Duncan McCallum

Duncan McCallum

Challenging Canada’s Musical Mosaic

Canada is often described as a cultural mosaic, with multiple identities that make defining a single national identity challenging. The 1990s in particular saw tensions like Quebec separatism, Western alienation, and growing U.S. cultural influence that only further complicated the idea of a unified Canadian identity. At the same time, Canadian popular music experienced a major revival during this decade. This “CanRock” revival highlighted the diversity of musicians and regional scenes across the country, as well as the vastly different identities that made up Canadian music of this period. This project examines how musicians of this decade defined regional identities in their music, and how that contributed to—or complicated—Canadian nationalism. Looking at the “CanRock” revival as a mosaic of distinct regional themes and musical styles shows how there is not just one Canadian music scene, sound, or indeed identity.

Duncan McCallum
PhD candidate, Musicology
Don Wright Faculty of Music - Western University

Supervisor
Dr. Norma Coates

Duncan McCallum is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology within the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University. He holds an M.A. in musicology from Western, and a B.Mus. (Hons) from McMaster University. His research interests lie in popular music and sound studies, especially as they relate to Canadian music. Duncan’s dissertation focuses on Canadian identity and nationalism in the music of the 1990s CanRock revival.

You can connect with Duncan on LinkedIn.

View Duncan's work as it appears in the Inspiring Minds Digital Collection.