Storied broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross is SoundOff’s keynote speaker this year. Though he’s been based near Toronto since 1980, he credits humble prairie beginnings in Stonewall, Man., with shaping his direction in life.
“I was good in school and bad at hockey. And when you grow up on the Canadian Prairies and have those two attributes, they don’t make you very popular,” he says. “So I had to find a way to keep from being beaten up and stuffed into lockers in high school. And it turned out that I had a facility for music and facts… I was buying the records, and I was the one always listening to the radio; I was the one always buying magazines and reading up on things. So I adopted a ‘music geek’ persona as a form of protection.”
Cross has spun his “music geek” persona into a career that includes over 40 years of broadcasting, writing several books, hundreds of public speaking engagements, and a national music column for Global News. His show, The Ongoing History of New Music, debuted in February 1993 and now spans over 720 one-hour episodes. On a local level, he helped launch one of Calgary’s newest alternative radio stations, 107.3 The Edge.
“I think a lot of people in other parts of the country are surprised at how big Calgary has become,” says Cross. “It’s a very large city that is growing very quickly… My experiences in Calgary have been uniformly terrific… and the new arena is gonna make a big difference because then Calgary will be back on the touring schedule.”
Cross’s event at SoundOff will focus on music and technology, topics he has been following and researching since the ‘90s.
“Right now, the whole world is streaming music, but that’s organized noise going through one ear and out the other,” he says. “There’s no liner notes, artwork, lyric sheet, nothing, and you have that skip button, and if you don’t want a song after five or seven seconds, boom, you’re gone. What I want people to understand, with this particular panel, is the consequences of that behaviour and the consequences of that technology. It shapes and forms music’s composition and consumption, and I find it disturbing.”
His keynote will also focus on the relationship of musicians with social media. “When social media first came along, [it was] an opportunity to break down the barrier between you and the audience; it’s this one-to-one, almost real-time interaction with the people who support you the most,” he says. “Now, though, it may have swung too far because the super fans expect you to be at their beck and call, and when you’re not, they get upset. So, social media is still very important in how you communicate with your fans… But my question is, where is this going? How is this evolving, and will it ultimately be beneficial or damaging?”
Join SoundOff Summit for an afternoon chat with Cross at Festival Hall on November 16.
