Canadian indie music was a fledgling concern at the turn of the century, forcing bands like Metric and the Stills to leave their native land. But the postmillennial rise of music blogs and file-sharing suddenly allowed smaller-market bands to reach big audiences.

This was best exemplified by the Canada’s indie rock collectives: Vancouver’s New Pornographers, Toronto’s Broken Social Scene and Montreal’s Arcade Fire. Though the Pornos broke through first, it was BSS and Arcade Fire — with their sprawling offshoots, side-projects and associated artists — that truly took Canadian indie music to the world.