Dunedin Sound
Encyclopedia
The Dunedin sound was a style of indie pop
music created in the southern New Zealand
university city of Dunedin
in the early 1980s.
sound, the Dunedin Sound uses "jingly jangly" guitar
playing, minimal bass lines
and loose drumming
. Keyboards
are also often prevalent. Amateur recording techniques also gave this genre a lo-fi sound that endeared its earnest music, but occasionally hard to understand vocal accompaniment, to university students worldwide.
as a musical influence in New Zealand in the late 1970s. Isolated from the country's main punk scene in Auckland
(which had been influenced by bands such as England's Buzzcocks), Dunedin's punk groups such as The Enemy
(which became Toy Love
) and The Same
(which later developed into The Chills
) developed a sound more heavily influenced by artists like The Velvet Underground
and The Stooges
. This was complemented by jangly, psychedelic-influenced guitar work reminiscent of 1960s bands such as The Beatles
and The Byrds
, and the combination of the two developed into the style which became known as the Dunedin Sound.
New Zealand based Flying Nun Records
championed the Dunedin Sound, starting with their earliest releases (including The Clean's
single "Tally Ho!" and the four-band compilation Dunedin Double EP
, from which the term Dunedin Sound was first coined), and many artists gained a dedicated "college music" following, both at home and overseas. In July 2009, Uncut magazine put it that "before the mp3 replaced the flexidisc, the three axes of the international indie-pop underground were Olympia WA, Glasgow, and Dunedin, New Zealand." The growth of the Dunedin Sound coincided with the founding of the student radio
station at Otago University Radio One), helping to increase the popularity and availability of the music around the city.
The development of parallel musical trends such as the Paisley Underground
in California and the resurgence of Jangle pop
aided a growth in the popularity of the Dunedin Sound on college radio in the USA and Europe. The heyday of the movement was in the mid-to-late 1980s, although music in the style is still being recorded and released.
California's Pavement
is but one overseas band that claims the Dunedin Sound as a major influence, and overseas artists such as Superchunk
, Barbara Manning
, Elf Power
and Cat Power
have each covered Dunedin Sound songs on several occasions.
Though the bands themselves tend to eschew the genre title, "Dunedin Sound" artists include the following bands and soloists. Not all of these musicians are from Dunedin, but all show the influence of the music which emanated from that city in the 1980s:
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
music created in the southern New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
university city of Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
in the early 1980s.
Characteristics
Similar in many ways to the traditional indie popIndie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
sound, the Dunedin Sound uses "jingly jangly" guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
playing, minimal bass lines
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
and loose drumming
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
. Keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
are also often prevalent. Amateur recording techniques also gave this genre a lo-fi sound that endeared its earnest music, but occasionally hard to understand vocal accompaniment, to university students worldwide.
Influences
The Dunedin Sound can be traced back to the emergence of punk rockPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
as a musical influence in New Zealand in the late 1970s. Isolated from the country's main punk scene in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
(which had been influenced by bands such as England's Buzzcocks), Dunedin's punk groups such as The Enemy
The Enemy (New Zealand band)
The Enemy were a band from Dunedin, New Zealand, that are often seen as the starting point of the Dunedin Sound rock movement.Though the band did not release any official recordings, some of their performances are available in bootleg form. They are seen as hugely influential on the development of...
(which became Toy Love
Toy Love
Toy Love was a New Zealand New Wave/punk rock band fronted by Chris Knox. Other members were guitarist Alec Bathgate, bass player Paul Kean, drummer Mike Dooley, and keyboard player Jane Walker...
) and The Same
The Chills
The Chills are a guitar and keyboard-based rock band from Dunedin, New Zealand. In the 1980s and 1990s, they were one of the proponents of the Dunedin Sound.- History :...
(which later developed into The Chills
The Chills
The Chills are a guitar and keyboard-based rock band from Dunedin, New Zealand. In the 1980s and 1990s, they were one of the proponents of the Dunedin Sound.- History :...
) developed a sound more heavily influenced by artists like The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
and The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
. This was complemented by jangly, psychedelic-influenced guitar work reminiscent of 1960s bands such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, and the combination of the two developed into the style which became known as the Dunedin Sound.
