this show gave them valuable, nationwide exposure early in their careers. This is especially cool since North American mainstream radio at the time was dominated by schlock like Journey, Toto and Rick Springfield. The New Music (filmed mostly on location in Toronto) had a hip college radio feel to it, and the interviewers, all of them fans, took a serious, respectful look at the performers. Besides the aforementioned new/cult acts, I remember seeing interviews with superstars like The Who and Bob Marley. Co-host John "J.D." Roberts began his career here, and now hosts the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather!

My sister, 3 years my elder, and I would stay up late and wait for The New Music theme to start, on one of three"Peasant Vision" tv channels we had. I started watching at about age 10, and since it was late and dark and Mom and Dad had gone to bed, it almost felt like we were doing something "bad". I discovered so much great music, much of it Canadian. Kd Lang Bee Boppa Loola Baby, Go Gal Go... never seen or heard anything like it! Rush, Teenage Head, The Police, the Sex Pistols, the Band, Carol Pope (I even bought the 45 of High School Confidential, much to my parents' horror). I remember the video of guy with a rat trap strapped to his face... terrifying. Ozzy Osbourne throwing Jeanne Becker over his shoulder and running down a hotel hallway... my sister or I saying the magic words, "don't take my chair!" while running to the bathroom during commercial breaks. Pretty alternative, subversive stuff, man! Especially for a couple of young, naive,southern Alberta cowgirls! We really thought we'd discovered something we shouldn't be seeing... in part, because it came out of - gasp -Torahna!