Timeline of trends in Australian music
Encyclopedia
The trend of Australian music
have often mirrored those of the United States and Britain. Australian Aboriginal music during the prehistory of Australia
is not well documented; this timeline will concentrate on the time since radio began broadcasting in Australia (1923).
being the biggest country star) and the music of its Indigenous peoples. Television was introduced to Australia in 1956, but because many people could not afford one at the time, the main medium for music was radio. Those who could not attend the concerts thus relied on the radio to hear the newest and most popular music. Nearly all the singles released in Australia at the time were recorded by Americans.
The original 'rock and roll', popularised by Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry in America became popular in Australia as well because it fitted in with the changing image of its popular culture. The first 'rock and roll' dances were held at Preston
Town Hall, Melbourne. Bill Haley and his Comets"Rock Around the Clock
", when released in Australia in 1955, sold over 150,000 units as a 45rpm EP
. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) By the end of the decade, rock and roll music was the most popular source of entertainment among young Australians. It was through these artists that Australians started recording its modern popular music.
In 1955, the New South Wales
government extended pub closing time from 6pm to 10pm to allow more rock and roll bands to play at these clubs(see Six o'clock swill
).
In March 1958, Johnny O'Keefe
's "The Wild One" was the #1 single on the Australian charts - he was the first Australian rock star to have such a hit. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Channel 9
began broadcasting an Australian version of America's Bandstand
programme, with Brian Henderson as host, which lasted for 14 years.
In 1959, Johnny O'Keefe took over the recently launched Six O'Clock Rock
(ABC
), which ran until 1962.
fad, soon followed by the Stomp fad (reflecting surf culture
, which came to Australia through the Americans a few years before). In 1964, one of the biggest bands of this genre, the Beach Boys
toured Australia. Other American acts also toured - rock and roll was still quite popular there - but very few American acts were just as successful.
More and more Australians were buying television sets, which gave the four television networks - Seven, Nine, Ten and ABC - an opportunity to air its own music show. In music shows of the 1950s and 60's, every single song on the show was performed live in a small studio in front of an audience of 300 at the most, and they were nearly always teenagers.
The British invasion, which started with The Beatles, swept through Australia with many British acts being considered alternatives to the American ones. When the Beatles toured Australia in 1964, there were fans running to meet them everywhere. They performed to sell-out crowds in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The Rolling Stones also toured Australia in 1965, again to sellout crowds. But American singers still came to Australia for tours - Bob Dylan in 1966.
The mid 1960s saw the 'mod' fad, which had been popular in Britain, come and go.
Most of the Australian acts of the 1960s were influenced by the British acts, which were more common and thus more exposable, than the American acts and so most of the Australian songs of the decade were recorded in British styles of music. However, there were some Australians who were willing to stay Americanized and record surf rock, or rock and roll songs (although for the latter genre, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles would have been bigger influences than the US acts of the 50's).
Because of its small population at the time, not every Australian singer could to an Australian label the traditional way (via a demo). So to pursue their dreams of becoming music stars, they had to enter talent shows. The winner of each talent show would get the chance to travel to Los Angeles, New York or London and be signed to a major British or American recording label. Olivia Newton-John
and Helen Reddy
were two of these singers, with Newton-John moving to London and performing songs with fellow Australian singer Pat Carroll
. The Bee Gees, influenced by the big bands of the 40's and 50's also had to go on a talent show before they could start their recording careers. They became extremely successful in this style of music.
A cover of The Coasters' "Poison Ivy" (also covered by the Rolling Stones
) gave Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
, a surf rock band, their first #1 hit, keeping even the Beatles
at bay. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) 1964 also saw Jimmy Little
have a hit with "Royal Telephone" - he was the first indigenous Australian
to do so. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
In 1966, Australia's prestigious (but quite Anglicized) annual rock band competition, Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds
began, and this ran until 1972.
By 1966, the Loved Ones
(through "The Loved One") and the Easybeats
(through "Friday on my Mind")had both seen success. Johnny Young
was host of Young Talent Time
and the Seekers
became the first Australian band to sell over a million records internationally. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Their best known songs were "Georgy Girl" and "The Carnival is Over". The last three mentioned bands all list British bands as their influences (to some extent).
Pop paper Go-Set
was also launched this year (1966), hosting their own televised pop
awards (the Pop Poll).
The popularity of surf culture continued into the 70s. From 1972 to 1975 the Sunbury Music Festival (considered to be Australia's answer to America's Woodstock) was held in Victoria, dominated by the likes of Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
, Daddy Cool
and the Skyhooks.
At this point, however, Australians were being exposed to a new distinctly American style of music - soft rock. Although they could listen to this sort of music through television and radio, it wasn't popular here until it came to Australia via the Eagles. The Little River Band
is one of the noted Australian bands of this era to play in this style of music.
In 1972, "It's Time" was recorded by Alison McCallum
, and was (in)famously (and successfully) used by the ALP
in Gough Whitlam
's bid for government. He introduced many reforms, including legislating for the establishment of community-based FM radio and increased funding for the arts. Due to his government's reforms, 2JJ (now the influential Triple J
) was established.
