Rock music in Australia
[2] In July 1956 Frankie Davidson's cover version of another Haley single, "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie", was released and is the first charting example of Australian recorded rock and roll, albeit as a minor hit.
[4] From 1954 to 1962 Gordon's Big Show promotions brought to Australia—in many cases for the first or only time—dozens of US jazz, rock and popular stars, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Artie Shaw, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bill Haley & The Comets, Little Richard, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry.
[6] United Kingdom's EMI had dominated the Australasian record market since the end of WWII, and they made UK music a powerful force in the late 1950s and 1960s with signings like Cliff Richard and The Shadows, The Beatles, The Hollies and Cilla Black.
[7] Its main local competition was ARC (Australian Record Company), a former radio production and disc transcription service that established the successful Pacific, Rodeo and Coronet labels and competed with Festival as a manufacturer and distributor in New South Wales.
[18] Little Pattie (aka Patricia Amphlett) started as a surf pop singer with her debut single, "He's My Blonde Headed, Stompie Wompie, Real Gone Surfer Boy" (November 1963), reaching No.
[28][29] Some of leading acts during this period are, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Bobby & Laurie, Ray Brown & The Whispers, the Twilights, the Loved Ones, the Masters Apprentices, MPD Ltd, Mike Furber & The Bowery Boys, Ray Columbus & The Invaders, Max Merritt, Dinah Lee, Normie Rowe, The Groop, the Groove, The Wild Colonials, Lynne Randell (who toured US supporting the Monkees and Jimi Hendrix), Johnny Young, John Farnham, Doug Parkinson, Russell Morris and Ronnie Burns.
Although their origins are often overlooked (in much the same way that Canadian performers such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are routinely classified as "American") these trans-Tasman acts—including Max Merritt, Mike Rudd, Dinah Lee, Ray Columbus, Bruno Lawrence, Dragon and Split Enz—have exerted a considerable influence on the local rock music.
[1] During the late 1960s, many local acts dissolved or faded from view, while newer performers and surviving veterans of the 1960s beat boom coalesced into new formations and developed more distinctively Australian rock styles.
Popular rock music acts of this period include Spectrum and its successor Ariel, Daddy Cool, Blackfeather, The Flying Circus, Tully, Tamam Shud, Russell Morris, Jeff St John & Copperwine, Chain, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Headband, Company Caine, Kahvas Jute, Country Radio, Max Merritt & the Meteors, the La De Da's, Madder Lake, Stevie Wright (ex-The Easybeats), Wendy Saddington, Ayers Rock, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band and The Dingoes.
[1] Guitarist-songwriter-producer Lobby Loyde (ex Wild Cherries, Purple Hearts) was another key figure, including with his band, Coloured Balls (1972–74), which gained a considerable following, despite media allegations that their music promoted violence by sharpie gangs (an Australian youth subculture).
In 1972 a commercially successful and critically praised Sydney production of Jesus Christ Superstar premiered, which included Hines, Jon English, Reg Livermore, two future members of Air Supply, Stevie Wright, John Paul Young and Rory O'Donoghue.
One of the first examples of this trend was the surprise success of singing nun Sister Janet Mead whose 'rock' arrangement of The Lord's Prayer was a major hit in Australia and the US and earned a gold record award in the US.
The advent of Double J and Countdown fundamentally changed the economy of Australian popular music, and the pub circuit gave rise to a newer generation of tough, uncompromising, adult-oriented rock bands.
[citation needed] Other popular acts from this transitional period include AC/DC, Skyhooks, Richard Clapton, Ol' 55, Jon English, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, The Angels, The Sports, Midnight Oil, The Radiators, Australian Crawl, Dragon, Rose Tattoo, Ross Wilson's Mondo Rock, acclaimed soul singers Marcia Hines and Renée Geyer and pioneering Australian punk/new wave acts The Saints (Mk I) and Radio Birdman.
Three "Australian" acts that appeared towards the end of the Second Wave—AC/DC, Little River Band, and Split Enz—and lasted into the late 1970s and early 1980s achieved the long sought-after international success that finally took Australasian rock onto the world stage.
The most notable of early electronica were Cybotron, Sydney's Severed Heads and Melbourne's Laughing Hands and Essendon Airport who began to experiment with tape loops and synthesisers, but did not rise to prominence until the 1980s.
The 808 of the time bore little resemblance to its later sample playback incarnations, machines whose capabilities were more like that of the Fairlight CMI series 1 and Synclavier) Following the punk movement several influential bands of this post-punk era were The Birthday Party, led by Nick Cave, Foetus, The Celibate Rifles, The Go-Betweens, SPK, Dead Can Dance, These Immortal Souls, Crime & the City Solution, No, Louis Tillett, Laughing Clowns, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Beasts of Bourbon.
