Song:Dark Horse
Album:Amanda Marshall
I have said for many years that Canadian content regulations imposed upon Canadian radio stations do more harm than good. An artist has a hit in Canada and it gives them a false sense of security. When they are unable to break through to the US market, they get disillusioned. Amanda Marshall is one of many artists who have gone through this struggle. Dark Horse was one of her four Canadian top five hits. But she was unable to break through in the US despite being on a major label. At least Alannah Myles had Black Velvet. I mention that for a reason. Amanda Marshall was born Aug. 29, 1972 in Toronto. Her dad is a white Canadian and her mom is black from Trinidad. Amanda writes about this in her songs. Toronto blues guitarist Jeff Healey heard her in a Toronto bar and took her on tour. She signed with Metalblade Records in 1991 but that didn't work out and the contract was cancelled. Then she signed with Epic Records in 1995 and her debut CD Amanda Marshall was released. The album was produced by David Tyson who also co-produced Alannah Myles. Dark Horse reached #5 on the Canadian Singles chart and was one of four songs from the album to go top five. And the album went Diamond in Canada. But it went nowhere in the US. They tried several things including placing her songs in movie soundtracks. On her follow up albums, they had her work with big name producers like Carole King and Peter Asher. She still had success in Canada but was unable to break through in the US. Epic dropped her in 2003 and then Amanda fired her management and went through a long legal battle that prevented her from recording. She's still around and is supposedly working on a new CD. But her time seems to have passed. The Amanda Marshall CD is available as a budget release. Here's the video for Dark Horse by Amanda Marshall and you can judge for yourself.
Hello Frank. I think that, unfortunately, you're right that Amanda's time has passed, barring something unexpected. According to Wikipedia Amanda's legal woes are about royalties, rather than market penetration but I think you've probably hit on a collateral issue. I find it hard to believe that a pure royalties dispute could drag on for nearly 10 years. Once this is all over, it'll be interesting to see what the whole story was.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think Amanda became upset with her record company because they couldn't get her into the US mainstream? Amanda hasn't mentioned it in her more recent interviews (not that she might be able to anyway) but it is an interesting theory. At any rate, I hope against hope that she'll come back.
It's more complicated than that because she fired her management. The bottom line is the Canadian market has never been enough to sustain a music career. For someone like Amanda, breaking into the US was crucial to her career. And it didn't happen for whatever reason. This is not a new problem in the Canadian music business and Cancon doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right about the Canadian market, at least generally. I suppose it depends on how you define "music career" and how you would measure success. For example, I think someone like Sarah Harmer or Kate Edwards might consider their music careers successful despite not being known outside Canada. On the other hand, I think you're very right that Canada alone would not give someone a career like Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga or our homegrown international stars like Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Alanis Morrisette and others. I think you make a very interesting point about Cancon. I suppose it's like a musical subsidy.
DeleteI can't wait until this is all over and everything (except probably the settlement) becomes public. However, by the end of it, Amanda might feel she has been so long out of the loop that there's not point trying to come back big.