1972 also saw Michael Gudinski
form Mushroom Records
. In 1975, Skyhooks, who were signed to Mushroom, released Living In The 70's. Six tracks from the album were banned, and the controversy combined with the singles "Living in the 70s" and "Horror Movie" ensured the album sold well. Their actual style of music was originally surf rock, but became glam rock, which originated in Britain during the early 1970s; they are thus Anglicized in this way. Nethertheless, they were hugely successful because they gave the young Australian public what they wanted - songs about Australia - places, experiences, values and so on, rather than songs about love, which Australians up until that time had been famous for. The debut song played by 2JJ was one of the banned Skyhooks tunes, "You Just Like Me 'Cos I'm Good In Bed".
Glam rock would go on to become one of the most popular styles of music in Australia in the 1970s with Sherbet
and Split Enz
both being successful bands.
At the end of 1974, the ABC began broadcasting Countdown
with Ian Meldrum
as host, a show which became hugely popular and influential. The show started as a conventional music show, it was still common for every single song to be played live. By 1976 onwards, overseas artists began to send the ABC and other television networks promotional videos to air on their music shows when they could not perform live. Thus Australian bands like Dragon
, the Little River band
and Skyhooks made promotional videos to accompany many of their songs, even though they rarely aired on Countdown at this time. Songs played on the show often experienced a wild upswing in sales.
Disco
emerged in America in the mid to late 70s and came to Australia via artists like KC & the Sunshine Band. The Bee Gees, who had stopped recording big-band style music in the early 70s, used this style of music to make their comeback to the Australian charts. In 1977, the Bee Gees's soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever
was a huge success worldwide, and in Australia broke all previous sales records. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Disco also had other Australian followers: Leo Sayer had a Top 10 hit in 1977 with "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", and John Paul Young achieved success with "Yesterday's Hero" in 1976 and "Love is in the Air" in 1978.
The aforementioned styles of music existed alongside hard rock acts such as AC/DC
.
Australian music was starting to gather momentum overseas, with the Skyhooks touring the United States, and AC/DC and Sherbet attracting attention in Britain. In the late 70s, as the punk rock
phenomenon began overseas, Radio Birdman
and the Saints
began to be seen as scene leaders such as Shelby Ryan :S. Little River Band
gained success in the United States in 1977, with their album Diamantina Cocktail
being the first Australian-made American gold record (500,000 sales). (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
Melbourne became a haunting ground for many influential although not huge-selling rock acts during this time, including Nick Cave
's the Birthday Party
, the Go-Betweens
and the Triffids
.
, typified by Mental As Anything
, Matt Finish
, Midnight Oil
, The Angels
, Cold Chisel
and Icehouse
. (See Australian Rock
.)
In 1981, Men at Work
's "Down Under
" was hugely popular both domestically and in the U.S., with the single staying at #1 on the Billboard charts
for 4 weeks. INXS
also experienced big success with "What You Need" reaching the U.S. top 5, and the band selling over 1.3 million copies of their Listen Like Thieves album. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
The launch of MTV in America in 1981 ensured that Australians were exposed to the new generation of musical acts - and video clips - produced in the Northern Hemisphere. By 1983 Australian musical acts were making the transition from regular live performances to making promotional video clips - some acts for all of their singles.
In 1984, Midnight Oil's charismatic lead singer Peter Garrett
ran for parliament with the Nuclear Disarmament Party. In the end Garrett narrowly missed out on winning a senate seat. In the mid 1980s, politics and music were increasingly entwined - the 1985 Live Aid
concert was huge. Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust
album, featuring the "Beds Are Burning" single, broke the band in the US.
The mid 80s also saw the arrival of dance music
and the synthesiser, for example the Rockmelons and Pseudo Echo
. In 1987, Kylie Minogue
hit the pop charts with a bang, "Locomotion" becoming the biggest selling Australian single of the decade and #2 in the UK, #3 in the US. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
There was a sudden burst of interest in female singer/songwriters in the late 80s, with Kate Ceberano
, Wendy Matthews
and Jenny Morris (actually a New Zealander) being popular. With Split Enz now defunct, Neil Finn
started another project - the Mullanes, later to be renamed Crowded House
. In 1987 "Don't Dream It's Over" peaked at #2 in the US.
Alternative music was well represented during the 1980s, with the formation of such bands as bands such as the Hoodoo Gurus
, The Cruel Sea
and TISM
.
It has been said that Madonna
and Michael Jackson
, American singers who were both quite popular in Australia during this time, are major influences for Australian music from the 1980s onwards: in terms of the topics of the songs (nearly every song recorded since 1990 are related to love), the video clips, and the actual styles of music.
s, with some dozen or more being established and holding their own. Several expanded to cover multiple cities (Homebake
, Big Day Out
, Livid
). The trend was kicked off by the establishment of the Big Day Out
in 1992 in Sydney. Grunge
had become huge in Australia after the death of Nirvana
's Kurt Cobain
in 1994, and Silverchair
were the chief beneficiaries, with huge success both locally and within the US (1996).
