Canada. I've never been there, but I certainly plan to travel there within the next year or two. To me it seems a fascinating country; picturesque, friendly, and all too often overshadowed by their much louder southern neighbours.

In recent years, I've started paying attention to where the music I listen to is coming from a little more. I feel like I go through periods where, for whatever reason, I may listen to mostly English bands and artists, or US bands and artists, then sometimes mostly Australian bands and artists. There are trends in contemporary music that ebb and flow like most movements in popular culture. Sometimes they would resonate with me, other times, I'm just a smirking, head-shaking observer. A fairly good example of what I'm prettling on about here would be the prevailing musical styles of the late 90's. I hardly listened to anything coming out of America, fixated such as I was on the Britpop and then post-Britpop movements. I struggle to even recall what was going on in American music at the time. Sevendust? Godsmack? Korn? Sounds about right. Then, British music started getting kind of annoying again. I stopped buying Q magazine. That was the big kicker. I didn't (and still don't) care about The Libertines or Bloc Party.

And then, to draw these two discussion points together, there is Canadian music, which -from an Australian point of view - is quite curious. Like Australians, Canadians often have breakthrough artists, sometimes they have international one hit wonders and like Australia, the rest are too colloquial or too derivative to make a real splash with International audiences. In more than a few instances, they have produced great bands and artists that have helped define the music movement of their given generation.

But it's hard to name them isn't it? Go on. I'll give you a moment.

Most people will probably pause after naming Neil Young...maybe you got Alanis Morrissette as well .You might say "oh yeah" when I remind you of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. The hipster set might name check Arcade Fire. If you're really good, you might have added Bryan Adams, kd lang, Celine Dion (god help us) and Nickelback (god help us x2).

You get 50 bonus points if you're able to recall that 4out of the 5 members of The Band were Canadian, Levon Helm being the singlular American exception. For a band that helped to define pastoral Americana in the late 60's folk rock movement, it's curious that they were mostly Canucks. Sometimes it takes an outsider, I guess.

So how did you score? It's interesting that a country of it's size and stature has had so many polarising artists; so many hit records, but also so much derision. It seems to me that in many ways, Canadian artists for the briefest of moments, crystalise the popular sound of a particular genre, only to end up as pariahs when that genre takes a big hit from the cool stick. Bryan Adams and Nickelback are good examples. Along with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Sum 41 and Simple Plan, quite often you'll find a Canadian band or artist selling millions of records whilst receiving almost universal hostility from music critics. Celine Dion and Shania Twain will attest to that. So catchy, so right-on-the-mark, so completely without the support of Rolling Stone Magazine.

There are also bands and artists so Canadian that they struggle to appeal to overseas audiences. In the same way Powderfinger are sure-fire heroes in Australia and all but ignored overseas, The Trews, The Tragically Hip, Big Sugar and Sloan are Canadian heroes without widespread notoriety. All have had long and successful careers, critically acclaimed, but in a clear example of the scope of their popularity, when they visited Australia last year, The Trews played in an alleyway at midnight to me and about 15 other people. If they do cross-over to the international charts, it can be all too fleeting, such as the case with Crash Test Dummies or Barenaked Ladies - too idiosyncratic, too gimmicky for the kind of lasting career of a globe-straddling mass appeal rock band such as U2.

What U2 has become is another argument for another day, but for now, they are simply a measuring stick for my discussion (although, it should be noted that long-time producer and songwriting collaborator Daniel Lanois is, you guessed it, Canadian). Lying at the opposite end of their po-faced spectrum is where artists are such a complete novelty, there appeal can only last as long as it takes for you to associate them with getting annoyed. There seems to be something irresistable to Canadian musicians about being 'cute' and 'silly' in their songs, tunes that makes us smile every now and again such as the work of the aforementioned Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous, Crash Test Dummies or Men Without Hats. They make a brief dent in the charts and disappear just as quickly, probably because listening to any more than a handful of songs becomes very tiresome. Self-reverential songs are okay, but once you start mentioning ice hockey or a Zamboni, you're on a slippery slope of wacky outfits and crazy hairdos.

Speaking of Men Without Hats, it brings me back to my point about one hit wonders. "The Safety Dance", as ridiculous as it is, was a huge worldwide hit and has remained on jukeboxes ever since, but most of us would struggle to name anything else by these hatless chaps. Likewise, Tom Cochrane (Life Is A Highway), Corey Hart (Sunglasses At Night), Alannah Myles (Black Velvet), Jann Arden (Insensitive) and the "Informer" himself, Snow.

So I ask you to join with me in saluting all of these artists both celebrated and maligned, as well as Bachman Turner Overdrive, Rush, The Tea Party, Sarah McLachlan, Paul Anka, Gordon Lightfoot and Steppenwolf.

As a footnote to our Canadian Music Scorecard, you lose 5 million points if you named Justin Bieber.