I heard his music for the first time in Thailand when I was so young. Quite simply, he’s still playing and writing some of the best rock and roll music that the great white north has ever had to offer to this day, and there’s never been a better time to join in than right now. In all, what Adams has achieved is shown in how people all around the world have embraced his music. “Summer of ‘69”? “Heaven”? “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started”? It would take someone with a heart of stone not to love those songs, from his primal, party starting rockers to his elegant, tear jerking ballads. His is music that transcends culture and language, and that makes him one of very few musicians in pop history to truly realize the universal qualities of rock and roll, and that’s saying something. One has to look at how his music can be played and truly loved in pretty much equal measure from his native Kingston, Ontario, to the farest reaches of Nepal. I think to truly get it one has to look at the man’s global influence.
However, I don’t think that a simple list of awards and sales statistics quite covers just how vital an artist Bryan Adams was and remains to be to this day. The millions of records sold, the longest running number one single in UK chart history, the Juno’s.
It would be too easy to focus on Adams’ astonishing commercial success to show his appeal.