Alternative going mainstream was confirmed in 1994, when the Cruel Sea dominated the ARIA Music Awards
with their album The Honeymoon Is Over
. Nick Cave
experienced wider commercial success, and You Am I
had three successive albums debut at #1. Other stalwarts of the 90s have been Regurgitator
, Magic Dirt
and Spiderbait
.
The baby boomer
's rock scene, by the 90s, translated into adult contemporary, with Wendy Matthews
, Daryl Braithwaite
and the Screaming Jets finding success.
In the late 90s, pop broke out all over. Savage Garden
hit the US#1 with their single "Truly Madly Deeply
" and their debut album sold over 8 million copies. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Tina Arena
and Natalie Imbruglia
also had big chart success.
The 1990s also saw a rise in popular Australian music and videos for young children, particularly The Wiggles
and Hi-5.
Triple J
's influence in possible success for a band was clearer than ever, with the station breaking Grinspoon
, Missy Higgins
and largely responsible for promoting the Whitlams
, who after winning Triple J's Hottest 100 poll in 1997 with their "No Aphrodisiac
", went on to win Song of the Year at the 1998 ARIA music awards
.
break though and become the country's biggest rock band. Not long after, reality television
gained commercial success, with Channel 7
's Popstars
and in 2003, with Channel 10
's ongoing Australian Idol
. Delta Goodrem
followed in the footsteps of Tina Arena
in the 90s with huge success, and a crack at the American market. Missy Higgins
and Ben Lee
also broke through, sweeping the ARIA Music Awards of 2005
, previously having relied almost solely on the support of Triple J
whose Hottest 100 music poll became the largest in the world with in excess of 500,000 votes placed.
Other pop artists such as The Veronicas
& Rogue Traders
also made waves on the charts during the later half of the decade.
The soapstar-turned-singer trend continued into the "naughties" with people such as Tammin, Stephanie McIntosh
and Holly Valance
all releasing album with some degree of success.
Australian hip-hop began to break through, with the Hilltop Hoods
becoming the first Australian hip-hop album to reach the top of the ARIA charts.
Following the success of garage rock
artists such as The Strokes
and The White Stripes
, Australia experienced somewhat of a rock renaissance with groups such as The Vines
, Jet
and Wolfmother
charting internationally.
Music of Australia
The music of Australia is the music produced in the area of, on the subject of, or by the people of modern Australia, including its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Indigenous Australian music is a part of the unique heritage of a 40–60,000 year history which produced the iconic...
have often mirrored those of the United States and Britain. Australian Aboriginal music during the prehistory of Australia
Prehistory of Australia
The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the first definitive sighting of Australia by Europeans in 1606, which may be taken as the beginning of the recent history of Australia...
is not well documented; this timeline will concentrate on the time since radio began broadcasting in Australia (1923).
1950s
Because Australia had military ties with the US (through the Korean War), various Australian agents would invite the biggest American stars of the day such as Frank Sinatra, Little Richard and Ricky Nelson to come to Australia and perform in Sydney, Melbourne, and the other state capitals. Johnny Ray was the first to do this, in 1952. Until the late 1950s, Australian music was limited to jazz, country (with Slim DustySlim Dusty
David Gordon "Slim Dusty " Kirkpatrick AO, MBE was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly eight decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson that represented the Australian Bush...
being the biggest country star) and the music of its Indigenous peoples. Television was introduced to Australia in 1956, but because many people could not afford one at the time, the main medium for music was radio. Those who could not attend the concerts thus relied on the radio to hear the newest and most popular music. Nearly all the singles released in Australia at the time were recorded by Americans.
The original 'rock and roll', popularised by Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry in America became popular in Australia as well because it fitted in with the changing image of its popular culture. The first 'rock and roll' dances were held at Preston
Preston, Victoria
Preston is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Darebin. At the 2006 Census, Preston had a population of 27,892.-Settlement:...
Town Hall, Melbourne. Bill Haley and his Comets"Rock Around the Clock
Rock Around the Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954...
", when released in Australia in 1955, sold over 150,000 units as a 45rpm EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) By the end of the decade, rock and roll music was the most popular source of entertainment among young Australians. It was through these artists that Australians started recording its modern popular music.
In 1955, the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
government extended pub closing time from 6pm to 10pm to allow more rock and roll bands to play at these clubs(see Six o'clock swill
Six o'clock swill
The six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public bars at 6 p.m. A culture developed of heavy drinking...
).
In March 1958, Johnny O'Keefe
Johnny O'Keefe
John Michael O'Keefe, known as Johnny O'Keefe was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s. Some of his hits include "Wild One" , "Shout!" and "She's My Baby"...
's "The Wild One" was the #1 single on the Australian charts - he was the first Australian rock star to have such a hit. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Channel 9
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
began broadcasting an Australian version of America's Bandstand
Bandstand
A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts...
programme, with Brian Henderson as host, which lasted for 14 years.
In 1959, Johnny O'Keefe took over the recently launched Six O'Clock Rock
Six O'Clock Rock
Six O'Clock Rock was an Australian Rock and Roll television show which showed on ABC Television from 28 February 1959 to 1962 and was broadcast at 6PM on Saturday evenings....
(ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
), which ran until 1962.