New Zealand based Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records is an independent record label formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 by music-store proprietor Roger Shepherd.-History:The label was formed in the flurry of new punk rock-inspired labels forming in the early 1980s...
championed the Dunedin Sound, starting with their earliest releases (including The Clean's
The Clean
The Clean are an influential Indie rock band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978. Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled down to their well-known and current line-up with bassist Robert Scott...
single "Tally Ho!" and the four-band compilation Dunedin Double EP
Dunedin Double EP
The Dunedin Double EP was a seminal record in New Zealand music. An unusual format, it contain two 45rpm 12" discs, and at nearly 50 minutes length, it is longer than many albums....
, from which the term Dunedin Sound was first coined), and many artists gained a dedicated "college music" following, both at home and overseas. In July 2009, Uncut magazine put it that "before the mp3 replaced the flexidisc, the three axes of the international indie-pop underground were Olympia WA, Glasgow, and Dunedin, New Zealand." The growth of the Dunedin Sound coincided with the founding of the student radio
Campus radio
Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
station at Otago University Radio One), helping to increase the popularity and availability of the music around the city.
The development of parallel musical trends such as the Paisley Underground
Paisley Underground
Paisley Underground is an early genre of alternative rock, based primarily in Los Angeles, California, which was at its most popular in the mid-1980s.- History :...
in California and the resurgence of Jangle pop
Jangle pop
Jangle pop is a genre of alternative rock from the mid-1980s that "marked a return to the chiming or jangly guitars and pop melodies of the '60s" bands such as The Byrds, with their electric twelve-string guitars and power pop song structures. Mid-1980s jangle pop was a non-mainstream "pop-based...
aided a growth in the popularity of the Dunedin Sound on college radio in the USA and Europe. The heyday of the movement was in the mid-to-late 1980s, although music in the style is still being recorded and released.
California's Pavement
Pavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
is but one overseas band that claims the Dunedin Sound as a major influence, and overseas artists such as Superchunk
Superchunk
Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Jon Wurster. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that helped define the Chapel Hill music scene of the 1990s...
, Barbara Manning
Barbara Manning
Barbara Manning is an American indie rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to her solo career, Manning has been active in a number of bands, including 28th Day , World of Pooh, S.F. Seals and The Go-Luckys!. She has also distinguished herself as an interpreter of other writers' songs...
, Elf Power
Elf Power
Elf Power is an indie rock band that originated in Athens, Georgia. Currently, the line-up consists of guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger, keyboardist Laura Carter, guitarist Jimmy Hughes, bassist Derek Almstead, and drummer Eric Harris...
and Cat Power
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
have each covered Dunedin Sound songs on several occasions.
Though the bands themselves tend to eschew the genre title, "Dunedin Sound" artists include the following bands and soloists. Not all of these musicians are from Dunedin, but all show the influence of the music which emanated from that city in the 1980s:
- Tall DwarfsTall DwarfsTall Dwarfs are a New Zealand rock band formed in 1981 by Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate who, through their do-it-yourself ethic, helped pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music. The duo formed out of the ashes of Toy Love....
(see also Chris KnoxChris KnoxChris Knox is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist, and DVD reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the group Tall Dwarfs with guitarist Alec Bathgate, much loved for their honest,...
, Alec BathgateAlec BathgateAlec Bathgate is a New Zealand musician who was a key member of The Enemy and Toy Love, as well as being one half of Flying Nun Records act Tall Dwarfs alongside Chris Knox. As well as playing guitar in these bands, he has released two solo albums....
, Toy LoveToy LoveToy Love was a New Zealand New Wave/punk rock band fronted by Chris Knox. Other members were guitarist Alec Bathgate, bass player Paul Kean, drummer Mike Dooley, and keyboard player Jane Walker...
) - Sneaky FeelingsSneaky FeelingsSneaky Feelings were a 1980s New Zealand pop/rock band, led by Matthew Bannister, who recorded on the Flying Nun label. Initially recording with the line-up of Bannister , David Pine , Kat Tyrie and Martin Durrant , Tyrie was replaced by John Kelcher early in the band's career...
- The CleanThe CleanThe Clean are an influential Indie rock band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978. Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled down to their well-known and current line-up with bassist Robert Scott...
(see also David KilgourDavid Kilgour (musician)David Kilgour is a musician from Dunedin, a city in the South Island of New Zealand. He first started playing guitar as a teenager in the late 1970s...
, The Great Unwashed, The Mad SceneThe Mad SceneThe Mad Scene is a musical group based in New York City. Core members are guitarist Hamish Kilgour , and guitarist/bassist Lisa Siegel.-Career:The band was founded in 1990 in Auckland, New Zealand...
