The Music

Emotions are part of what makes a commercial likeable and appealing. Music plays an essential role in commercials for that reason.

Sometimes music establishes a theme like “Mainly Because of the Meat” for Dominion Stores. Sometimes it builds the feeling such as “When you’re Smiling” for Labatt’s Blue. And sometimes it supports the patriotism in the Molson rant “I am Canadian”.

Until the late 70’s most of the music in Canadian commercials wasn’t created here. It was done outside of the country, usually in the United States.

Then great Canadian musicians emerged onto the music scene – people like Delores Claman, Syd Kessler, Larry Trudel, and David Fleury began to create original work. Suddenly Canadian advertising was rich with the sound of music. And we’ve been making our own music ever since.