1960s
Still strongly reflecting American culture, in 1962 Australia experienced the TwistTwist (dance)
The Twist was a dance inspired by rock and roll music. It became the first worldwide dance craze in the early 1960s, enjoying immense popularity among young people and drawing fire from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed...
fad, soon followed by the Stomp fad (reflecting surf culture
Surf culture
Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion and life surrounding the art of surfing.The culture began early in the 20th century, spread quickly during the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to evolve. It affected fashion, music, literature, films, jargon, and more...
, which came to Australia through the Americans a few years before). In 1964, one of the biggest bands of this genre, the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
toured Australia. Other American acts also toured - rock and roll was still quite popular there - but very few American acts were just as successful.
More and more Australians were buying television sets, which gave the four television networks - Seven, Nine, Ten and ABC - an opportunity to air its own music show. In music shows of the 1950s and 60's, every single song on the show was performed live in a small studio in front of an audience of 300 at the most, and they were nearly always teenagers.
The British invasion, which started with The Beatles, swept through Australia with many British acts being considered alternatives to the American ones. When the Beatles toured Australia in 1964, there were fans running to meet them everywhere. They performed to sell-out crowds in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The Rolling Stones also toured Australia in 1965, again to sellout crowds. But American singers still came to Australia for tours - Bob Dylan in 1966.
The mid 1960s saw the 'mod' fad, which had been popular in Britain, come and go.
Most of the Australian acts of the 1960s were influenced by the British acts, which were more common and thus more exposable, than the American acts and so most of the Australian songs of the decade were recorded in British styles of music. However, there were some Australians who were willing to stay Americanized and record surf rock, or rock and roll songs (although for the latter genre, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles would have been bigger influences than the US acts of the 50's).
Because of its small population at the time, not every Australian singer could to an Australian label the traditional way (via a demo). So to pursue their dreams of becoming music stars, they had to enter talent shows. The winner of each talent show would get the chance to travel to Los Angeles, New York or London and be signed to a major British or American recording label. Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
and Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy , often referred to as "The Queen of 70s Pop", is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those 15 songs made the Top 10...
were two of these singers, with Newton-John moving to London and performing songs with fellow Australian singer Pat Carroll
Pat Carroll (singer)
Pat Carroll is an Australian singer from the 1960s.Carroll began her entertainment career at age eight when she started taking singing and dancing lessons. Appearances on children's TV shows followed by the time she was eleven years old...
. The Bee Gees, influenced by the big bands of the 40's and 50's also had to go on a talent show before they could start their recording careers. They became extremely successful in this style of music.
A cover of The Coasters' "Poison Ivy" (also covered by the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
) gave Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period...
, a surf rock band, their first #1 hit, keeping even 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...
at bay. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) 1964 also saw Jimmy Little
Jimmy Little
Jimmy Little AO , is an Australian Aboriginal musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist, whose career has spanned six decades. For many years he was the only Aboriginal star on the Australian music scene...
have a hit with "Royal Telephone" - he was the first indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
to do so. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
In 1966, Australia's prestigious (but quite Anglicized) annual rock band competition, Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds
Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds
Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds was an annual national rock/pop band competition held in Australia from 1966 to 1972.-History:Australia's Battle of the Sounds was originally established by Australian tabloid magazine Everybody’s in 1965 as a talent quest for new unsigned bands in Sydney, Melbourne...
began, and this ran until 1972.
By 1966, the Loved Ones
The Loved Ones
The Loved Ones were an Australian rock band formed in 1965 in Melbourne following the British Invasion. The line-up of Gavin Anderson on drums, Ian Clyne on organ and piano, Gerry Humphrys on vocals and harmonica, Rob Lovett on guitar, and Kim Lynch on bass guitar recorded their early hits...
(through "The Loved One") and the Easybeats
The Easybeats
The Easybeats were an Australian rock and roll band. They formed in Sydney in late 1964 and broke up at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single...
(through "Friday on my Mind")had both seen success. Johnny Young
Johnny Young
Johnny Young is an Australian singer, composer, record producer, disc jockey, television producer and host. Originally from Netherlands, his family settled in Perth, Western Australia in the early 1950s...
was host of Young Talent Time
Young Talent Time
Young Talent Time is an Australian television variety program screened on Network Ten, running from 1971 until 1988. The series features a core group of young performers in the vein of The Mickey Mouse Club, and a weekly junior talent quest. The "Young Talent Team" regularly performed popular...
and the Seekers
The Seekers
The Seekers are an Australian folk-influenced pop music group which were originally formed in 1962. They were the first Australian popular music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States...
became the first Australian band to sell over a million records internationally. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Their best known songs were "Georgy Girl" and "The Carnival is Over". The last three mentioned bands all list British bands as their influences (to some extent).
Pop paper Go-Set
Go-Set
Go-Set was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble...
was also launched this year (1966), hosting their own televised pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
awards (the Pop Poll).
1970s
There was a 'boom' of Australian music acts in the early 1970s. Masters Apprentices, Spectrum, ACDC, and Daddy Cool were some of the most successful Australian bands of this time.The popularity of surf culture continued into the 70s. From 1972 to 1975 the Sunbury Music Festival (considered to be Australia's answer to America's Woodstock) was held in Victoria, dominated by the likes of Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period...
