Much along the lines of asking a Boomer about the “good old days,” ask a Canadian Gen Xer about MuchMusic in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, and you’re likely to launch them into a wistful long-winded ramble about VJs, Big Shiny Tunes and other now essentially defunct terms. If you were there, you know. And if you weren’t, you definitely missed out on a quintessential experience that united music fans from coast to coast in a way that would be both incredibly simple to recreate with today’s technology and also impossible for the same reason.
Thankfully, for those who want to know more about it, rather than listen to your elders’ nostalgic meanderings, a new documentary examines the magic and mystique that was created during the height of the MuchMusic era and its legendary home: 299 Queen St. West (also the name of the film) in Toronto. More than simply a TV studio, the building became the epicenter of Canadian music, a national tastemaker broadcasting out to the far-flung corners of the country.
After premiering at SXSW this past spring, filmmaker Sean Menard has taken to the road with his film, as well as some of the MuchMusic hosts (aka “video jockeys” or VJs for short)—much like the Much Video Dance Party of that era—and will be making a stop at the ByTowne Cinema this Saturday.
We had a chance to chat with one of those former VJs, Rick Campanelli, who will be part of the Q&A panel that will be held after the documentary screening.
Apt613: The early days of MuchMusic, with the likes of Steve Anthony, Erica Ehm and Mike Williams, you can say they didn’t really know what they were getting into at that point because it was brand new. But for you, did you have more of a sense of what you were stepping into?
I did. I watched it religiously when it first came on air Aug. 31, 1984. And I watched everything they did as the VJs back in the day. I loved music videos. I loved what the VJs were doing in between the videos. I loved the interviews. I loved everything about MuchMusic.
So that’s why I tuned in religiously every day after school, like most of us did as young Canadians. It was our life. It was our passion. Music was my driving force. I lived it. So, yeah, I got a sense of what it was like when I set foot into MuchMusic in 1994, 10 years later at 299 Queen St. West.
We were these viewers and these music lovers, but we still got a sense of how it all works at MuchMusic in the environment because we were so invested in what was going on. But I had no idea I was going to be a VJ. I was just there for the summer months after winning that temp contest. It was weird though because you sort of felt like you already knew what was going on in the surroundings because you were a viewer for so long. So, once I got there, it was like, “Yeah, this is where I belong.”
One of the fundamental aspects of MuchMusic is that it was a product of its time in an era where you couldn’t get access to music and music videos on demand; how you can now with music and video streaming. While Toronto-centric in a way, it was also a unifying link for the entire generation coast to coast, connecting kids from Vancouver to St. John’s with Big Shiny Tunes and MuchDance CDs.
Yeah, that’s right. And the common denominator was we were all fans of music. We loved music. We lived for music. And that’s what brought us all together and unified us. It really did. Like, you could be in British Columbia or P.E.I. and we were all the same—young Canadians growing up with MuchMusic and our love for music. And that’s what brought us all together. And it did, for many years to come.
MuchMusic was that institution in Canada we all were attracted to because we all wanted the pop culture, the music, to see the latest video from Eminem or whoever it was. But it really did bring us all together, especially when we would open up the street front windows and let fans into the environment to be a part of the live shows or the Intimate & Interactives, or MuchOnDemand, Electric Circus or whatever show it was.
It was that accessible back then. You could come in off the streets and you could be part of it. The VJs were a part of it. The bands were a part of it. The viewers were just as much a part of it as all the others… So, it was a beautiful, magical thing back then.
In terms of looking back now, it must be bittersweet that it couldn’t keep going, but at the same time, seeing how so many of the VJs went on to do such big things, including yourself, George Stroumboulopoulos, Sook-Yin Lee, etc. It must be fun to reconnect.
It’s so cool to reconnect with my fellow VJs and colleagues. Erica Ehm has a great podcast out right now, The Reinvention of the VJ. We all have a life after being a MuchMusic VJ. And you don’t think about it at the time because MuchMusic as a VJ, that’s your world and you’re so deep in it. But all good things come to an end, and you have to take that next step for that next chapter.
299 Queen St. West will be screening at the Bytowne Cinema Saturday, Oct. 28 at 7:30pm, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Sean Menard and former VJs. Tickets ($35 plus taxes and fees) are available here.
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