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This exhibit illustrates the evolution of the record industry in Montreal, using images of performers and craftspeople, studios, sound recording devices, record sleeves, musical scores, magazine illustrations, posters and advertisements. Sound clips of the interview excerpts are used to illustrate the history of this flourishing industry. Among those interviewed are producers, technicians, sound men, artistic directors, managers, distributors, artists, record dealers, radio producers and collectors.
All genres of music recorded by the industry are documented, including song, jazz, popular music, classical, contemporary and folk. Because the field is so vast, existing labels have been given precedence. Nonetheless, a number of witnesses to the past have been included (among them, four specialized workers from the RCA Victor factory).
Montreal was the capital of the Canadian record industry until the Second World War. The Berliner record company was established in Montreal, birthplace of the Canadian record industry, in 1899. Up until 1960, the Quebec repertoire was downplayed by the multinationals, who preferred to impose adaptations of hits from the United States or France.
After the “Révolution tranquille”, Quebec’s independent record labels produce 80% of the records in the province, leaving 20% to the multinationals.
As a complement to the exhibition, the Phonothèque (www.phonotheque.org) has made available a chronology and all of the interview excerpts.