, Daddy Cool
Daddy Cool (band)
Daddy Cool is an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1970 with the original line-up of Wayne Duncan , Ross Hannaford , Ross Wilson and Gary Young . Their debut single "Eagle Rock" was released in May 1971 and stayed at number 1 on the Australian singles chart for ten weeks...
and the Skyhooks.
At this point, however, Australians were being exposed to a new distinctly American style of music - soft rock. Although they could listen to this sort of music through television and radio, it wasn't popular here until it came to Australia via the Eagles. The Little River Band
Little River Band
Little River Band is an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in early 1975.The group chose the name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. Little River Band enjoyed sustained commercial success in not only...
is one of the noted Australian bands of this era to play in this style of music.
In 1972, "It's Time" was recorded by Alison McCallum
Alison McCallum
Alison McCallum is an Australian rock singer who had a string of singles in her home country in the late 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
, and was (in)famously (and successfully) used by the ALP
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
in Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
's bid for government. He introduced many reforms, including legislating for the establishment of community-based FM radio and increased funding for the arts. Due to his government's reforms, 2JJ (now the influential Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
) was established.
1972 also saw Michael Gudinski
Michael Gudinski
Michael Solomon Gudinski, AM is an Australian entrepreneur and businessman currently based in Melbourne who is a leading figure in the Australian music industry...
form Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
. In 1975, Skyhooks, who were signed to Mushroom, released Living In The 70's. Six tracks from the album were banned, and the controversy combined with the singles "Living in the 70s" and "Horror Movie" ensured the album sold well. Their actual style of music was originally surf rock, but became glam rock, which originated in Britain during the early 1970s; they are thus Anglicized in this way. Nethertheless, they were hugely successful because they gave the young Australian public what they wanted - songs about Australia - places, experiences, values and so on, rather than songs about love, which Australians up until that time had been famous for. The debut song played by 2JJ was one of the banned Skyhooks tunes, "You Just Like Me 'Cos I'm Good In Bed".
Glam rock would go on to become one of the most popular styles of music in Australia in the 1970s with Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
and Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
both being successful bands.
At the end of 1974, the ABC began broadcasting Countdown
Countdown (TV series)
Countdown was a long-running popular weekly Australian music television show broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 8 November 1974 until 19 July 1987. It was created by Executive Producer Michael Shrimpton, producer/director Robbie Weekes and record producer and music journalist...
with Ian Meldrum
Ian Meldrum
Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM is an Australian popular music critic, journalist, record producer , and musical entrepreneur...
as host, a show which became hugely popular and influential. The show started as a conventional music show, it was still common for every single song to be played live. By 1976 onwards, overseas artists began to send the ABC and other television networks promotional videos to air on their music shows when they could not perform live. Thus Australian bands like Dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
, the Little River band
Little River Band
Little River Band is an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in early 1975.The group chose the name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. Little River Band enjoyed sustained commercial success in not only...
and Skyhooks made promotional videos to accompany many of their songs, even though they rarely aired on Countdown at this time. Songs played on the show often experienced a wild upswing in sales.
Disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
emerged in America in the mid to late 70s and came to Australia via artists like KC & the Sunshine Band. The Bee Gees, who had stopped recording big-band style music in the early 70s, used this style of music to make their comeback to the Australian charts. In 1977, the Bee Gees's soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...
was a huge success worldwide, and in Australia broke all previous sales records. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Disco also had other Australian followers: Leo Sayer had a Top 10 hit in 1977 with "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", and John Paul Young achieved success with "Yesterday's Hero" in 1976 and "Love is in the Air" in 1978.
The aforementioned styles of music existed alongside hard rock acts such as AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
.
Australian music was starting to gather momentum overseas, with the Skyhooks touring the United States, and AC/DC and Sherbet attracting attention in Britain. In the late 70s, as the punk rock
Punk 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...
phenomenon began overseas, Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman was one of the first punk bands in Australia along with The Saints. Deniz Tek and Rob Younger formed the group in Sydney, Australia in 1974...
and the Saints
The Saints (band)
The Saints are an Australian rock band, which formed in Brisbane in 1974 as punk rockers. Founders were Chris Bailey , Ivor Hay , and Ed Kuepper . Alongside mainstay Bailey, the group has had numerous line-ups...
began to be seen as scene leaders such as Shelby Ryan :S. Little River Band
Little River Band
Little River Band is an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in early 1975.The group chose the name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. Little River Band enjoyed sustained commercial success in not only...
gained success in the United States in 1977, with their album Diamantina Cocktail
Diamantina Cocktail
Diamantina Cocktail is the third album by the Little River Band. The U.S. version of the album was actually a partial compilation of the Australian versions of After Hours and Diamantina Cocktail. In the 1980s, Capitol Records released the remaining tracks on a U.S...
being the first Australian-made American gold record (500,000 sales). (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
Melbourne became a haunting ground for many influential although not huge-selling rock acts during this time, including Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
's the Birthday Party
The Birthday Party (band)
The Birthday Party were an Australian rock band, active from 1973 to 1983.Despite being championed by John Peel, The Birthday Party found little commercial success during their career...
