[Commlist] CFP: The Legacy of The Tragically Hip

CFP: A Workshop on the Legacy of The Tragically Hip

 >From 1984 to 2017, The Tragically Hip released 13 studio albums and 
achieved the status of the best-selling Canadian band in Canada. The 
final tour of the band in 2016, with lead singer Gord Downie dying of 
brain cancer, culminated in a concert on August 20, 2016, which was 
watched on television and online by 11.7 million Canadians. Since the 
passing of Downie, some hagiographic work, such as Michael Barclay's The 
Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip 
(2018) and the documentary Long Time Running (2017), has assessed the 
history of the band, but there has yet to be a comprehensive academic 
assessment of The Tragically Hip and its legacy in music, film, 
television, and other facets of Canadian popular culture. Our workshop 
aims to correct this absence, and we are partnering with McGill-Queen's 
University Press to publish the best new research from the workshop as a 
book.

The legacy of The Tragically Hip presents no shortage of apparent 
contradictions. The band was often hailed as an exemplification of 
"Canadian" culture, and yet its fan base did not reflect the demographic 
diversity of Canada. Similarly, the Hip merchandise foregrounded 
hypernationalism, while the songs they wrote were more ambiguous or 
antagonistic toward Canadian nationalism. One could also interrogate the 
juxtaposition of the Hip's status as a prototypical Canadian band with 
the late-life appeal from Gord Downie for reconciliation with the 
Indigenous people of Turtle Island. Downie's solo album Secret Path and 
The Gord Downie and Charlie Wenjack Foundation, which raises money for 
reconciliation-oriented projects, have been the subject of both praise 
and condemnation. How would one categorize the influence of the Hip on 
Canadian popular music or culture at large?

This workshop is interested in more than just the music of The 
Tragically Hip. We want to explore the band's multimodal performativity, 
as well. The Hip came of age during the rise of MTV, MuchMusic, and the 
music video. The band was also known for its live performances, which 
often included improvisational lyrics from Downie such as in the famous 
"Killer Whale Tank" rendition of "New Orleans is Sinking."  The Hip also 
performed at the infamous Woodstock '99. The band also made 
contributions to film and television, such as Men With Brooms (2002) and 
The Trailer Park Boys, and Downie released a poetry collection called 
Coke Machine Glow (2001).

We are looking for 150- to 200-word abstract proposals for 15-minute 
presentations. The workshop will take place at the University of 
Lethbridge on May 11, 2024. Proposals are due before midnight on 
February 17, 2024. Please send your abstract and a CV to 
(thehipworkshop /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(thehipworkshop /at/ gmail.com)>.

Additional information, such as the plenary speaker for this event, is 
forthcoming. We would like to acknowledge the support of SSHRC and the 
University of Lethbridge Office of Research and Innovation Services.

Jay Gamble, PhD, University of Lethbridge
Michael Truscello, PhD, Mount Royal University

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