The Rise of Australian Music

As Kylie Minogue’s illuminated and completely unpredictable derriere threatens to send me into a trance from the YouTube tab I’ve dedicated to Australian music history I’m quickly reminded of
the task at hand and pause to ask myself “Is this really the sound of our people?” How much weight do the words “I’m spinning around, move out of my way” carry when one is handed the task of summarizing Australian music history? Do I reference the perpetually camp back catalogue of our very own Men at Work? Will you guys take me seriously if I cite the Bee Gees as the blueprint for the sounds that emanating from this great southern land? Or is Great Southern Land the most prominent example of our contributions to the language of the world?

Regardless of the obscure examples I’m able to rattle off in a single paragraph, there’s no denying that Australian music has always been just that; Australian. Our audible origins can be traced all the way back to bush ballad bangers like Waltzing Matilda (which, ironically, might just be the first song to feature the term ‘swag’, albeit in context and not just as a cheap ad-lib) and the unique howls of the Didgeridoo, an instrument as difficult to coerce music out of as it is to summarize Australian music. However, as culturally significant the above relics are to our sound, they were trending before your great grandparents were old enough to legally purchase local moonshine and as such, aren’t really the strongest points in our case for musical identity.

It doesn’t take a high-ranking diplomat to affirm that our artistic pursuits are heavily inspired by the almighty U.S of A. Everything from that fancy Double Quarter Pounder you wolf down after a night on the red cans to the quality programming you immerse yourself in on a weekly basis is a product of our Big Brother ties to the star-spangled cloth, and while we’re happy to embrace the fruits of this relationship, we’re equally happy to curse those obnoxious yanks and their stupid paper money should those fruits threaten our Strayan’ sensibilities. Yet I digress; it’s this beautiful blend of love and stubbornness that has shaped and powered our sound for the better half of a century, dating all the way back to the late ’50s when a young Johnny Keefe released his first #1 single The Wild One, drawing influence from none other than American Rock pioneer, Bill Haley. Coupled with the introduction of formatted radio shows and the release of the PS4 occurring some 50 years later, music became a pastime unto itself as a nation of ’30s babies jived and twisted to the static outbursts of their AM transmitters. A standard had been set and the U.S. quickly became the driving force behind a blossoming entertainment enterprise while we were content to bounce around in the passenger seat, completely awestruck by the sounds being heard for the first time.

Thanks to the ethnic diversity of the North’s cultural juggernaut, a surge of artistic output between the ’60s and ’80s resulted in the birth of numerous genres and some of music’s most essential compositions. Names like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Cher and Elton John (perhaps you’ve heard of them?) peppered the international #1 slots and immediately asserted themselves as music royalty, while outfits like The Doors, Simon and Garfunkel, America (sorry), The Eagles and Pink Floyd laced their respective generations with the classics that would come to define them. Music was experiencing it’s very own Golden Era and a creative paradigm shift that reduced A&R meetings to little more than a polite request for more perfect music and a complimentary bag of acid*.

*Probably.

Limited by the primitive methods of broadcast and international correspondence available during the ’80s and ’90s, Australia’s uptake to the trends dictated by the U.S. market flowed via drip feed. Lacking an immediate pillar of influence or the web-based luxuries of current, a new brand of home-brewed inspiration would power a catalogue of our most definitive pop contributions – an Australian seizure of the U.S. billboards fronted by the likes of Olivia Newton John, INXS, Kylie Minogue, Men at Work and the Bee Gees (who also held numerous top spots during the ’70s) effortlessly blended the best parts of the U.S monopoly with an undeniably Australian je ne sais quoi. The Australian Sound was taking shape and our billboard portfolio followed suit.

As the noughties rolled in and technology advanced faster than a young Cathy Freeman chasing Olympic gold, artists and A&R’s the world over were soon able to exchange and advertise compositions at the click of a mouse and the tap of a thumb whilst fans and critics (of which there is now no discernable exclusivity) devoured and judged new releases before they’d even been mastered. Limited only by our connection speed and hard drive space the era of the ‘bedroom producer’ blossomed and genres upon sub-genres of electronic ear candy spawned exponentially through a range of user-friendly production suites, all powerful enough to produce the same polish as their label-driven counterparts.

Powered by the shift from organic to digital methods, genres once plagued by their ‘underground’ and ‘alternative’ tags breached the mainstream’s narrow confines with a surge of originality. Prominent artists adopted progressive producers, pop fused with gangster rap, gangster rap infiltrated dubstep, dubstep went to war with trap, trap merged with everything and the land down under watched it all live via WiFi. The bounds that restricted Australia were shattered and soon enough our homegrown talent was in high demand.

Further eliminating any doubt of our musical capacity was an endearing Facebook post made by Australian EDM wunderkind Flume last year:

“Just wanted to say how proud I am to be a part of Australian electronic music scene right now, and it’s not just me. I’ve been travelling the world for the past 6 months and I’m constantly getting asked in interviews about the “Australian sound” and this new wave of producers. I never thought much of it, being part of this new wave and all, but after this trip to the USA I’m starting to see it from an outsiders perspective. Australia, we’ve got something pretty special going on here, we’ve got our own sound, and the world’s starting to take notice.”

While artists like Flume and the new wave of aforementioned bedroom producers are far from our only current exports, they’ve been paramount in the winds of change diffusing the ambiguity and uncertainty attached to the ‘Australian Sound.’ From the textured boom-bap gems of Thurpence and Oscar Key Sung’s multifaceted wizardry, to the refined remix work of CHIEFS and the grassroots house compositions delivered by Andras Fox, our current breed of home-grown talent is as varied as our climate and trademarked by their polished adaptations of these emergent genres. At the commercial end of the spectrum Iggy Azalea’s pop monopoly continues unabated while established Indie rock outfit Tame Impala retain their U.S. presence as one of our longest running international success stories.

From the inside looking out we’ll never fully understand the scope and reach of our contributions to music, neither historically nor currently. It’s impossible for any artist to view their work externally and just as difficult to take any external perception as gospel, especially if the audience is unaware of the history that moulded the finished product or the means and methods of the artist. It’s no secret that the almost symmetrical island at the bottom of the globe has been making waves for decades, but defining those waves by a single frequency is as pointless watching Kylie Minogue music videos til 3 a.m. for research purposes.

Much like our penchant for throwing shrimps on barbies, the horrible rumours regarding kangaroos as a mode of transport and essentially anything to do with our national sporting pursuits, the Australian Sound needn’t be traced back to or pigeonholed within a particular trait or characteristic – it just is what it is. Very. Bloody. Australian.

Words by Ben Menzies