Thirty Years Strong
Just before The Tragically Hip’s last show in Kingston, Justin Trudeau said, “ the Tragically Hip are an essential part of what we are and who we are as a country. They are part the sense of place, vibe, feel, a piece of our extraordinary multi-layered culture.” The five individuals who make up the Tragically Hip have stuck together as a group for thirty years. The Hip are supremely famous in Canada not just for their sound, but because they raise important issues in a highly respected way. Their music style includes rock and blues. Their lyrics are, poetic, catchy, imaginative, and relevant.
During their career, The Tragically Hip have achieved accomplishments such as television appearances on Saturday Night Live, sold out concerts in Canada, and record selling albums. For example, their Evolution album in 2004 sold 100,000 copies. The band has won many musical awards, mostly in Canada. As a band, the Hip not only showed love for Canada but for other countries, especially those in need such as Haiti. In 2010, they played a concert to benefit for earthquake victims in Haiti and spoke out about the poor conditions of the country following the disaster. They are also known for doing benefits in Canada for humanitarian causes. Their personalities and music have been much loved and cherished by a wide range of people.
Now the question is what factors made the band thrive, and successfully stay together for thirty years? This essay will explain how they were able to stick together for thirty years, what impact they’ve had on people's lives, and lastly this paper will conclude whether we should, as Canadians, consider the Tragically Hip as historically significant?
The essay starts with Rob Baker, the lead guitarist of the Tragically Hip. Rob Baker
was born on April 12, 1962 in Kingston, Ontario. Baker was a former student of Queen's University where he studied visual art. Later he designed many of the band's T-shirts and album art. Gord Sinclair, fifty , plays the bass guitar and performs backup vocals. Sinclair was a history major at Queen’s University. John Fay, The Hip’s forty nine -year-old drummer and percussionist was still in high school when he first signed up with the band. Paul Langlois, another guitarist, is best known for being the guitarist of The Tragically Hip. Lastly, the lead singer, Gord Downie grew up in a suburb of Kingston, Ontario. Downie formed the Tragically Hip with Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Davis Manning, and Gord Sinclair in 1983. Saxophone player Davis Manning left the band, and lead guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986. Despite the difference in backgrounds and education levels, they were still able to collaborate together and make wonderful albums. Langlois said of his experience working on his first album, “Recording the album with this band turned out to be a lot more fun and interesting for me, than doing my own first album. I didn’t have to worry about the drums, and bass, or building a song from scratch. This time I just had to plug in and play, and sing the tunes, and the band was right there with me. I’m happy with this record and the songs on it. In the end, I look at it as a document of the ten best songs I had at the time that we recorded and feel lucky to have had the opportunity to make it.” Clearly, the band’s energy and chemistry was very strong and Langlois thought very highly of them.
The impact the Tragically Hip had on people's lives can be understood by viewing the number of people who tuned into their final broadcast. “CBC's broadcast of Saturday night's Tragically Hip concert averaged just over four million viewers, according to the network. CBC also says an average of 4.04 million people tuned in on TV or via livestreaming.” During their generation, the Tragically Hip gained numerous loyal followers, who bought their music and deeply supported them. Here Gord Downie talks about the love and passion that he gave to each one of his songs that later turned into a popular selling album. “Music is the ultimate medium for expressions of love, and those expressions find a beautiful backdrop in the environment. Music is also a popular rallying point — at its central core, it’s a way for people to get in touch with the best parts of themselves and to voice the love in their hearts. And the environment is one of the great loves of our lives — when we think of the best parts of ourselves, the environment is always there, informing us, as a backdrop.”
The love Tragically Hip has shown to Canada is unforgettable. The intellectuality and emotion of their lyrics and their rhythmic sound struck a chord with the people and helped them to be successful for thirty years. As well their music shows the band’s deep love of creating and how their work is a labour of love.
In their thirty year period the band has gone through some rough patches, be it with family or friends, but they were able to continue collaborating and expressing themselves through music.
The secret to the Tragically Hip staying thirty strong years together is down to all of the band members contributing ideas to the music, not only letting the lead singer do all the work and take credit. Also with everyone's idea for the music, one starts building off their peers’ vibes which is how a quality product is created. The Tragically Hip produce very creative music and their listeners know that when a new Hip album is released, there will be profound statements and ideas. The support of the fans is a large part of the band staying together for so long. There has always been people waiting for new music and a new tour. The Tragically Hip have always answered their fans and not forgotten about them.
The Tragically Hip will always be considered as historically significant, because of the issues they have raised in the aboriginal communities and about canadian history. Tragically hip did not care about criticism towards their music they always stuck by each other's and spoke of our issues in canada even till today nothing changed just the same old tragically hip singing about important issues in our community.
In conclusion, the Tragically Hip are undoubtedly Canada’s band. They’ve not only made good music consistently for decades, but they’ve kept a positive and powerful message with them along the way. They’ve managed to stay together because of their love of music and creating. They are artists who try and better themselves everytime they make a new product. They know their fans and they know what’s expected of them. Even the announcement of Gord Downie’s terminal cancer couldn’t stop them from going on another tour of their country. It takes dedication and hard work to make it to where the Tragically Hip are today.
References
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2, The Hour. "Gord Downie On George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight: Full Interview." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2016
3, "Gord+downie+quotes - Google Search." Gord+downie+quotes - Google Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
4, Fraser, Laura. "Gord Downie, Tragically Hip Singer, Has Terminal Cancer."CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 27 May 2016. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
5, Ostroff, Joshua. "Tragically Hip's Gord Downie Sings Goodbye With Grace (Too)." The Huffington Post. N.p., 11 Aug. 2016. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
6, Biography." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
7, Dailymail.com, Valerie Siebert For. "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Hugs Dying Tragically Hip Singer at the Beloved Band's Emotional Final Performance." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 21 Aug. 2016. Web. 28 Oct. 2016