Groups with international hit singles included Real Life with "Catch Me I'm Falling", "Send Me an Angel", Divinyls with "Pleasure and Pain", Big Pig with "Breakaway" and Rick Springfield with "Jessie's Girl".
The 1980s was a boom period for acts whose members were usually born between 1946 and 1964 (baby boomers); this includes occasionally critically praised, popular acts such as The Party Boys, James Reyne, Models, Sunnyboys, Hunters & Collectors, Machinations, Johnny Diesel, Matt Finish, Hoodoo Gurus, Chantoozies, The Dugites, The Numbers, The Swingers, Spy Vs Spy, Eurogliders, Mental As Anything, Boom Crash Opera, I'm Talking, Do Ré Mi, Rockmelons, Stephen Cummings, The Reels, The Stems, Paul Kelly, Nick Barker, Jenny Morris, The Triffids, The Choirboys, Icehouse, Redgum, Goanna, 1927, Max Q, Noiseworks, GANGgajang, The Black Sorrows and The Zorros.
This Mainstream Australian rock of the eighties was generally uncontroversial with the exception of Kylie Minogue for her limited vocal range, Christina Amphlett and Ecco Homo, who were deemed by some to be too sexually provocative and Yothu Yindi's "Treaty", which was objected to by some because a white person Paul Kelly co-wrote it.
Renowned artists such as singer-songwriter Paul Kelly and his band The Coloured Girls (renamed The Messengers for America), ambient-rock-crossover act Not Drowning, Waving and Aboriginal-band Yothu Yindi drew inspiration from distinctly Australian concerns, particularly from the land, and they were critically well received within Australia, and also found international listeners.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the side project Honeymoon in Red were heavy on the pop cultural references to cult favourites like Johnny Cash and Saul Bass and lurid pulp fiction.
The use of violin was unusual in Australian rock bands, however, three who did include it were Box the Jesuit, Crime & the City Solution and Sidewinder, with classically trained Richard Lee, later with Dragon, on that instrument.
Examples are Johnny Teen and The Broken Hearts "I Like It Both Ways", "I Lied" by The Pony, Too Much Acid by The Pineapples from the Dawn of Time, Chewin' by Space Juniors, These Immortal Souls' "Blood and Sand, She Said" and The Scientists' "Swampland".
Highlights in rock from people of ATSI background were Archie Roach's Took the Children Away, Christine Anu's Party and her version of My Island Home and Yothu Yindi's World Turning.
In 1993, the Melbourne rock band Horsehead also gained popularity after garnering interest internationally from Madonna's Maverick Records and had a hit single 'Liar' reaching the weekly top 40 ARIA charts and was performed televised on MTV's 'Take 40 Australia'.
Notable Australian independent acts of the time included the Falling Joys from Canberra; Christine Anu from Cairns, Queensland; Diana Anaid from Nimbin; Magic Dirt from Geelong, Tumbleweed from Wollongong; The Superjesus from Adelaide; Regurgitator, Powderfinger, Screamfeeder, The Sallyanne Hate Squad and Custard from Brisbane; Something for Kate, The Living End, Dirty Three, The Paradise Motel, Rebecca's Empire, Bodyjar and The Meanies from Melbourne; Jebediah, Ammonia and The Blackeyed Susans from Perth, RatCat, The Clouds, You Am I, Vicious Hairy Mary, Caligula, The Whitlams, Bughouse, The Crystal Set, The Cruel Sea, Crow, Nitocris, Front End Loader, Skulker, Frenzal Rhomb, and Pollyanna from Sydney; Spiderbait from Finley, New South Wales and Silverchair, who began as a teenage combo in Newcastle, were discovered by Triple-J and have since become one of the most successful Australian bands of all time.
2005 in particular sparked many brand new Australian "indie rock" bands such as End of Fashion who won ARIA awards for their debut self-titled album and hit song "Oh Yeah" (as well as performing at the Homebake festival and appearing on talk show Rove Live several times).
[56] Traditional rock bands such as Regurgitator have developed an original sound by combining heavy guitars and electronic influences,[57] and rock-electro groups, most notably Rogue Traders, have become popular with mainstream audiences.
[65] Rather than being propelled by song lyrics, the edginess of the scene comes from the music which relies heavily on the use of effects including tape delays, phasers, sitars, fuzz boxes, and pitch modulators.