, the Go-Betweens
The Go-Betweens
The Go-Betweens were an indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Australia in 1977 by singer-songwriters and guitarists, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan. They were later joined by Lindy Morrison on drums, Robert Vickers on bass guitar and Amanda Brown on violin, oboe, guitar, and backing vocals,...
and the Triffids
The Triffids
The Triffids were a seminal Australian alternative rock and pop band formed in Perth, Western Australia, in May 1978 with charismatic, David McComb as singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboardist. They achieved negligible success in Australia, but greater success in the U.K...
.
1980s
The late 70s and early 80s saw the dominance of the hugely popular pub rockPub rock (Australia)
Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and still influencing contemporary Australian music today....
, typified by Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
, Matt Finish
Matt Finish
Matt Finish are an Australian rock band formed by singer-songwriter/guitarist Matt Moffitt and drummer/composer/producer John Prior in mid 1979....
, Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
, The Angels
The Angels (Australian band)
The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...
, Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel is a rock band that originated in Adelaide, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to...
and Icehouse
Icehouse (band)
Icehouse is an Australian rock band, formed as Flowers in 1977 in Sydney. Initially known in Australia for their pub rock style, they later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synthpop style music and attained Top Ten singles chart success in both Europe and the U.S...
. (See Australian Rock
Australian rock
Australian rock, sometimes called OZ Rock is used to describe the various rock and many pop bands and solo artists from Australia. Australia has a rich history of rock music and an appreciation of the roots of various rock genres, usually originating in the United States but also Britain, Ireland,...
.)
In 1981, Men at Work
Men at Work
Men at Work are an Australian rock band who achieved international success in the 1980s. They are the only Australian artists to have a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United States . They achieved the same distinction of a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United Kingdom...
's "Down Under
Down Under (song)
"Down Under" is a pop song recorded by Men at Work for their debut album Business as Usual . The song went to #1 on American, British, Canadian and Australian charts....
" was hugely popular both domestically and in the U.S., with the single staying at #1 on the Billboard charts
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
for 4 weeks. INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
also experienced big success with "What You Need" reaching the U.S. top 5, and the band selling over 1.3 million copies of their Listen Like Thieves album. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
The launch of MTV in America in 1981 ensured that Australians were exposed to the new generation of musical acts - and video clips - produced in the Northern Hemisphere. By 1983 Australian musical acts were making the transition from regular live performances to making promotional video clips - some acts for all of their singles.
In 1984, Midnight Oil's charismatic lead singer Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett
Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...
ran for parliament with the Nuclear Disarmament Party. In the end Garrett narrowly missed out on winning a senate seat. In the mid 1980s, politics and music were increasingly entwined - the 1985 Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
concert was huge. Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust
Diesel and Dust
Diesel and Dust is an album by Midnight Oil that was released in 1987 under the CBS record label.The album is a concept album about the struggles of the Australian Aborigines and environmental causes, issues both near and dear to the band, and drew inspiration from the Black Fella White Fella tour...
album, featuring the "Beds Are Burning" single, broke the band in the US.
The mid 80s also saw the arrival of dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
and the synthesiser, for example the Rockmelons and Pseudo Echo
Pseudo Echo
Pseudo Echo are an Australian New Wave band formed in 1982 in Melbourne. The original line-up consisted of Brian Canham , Pierre Gigliotti , Tony Lugton and Anthony Argiro . A later line-up included James Leigh and his brother, Vince Leigh...
. In 1987, Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
hit the pop charts with a bang, "Locomotion" becoming the biggest selling Australian single of the decade and #2 in the UK, #3 in the US. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999)
There was a sudden burst of interest in female singer/songwriters in the late 80s, with Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano is an Australian singer. She achieved success in the soul, jazz and pop genres as well as in her brief forays into musicals with Jesus Christ Superstar and film...
, Wendy Matthews
Wendy Matthews
Wendy Joan Matthews is an Australian adult alternative pop singer originally from Canada who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist...
and Jenny Morris (actually a New Zealander) being popular. With Split Enz now defunct, Neil Finn
Neil Finn
Neil Mullane Finn, OBE is a New Zealand Pop recording artist. Along with his brother Tim Finn, he was the co-frontman for Split Enz and is now frontman for Crowded House...
started another project - the Mullanes, later to be renamed Crowded House
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
. In 1987 "Don't Dream It's Over" peaked at #2 in the US.
Alternative music was well represented during the 1980s, with the formation of such bands as bands such as the Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band, formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner and later joined by Richard Grossman , Mark Kingsmill , and Brad Shepherd...
, The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea (band)
The Cruel Sea are an Australian indie rock band from Sydney formed in late 1987. Originally an instrumental-only band, they became more popular when fronted by vocalist Tex Perkins in addition to Jim Elliott on drums, Ken Gormly on bass guitar, Dan Rumour on guitar and James Cruickshank on guitar...
and TISM
TISM
TISM was a seven piece anonymous alternative rock band from Melbourne, Australia. The group was formed in 1982 and enjoyed a large underground/independent following. Their third album Machiavelli and the Four Seasons reached the Australian national top 10 in 1995...
.
