Tragically Overlooked

For many Canadians, their personal preferences in music are heavily influenced by popular music from the United States. The converse, however, is rarely true and as a result, it is not uncommon for extremely popular Canadian bands to struggle to find commercial success south of the border. One of the most notable bands to be stricken by this unfortunate occurrence is The Tragically Hip. Comprised of Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Gord Sinclair and Paul Langlois, the Kingston, Ontario band has seen almost unprecedented success in Canada for almost twenty years. Despite frequently being heralded by music critics as one of the best rock bands ever to come out of Canada, The Hip (as they are often called) have failed to find much mainstream success in the United States.

When The Hip released their first studio album, Up to Here, in 1989, many in Canada saw it as an instant classic. The album includes some of the band’s most recognizable and popular songs, including “Blow at High Dough”, “38 Years Old”, and “New Orleans is Sinking”. While the album and band garnered critical acclaim and commercial success in Canada, including winning the Juno award for Most Promising Band of the Year, nobody in the United States seemed to even notice, as the album peaked at number 170 on The Billboard 200 chart in 1990. The trend continued with the release of the band’s second studio album, Road Apples in 1991. Again, the album boasted strong sales in Canada and contains songs that are viewed as Canadian classics, yet didn’t even crack The Billboard 200. The Hip’s next eight albums, Fully Completely (1992), Day For Night (1994), Trouble at the Henhouse (1996), Phantom Power (1998), Music @ Work (2000), In Violet Light (2002), In Between Evolution (2004) and World Container (2006) all debuted at number one on the Canadian music charts, while only four of them (Trouble at the Henhouse, Phantom Power, Music @ Work, In Violet Light) even made it on to The Billboard 200, with no album reaching higher than number 134.

As previously stated, The Tragically Hip is one of the most popular homegrown bands in Canada. Even though the band has only sold a total of about five million records worldwide in their nineteen years of releasing albums, they play to sell out shows in stadiums all across the country whenever they tour. The band has won nine Juno awards, including Canadian Entertainer of the Year in 1991 and 1993, Entertainer of the Year and Group