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Post by RockyMountainExtreme on Mar 11, 2018 7:17:21 GMT 10
There are a lot of great bands from Australia. Hell, even Kurt Cobain credited the Australian alternative rock movement in the 80s as an influence from him. Unfortunately though, most of even the hardcore of hardcore Nirvana fans I speak to don't know that fact. Only two bands from Australia seem to be famous; AC/DC, whom by the way is very overrated, and The Wiggles, yeah, the childrens band. I do know that a lot of users on this site are from Australia, including SharksFan99 whom seems to know a lot about his home country as well, so I'd like some insight on to why many Australian bands don't get the recognition they deserve like British, Canadian, and American bands do. Is is something to do with the record companies, or maybe to do with the radio companies in the other countries?
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Post by SharksFan99 on Mar 11, 2018 8:02:48 GMT 10
I'm honestly not too sure, to be honest. I really wish people were more embracing of Australian music, because like you mentioned, there are a lot of great artists/bands from the country. We've even produced a lot of internationally successful artists/bands: {Spoiler}
INXS
Savage Garden
Silverchair
Air Supply
Rick Springfield
Sia
5 Seconds of Summer
Meril Bainbridge
Kylie and Dannii Minogue
Peter Andre
Olivia-Newton John
Natalie Imbruglia
Gotye
Men At Work
The Veronicas
Midnight Oil
Keith Urban
Divinyls
Jet
Delta Goodrem
I think there could be two reasons for Australian music's lack of recognition. It's possible that a lot of people view Australia as being insignificant and a "backwater" country, considering how geographically isolated we are and our relatively low population. Another more likely factor could be America's resistance to importing pop music from overseas. As detailed in this thread, there are major hits from all over the world which fail to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. On the topic of the alternative-rock movement, some critics believe that Grunge actually began in Australia, rather than Seattle. [1] The underground movement began in the Mid '80s, around the same time as the Seattle movement. In fact, here in Australia, alternative-rock actually emerged in the mainstream 9-12 months earlier than it did in the US. In case you're interested, here are a few Australian alternative-rock songs from the '90s. All of these songs were successful on the ARIA Top-50, but they unfortunately didn't chart overseas.
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Post by #Infinity on Mar 11, 2018 8:51:47 GMT 10
I would say one of the biggest issues is that Australia's population isn't nearly as large as the UK's or especially the US's, and that there just aren't as many bands or artists to export elsewhere. From what I've gathered, a considerably larger percentage of music that charts in Australia is imported compared to the US and UK.
Putting that all aside, though, there really have been a decent number of bands and singers from Australia who have gotten quite popular overseas, not just AC/DC or The Wiggles. Some are regarded more as one-hit wonders, like Divinyls, Pseudo Echo, and Midnight Oil, but plenty others made serious impacts. Among them:
* Kylie Minogue - You cannot forget her. She's easily one of the most successful pop singers of all time, with a career that has spanned decades of big hits worldwide. True, her only years of success in the US were 1988 and 2002, but she has still sold far more records and had a far longer career than almost any other solo female singer in history.
* Savage Garden - Regardless of what you think about them, they were undoubtedly one of the most internationally successful pop acts of the late '90s, practically rivaling even the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys.
* Air Supply
* INXS
* Men at Work
* Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Not really the biggest deal commercially, but music nerds absolutely adore this guy and his band.
* Crowded House
* Little River Band
* Jason Donovan - He was never popular in North America, but he still recorded a ton of enormous international hits at the end of the '80s and beginning of the '90s. Manufactured? Yes. But still Australian.
* Natalie Imbruglia - She was famous for quite a bit more than just "Torn". Even in the US, "Wishing I Was There" achieved a lot of popularity and I remember hearing it as a kid.
* Silverchair - They weren't quite as enormous elsewhere as they were in Australia during the '90s, but they were still at the forefront of the post-grunge scene here in America.
* Pendulum
* Sia
* Tame Impala - Like Nick Cave, these guys aren't the most successful commercially, but indie fans just eat them up.
* Jet
* Rick Springfield - He was a seriously huge deal in the US during the early-to-mid-'80s and also had one big single back in 1972 with "Speak to the Sky".
The Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, and Keith Urban also all have roots in Australia, though they've since moved elsewhere.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Mar 11, 2018 15:12:54 GMT 10
I would say one of the biggest issues is that Australia's population isn't nearly as large as the UK's or especially the US's, and that there just aren't as many bands or artists to export elsewhere. To a certain extent, I agree. However, there are a lot of mainstream artists/bands who could be exported to other countries. The Australian music scene is actually quite significant in it's own right and local artists/bands make up a fair proportion of the ARIA charts each year. I think the main reason why very few Australian artists achieve notable success overseas (despite being very successful in their home country), is because our record labels generally don't heavily market them in other countries. If the Australian record labels actually invested more money into promoting their work, I think Australian artists would have more of a presence on Top-40 charts overseas. There's quite a few bands who I can think of, that really should have been more successful than they were. For instance, i'm really surprised that The Living End weren't more successful overseas. They had a string of Top-40 hits in New Zealand and three of their singles ("Prisoner of Society", "Roll On" and "Who's Gonna Save Us?") also charted on the US Modern Rock Chart, but that was the full extent of their chart success abroad. Considering that they were one of the most popular rock bands of the Late '90s/2000s and they ushered in the Y2K-Era Pop-Punk movement, it's a shame that they couldn't replicate the same level of success in other countries around the world. I know i'm guilty of talking about Australian music quite often, but that's because Australian artists don't get the recognition that they deserve and i'm interesting in learning more about the music scene of my country. I just wish more people were open to giving Australian artists/bands a go. There's so much more to the Australian music scene than just AC/DC, INXS and Kylie Minogue.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Apr 12, 2018 18:53:08 GMT 10
I was thinking about this topic earlier today. To be honest, I actually think it has to do with how other countries generally perceive Australia. A lot of Americans tend to have this impression of Australia being a country where everyone lives in the outback, drinks Toohey's, eats Vegemite and wrestle with crocodiles.  I have even read comments from Americans online, asking if kangaroos roam the streets of Australia.  It just seems as though a lot of people overseas have a really poor understanding of the country, which is why our music scene isn't viewed as being important or significant in any way. I guess the real question is, why do a lot overseas people perceive Australia as being that way?
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Post by fanofdorks on Apr 22, 2018 3:12:59 GMT 10
Savage garden were my fave band as a teen *still are* Darren is now my fave solo artist.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Oct 19, 2018 9:16:20 GMT 10
Savage garden were my fave band as a teen *still are* Darren is now my fave solo artist. What are your favourite Savage Garden songs? Admittedly, i'm not a fan of their music, although I guess "I Want You" isn't too bad.
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I have even read comments from Americans online, asking if kangaroos roam the streets of Australia. 