It has been said that Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
and Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, American singers who were both quite popular in Australia during this time, are major influences for Australian music from the 1980s onwards: in terms of the topics of the songs (nearly every song recorded since 1990 are related to love), the video clips, and the actual styles of music.
1990s
The 1990s saw the continued expansion and then popularity of alternative music. It also saw a renaissance in music festivalMusic festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
s, with some dozen or more being established and holding their own. Several expanded to cover multiple cities (Homebake
Homebake
Homebake is an annual Australian rock festival, featuring an all-Australian lineup . The festival was first held on 4 January 1996 at Belongil Fields in Byron Bay, on the far north coast of New South Wales...
, Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
, Livid
Livid
Livid was an Australian alternative rock music festival held annually from 1989 to 2003. Masterminded by Peter Walsh and Natalie Jeremijenko, the original idea of showcasing both the arts and music in the one event was standardised as late as October/early November from 1991 until 2003...
). The trend was kicked off by the establishment of the Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
in 1992 in Sydney. Grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
had become huge in Australia after the death of Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
's Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
in 1994, and Silverchair
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...
were the chief beneficiaries, with huge success both locally and within the US (1996).
Alternative going mainstream was confirmed in 1994, when the Cruel Sea dominated the ARIA Music Awards
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
with their album The Honeymoon Is Over
The Honeymoon Is Over
The Honeymoon Is Over is the third studio album by Australian indie rock band The Cruel Sea, which was released in May 1993. The album was produced by the band, Tony Cohen and Mick Harvey for Red Eye Records. It peaked at No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart and has sold over 140,000 copies...
. Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
experienced wider commercial success, and You Am I
You Am I
You Am I are an Australian alternative rock band, fronted by vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Tim Rogers. They were the first Australian band to have three albums successively debut at #1 on the ARIA Charts, and are renowned for their live performances.-History:Tim Rogers formed the first...
had three successive albums debut at #1. Other stalwarts of the 90s have been Regurgitator
Regurgitator
Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, currently consisting of Quan Yeomans , Ben Ely and Peter Kostic . The band formed in 1994, its original line-up consisting of Yeomans, Ely and drummer Martin Lee...
, Magic Dirt
Magic Dirt
Magic Dirt are an Australian rock band, which formed in 1991 in Geelong, Victoria, with Daniel Herring on guitar, Adam Robertson on drums, Adalita Srsen on vocals and guitar, and Dean Turner on bass guitar. Initially known as Deer Bubbles and then The Jim Jims, they were renamed as Magic Dirt in...
and Spiderbait
Spiderbait
Spiderbait are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Finley in 1989 by bass guitarist Janet English, singer-drummer Mark Maher , and guitarist Damian Whitty. In 2004 the group's cover version of the 1930s Lead Belly song "Black Betty" reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart...
.
The baby boomer
Baby boomer
A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even...
's rock scene, by the 90s, translated into adult contemporary, with Wendy Matthews
Wendy Matthews
Wendy Joan Matthews is an Australian adult alternative pop singer originally from Canada who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist...
, Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite is an Australian pop singer. Best known as the lead vocalist of Sherbet, Braithwaite has also sustained a successful solo career, placing 15 singles in the Australian top 40, including the No...
and the Screaming Jets finding success.
In the late 90s, pop broke out all over. Savage Garden
Savage Garden
Savage Garden were an Australian pop rock performance and songwriting duo. Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones formed the group in Brisbane, Queensland in 1994...
hit the US#1 with their single "Truly Madly Deeply
Truly Madly Deeply
"Truly Madly Deeply" is a song by Australian pop band Savage Garden, released as a single in March 1997. Written by band-mates Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones, the song is a reworking of a song called "Magical Kisses" that the pair wrote together long before recording began on their debut album....
" and their debut album sold over 8 million copies. (Creswell & Fabinyi, 1999) Tina Arena
Tina Arena
Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist...
and Natalie Imbruglia
Natalie Imbruglia
Natalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian singer-songwriter, model and actress. In the early 1990s, Imbruglia was known to audiences as Beth Brennan in the popular Australian soap Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, Imbruglia launched a singing career with the international hit,...
also had big chart success.
The 1990s also saw a rise in popular Australian music and videos for young children, particularly The Wiggles
The Wiggles
The Wiggles are a children's group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. Their original members were Anthony Field, Phillip Wilcher, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt. Wilcher left the group after their first album...
and Hi-5.
Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
's influence in possible success for a band was clearer than ever, with the station breaking Grinspoon
Grinspoon
Grinspoon are an Australian rock band from Lismore, New South Wales formed in 1995 and fronted by Phil Jamieson on vocals and guitar with Pat Davern on guitar, Joe Hansen on bass guitar and Kristian Hopes on drums. Also in 1995, they won the Triple J-sponsored Unearthed competition for Lismore,...
, Missy Higgins
Missy Higgins
Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Her No. 1 albums in Australia are The Sound of White and On a Clear Night , and her Top Ten singles are "Scar", "The Special Two", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". From a musical family in...
and largely responsible for promoting the Whitlams
The Whitlams
The discography of The Whitlams consists of six studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, and eighteen singles.-Studio albums:-Live albums:-Compilation albums:-Singles:-Videos:-Music videos:-Awards:...
