Take a bow, North Grandview-Woodland: you’ve been crowned B.C.’s capital of cool.
That distinction was recently anointed by SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) and based on the amount of new members who joined the artists’ organization last year.
Seven of the top 10 creative corners in B.C. are located within Vancouver, and the list is broken down by postal code prefix. Thirty-two SOCAN newbies were accounted for in the V5L last year, while central (V6K) and western (V6R) Kits rounded out the top three.
“We know most cities pride themselves on their culture and the amount of music that’s being played — it’s kind of like bragging rights,” said SOCAN spokesperson Andrew Berthoff. “It’s anecdotal but we can deduce from this study that the cool factor goes up in those places.”
North Grandview-Woodland was the lone neighbourhood outside of Toronto or Montreal to make the same top 10 list, but on a national scale. The East Van hood placed sixth in the Canada-wide context.
SOCAN’s membership hovers somewhere around 150,000, and Berthoff did see some trends come to bear during the number-crunching process. And surprise, surprise, musicians tend to flock towards the most affordable areas of a given town.
“We see that across the country and there are parallels, but we can’t scientifically deduce the causes of it,” he said. “That parallel with the cool factor is that non musicians tend to want to move there and it becomes a popular place to live. Then it becomes unaffordable for music creators, musicians and artists of all kinds. And then the cool factor kind of goes down.”
Katie Gravestock, guitarist for Mint Records recording artists Supermoon, can attest to that cross-town migration. Over the last 12 years she’s watched her music and artist friends make their way from Main Street east towards their current digs in North Grandview-Woodland. Gravestock and two of her Supermoon bandmates live in the vaunted V5L, largely because of its relative affordability.
“A lot of my friends who are musicians want to do music full time but we just can’t because it’s so hard to make money these days. We all have multiple jobs,” she said. “I’ve definitely noticed a high concentration of musicians in the area and there are lots of rehearsal spaces.”
The SOCAN study is the society’s first attempt at sifting through the numbers to see where their members are popping up. In total, roughly 500 members live in North Grandview-Woodland, while around 400 call Kitsilano home.
“The ancillary benefits of musicians being there is that they are part the scene, and that creates economic value because of that cool factor,” Berthoff said. “It becomes a desirable place to live for a lot of first-time buyers or even second-time buyers. They want to be close to the action and the fun in the city.”
SOCAN top 10 areas in B.C with the most new songwriters, composers and music publishers:
1. North Grandview-Woodland, Vancouver (Postal code prefix V5L)
2. Central Kitsilano/ Greektown, Vancouver (V6K)
3. West Kitsilano/ West Point Grey/ Jericho, Vancouver (V6R)
4. Nanaimo (south) (V9R)
5. East Fairview/ South Cambie, Vancouver (V5Z)
6. Delta (Southwest), Vancouver (V4M)
7. Coquitlam (South) (V3K)
8. NW West End/ Stanley Park, Vancouver (V6G)
9. NW Shaughnessy/ East Kitsilano/ Quilchena, Vancouver (V6J)
10. East Mount Pleasant, Vancouver (VST)
