by PATRICK LEJTENYI

With apologies to Canadian Tire, there’s a lot more to Pop Montreal than pop. Few music gatherings, it seems, are complete without some discussion of the environment in which independent music strives. With this in mind, the Pop and Politics component of the music festival will be getting hot and heavy on some weighty issues like technology, corporate power and the role of women in independent music.

Among the keynote speakers will be MC/poet/musician/hip hop artist Saul Williams, who has fairly strong and articulate opinions on people, power and music. Working, as he says, on the “peripheries of the underground,” he nevertheless has travelled the globe extensively. And while he says he personally prefers to discover his music via “interface rather than the Internet,” he has seen first-hand the benefits and paradoxes technology has brought to artists across the world.

Williams says he has no problem at all with file-sharing, and welcomes the additional exposure musicians enjoy, and access fans have, in a connected, globalized world. “But,” he says, “there is a huge population of people who don’t have access to technology. So we’re reaching the same people we reach, but now it’s at a faster pace.”

The difference on the ground, he says, won’t be that more obscure artists will be selling out major venues, but rather that the additional exposure, outside of the MTV/Clear Channel music behemoths that rule the industry, will provide them with audiences in places they normally would not have been able to reach otherwise. “It levels the playing field,” says Williams. “The people that are huge, are huge. 50 Cent will still play in South Africa, but now, someone more obscure will be invited as well.”

Shannon Walsh, the Pop and Politics organizer, agrees. “Getting music out on the Net is really happening in the developing world,” she says. “Few people have Internet access at home, but you see it in places like community centres. It’s really broadening the spectrum.”

And it isn’t all for the benefit of rich white kids, she points out. “In places like Africa, we’re seeing people being able to access other kinds of African music,” she says. All without industry blessing of course, which is bound to drive music execs crazy.

But try as they might, say both Williams and Walsh, people will get their music. “Technology is moving so quickly,” says Walsh. “The corporations don’t know what’s out there. People are continuing to find a way to get their music—and whatever else they want.”

Williams concurs. “The Internet has helped an artist like myself, because it helped spread the words and the music,” he says. “As an artist I’m all for file-sharing because music is so important. Music can help you get through a rainy day, and a person’s financial position shouldn’t prevent them from enjoying it.”

There will be lots more talk on a lot more topics this weekend, with workshops, a speaker series, panel discussions and more. For more information on Pop Montreal’s Pop and Politics conference, visit www.popandpolitics.net.

Saul Williams will deliver his keynote speech—mostly in the form of poetry—on Thursday, Sept. 29, at Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent, $5 suggested donation, 7 p.m.).