) - The BatsThe BatsThe Bats are an influential New Zealand rock band formed in 1982 in Christchurch by Paul Kean , Malcolm Grant , Robert Scott and Kaye Woodward...
- The ChillsThe ChillsThe Chills are a guitar and keyboard-based rock band from Dunedin, New Zealand. In the 1980s and 1990s, they were one of the proponents of the Dunedin Sound.- History :...
- The VerlainesThe VerlainesThe Verlaines are a rock band from Dunedin, New Zealand. Formed in 1981 by Graeme Downes, Craig Easton, Anita Pillai, Phillip Higham and Greg Kerr, the band went through multiple line-ups before going on an extended hiatus after their 1997 album Over The Moon. In 2003 a career retrospective, You're...
- 3DsThe 3DsThe 3Ds were an alternative pop/rock band based from Dunedin, New Zealand, together from 1988 to 1997. The band was formed in May 1988 by* Dominic Stones — drums,* Denise Roughan — bass, keyboards, tambourine, vocals...
- Look Blue Go PurpleLook Blue Go PurpleLook Blue Go Purple was an alternative pop/rock band from Dunedin, New Zealand, together from 1983 to 1987, recognised as part of the Dunedin Sound.-Members:* Kathy Bull — bass* Norma O'Malley — keyboards, flute* Lesley Paris — drums...
- Straitjacket FitsStraitjacket FitsStraitjacket Fits formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1986 and were a prominent band in the Flying Nun label's second wave of the Dunedin Sound.-Biography:...
- The DoubleHappysThe DoubleHappysThe DoubleHappys were a short-lived but influential rock band based in Dunedin, New Zealand, and part of the Dunedin Sound music wave of the 1980s...
- Alastair Galbraith
- Jean-Paul Sartre ExperienceJean-Paul Sartre ExperienceThe Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, later renamed JPS Experience after a lawsuit by the estate of Jean-Paul Sartre, were an indie rock band on New Zealand's Flying Nun Records.-History:...
- Loves Ugly Children
- This Kind Of PunishmentThis Kind Of PunishmentThis Kind Of Punishment were a band from New Zealand.The band was formed by brothers Peter and Graeme Jefferies, after the breakup of their post-punk outfit Nocturnal Projections. Their first self-titled album was recorded on 4-track recorder borrowed from Chris Knox, and released in an edition of...
(see also Peter JefferiesPeter JefferiesPeter Jefferies is a musician from New Zealand.In 1981 Peter and his brother Graeme Jefferies formed the post-punk band Nocturnal Projections. The band released a few records, and played around their hometown of New Plymouth, as well as Auckland....
, Graeme JefferiesGraeme JefferiesGraeme Jefferies is a musician from New Zealand.In 1981 Graeme and his brother Peter Jefferies formed the post-punk band Nocturnal Projections...
, The Cake Kitchen) - Superette
- Stereobus
- Bailterspace
- The Tin Soldiers
- GaragelandGaragelandGarageland was an indie rock band on New Zealand's Flying Nun record label. Influenced by Pixies, Pavement, The Clean and The Velvet Underground, they were critically acclaimed in the UK and US for their well-crafted and catchy pop songs...
- Able TasmansAble TasmansThe Able Tasmans were an indie band from Auckland, New Zealand.At various times, the band consisted of Leslie Jonkers, Peter Keen, Graeme Humphreys, Craig Mason, Jane Dodd , and Ronald Young. They formed in 1984, and named themselves after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. They released four albums...
- Bird Nest RoysBird Nest RoysThe Bird Nest Roys were a rock group born in the hills west of Auckland, New Zealand, who released one self-titled album on Flying Nun Records. Despite being from Auckland, they are frequently cited as one of the bands that played the Dunedin Sound, named after the city of Dunedin on the South...
- The Puddle
- SnapperSnapper (band)Snapper was a New Zealand indie/alternative band formed by Peter Gutteridge, previously in The Clean, The Chills and The Great Unwashed.The band evolved from the line-up of another Gutteridge-led band, the Dunedin-based Phromes...
- The Dark Beaks
- The TerminalsThe TerminalsThe Terminals are an alternative rock band from New Zealand. They released material on the Xpressway and Flying Nun labels.No affiliation with the TERMINALS aka the TERMINALS , a Surf/Punk band from Hutchinson, KS, USA...