, who after winning Triple J's Hottest 100 poll in 1997 with their "No Aphrodisiac
No Aphrodisiac
"No Aphrodisiac" is the third single on The Whitlams third album Eternal Nightcap. It was written by Tim Freedman, with Pinky Beecroft and Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab helping with the lyrics. The single is the band's most successful and well known, voted the #1 song in the Triple J Hottest 100, 1997...
", went on to win Song of the Year at the 1998 ARIA music awards
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
.
2000s
Following a rise in success in the late 1990s, the early "naughties" saw PowderfingerPowderfinger
Powderfinger was an Australian rock band that formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their breakup the band lineup consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill....
break though and become the country's biggest rock band. Not long after, reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
gained commercial success, with Channel 7
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
's Popstars
Popstars
Popstars is an international reality television franchise and a precursor to the Idol series. The series first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the five member all-girl group TrueBliss...
and in 2003, with Channel 10
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
's ongoing Australian Idol
Australian Idol
Australian Idol is a Logie Award-winning Australian singing competition, which began its first season on July 2003 and ended its run in November 2009. As part of the Idol franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program Pop Idol, which was created by British entertainment executive...
. Delta Goodrem
Delta Goodrem
Delta Lea Goodrem is an Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. Signed to Sony at the age of 15, Goodrem rose to prominence in 2002, starring in the Australian soap opera Neighbours as Nina Tucker. Goodrem has achieved eight number-one singles and three number-one albums in her home...
followed in the footsteps of Tina Arena
Tina Arena
Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist...
in the 90s with huge success, and a crack at the American market. Missy Higgins
Missy Higgins
Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Her No. 1 albums in Australia are The Sound of White and On a Clear Night , and her Top Ten singles are "Scar", "The Special Two", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". From a musical family in...
and Ben Lee
Ben Lee
Benjamin Michael "Ben" Lee is an ARIA Award winning musician and actor. Lee began his career as a musician at the age of 14 with the Sydney band Noise Addict, but focused on his solo career when the band broke up in 1995. He appeared as the protagonist in the Australian film The Rage in Placid Lake...
also broke through, sweeping the ARIA Music Awards of 2005
ARIA Music Awards of 2005
The 19th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 23 October 2005 at the Sydney Superdome at the Sydney Olympic Park complex, thus continuing the previous year's innovation of televising the awards on Sunday evening...
, previously having relied almost solely on the support of Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
whose Hottest 100 music poll became the largest in the world with in excess of 500,000 votes placed.
Other pop artists such as The Veronicas
The Veronicas
The Veronicas are an Australian electrorock, pop-punk and rock band. Twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso formed the band in 1999 in Brisbane. They have their own line of clothing which was released in 2007....
& Rogue Traders
Rogue Traders
Rogue Traders are an Australian electronic pop rock band fronted by Melinda "Mindi" Jackson with James Ash on keyboards, Tim Henwood on guitars and Peter Marin on drums. The group's original members met in London in 1989. Before forming Rogue Traders, Ash and Davis worked together on many...
also made waves on the charts during the later half of the decade.
The soapstar-turned-singer trend continued into the "naughties" with people such as Tammin, Stephanie McIntosh
Stephanie McIntosh
Stephanie McIntosh is an Australian actress and singer. She is known for her role as Sky Mangel in the Australian soap opera Neighbours and her music career, which began with the release of her debut album Tightrope in September 2006.-Background:McIntosh attended Firbank and then Melbourne Girls...
and Holly Valance
Holly Valance
Holly Valance is an Australian actress, singer, and model, who has dual United Kingdom citizenship. Valance began her career as Felicity "Flick" Scully on the Australian soap opera Neighbours...
all releasing album with some degree of success.
Australian hip-hop began to break through, with the Hilltop Hoods
Hilltop Hoods
The Hilltop Hoods are an ARIA Award winning Australian hip hop group, from Adelaide, South Australia. Their members are MCs Suffa , MC Pressure , DJ Debris and formerly DJ Next. They have been at the centre of the Australian hip hop scene for the better part of two decades, originally forming back...
becoming the first Australian hip-hop album to reach the top of the ARIA charts.
Following the success of garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
artists such as The Strokes
The Strokes
The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....
and The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
, Australia experienced somewhat of a rock renaissance with groups such as The Vines
The Vines
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck?landing_page=L11_1121_WMUK_Jimmy_DDOptimised&utm_medium=sitenotice&utm_campaign=C11_1121_WMUK_DDvOneOff&utm_source=B11_1121_WMUK_Jimmy&language=en&country=GB...
, Jet
Jet (band)
Jet are an Australian rock band formed in 2001 while attending St Bede's College Mentone in Melbourne, . The band consists of lead guitarist Cameron Muncey, bassist Mark Wilson, and brothers Nic and Chris Cester on vocals/rhythm guitar and drums respectively...
and Wolfmother
Wolfmother
Wolfmother is an Australian rock band from Erskineville, Sydney. Formed in 2000, the group was originally a trio composed of vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett. Wolfmother released their self-titled debut album in October 2005,...
charting internationally.