Australian rock

Australian rock and pop musicians have produced a wide variety of music. While many musicians and bands (some notable examples include the 1960s su

Australian rock and pop musicians have produced a wide variety of music. While many musicians and bands (some notable examples include the 1960s successes of the Easybeats and the folk-pop group the Seekers, through the heavy rock of AC/DC, and the slick pop of INXS and more recently Wolfmother, Savage Garden and Jet) have had considerable international success, there remains some debate over whether Australian popular music really has a distinctive sound. Perhaps the most striking common feature of Australian music, like many other Australian art forms, is the dry, often self-deprecating humor evident in the lyrics. Australian music also tends to distinguish itself from the rock styles of other nations by a heavy focus on melody and complex, reggae- and jazz-inspired rhythms. Even hard rock and heavy metal groups, from Cold Chisel through to Baby Animals and Rose Tattoo all had a strong sense of melody and are notable for joyous tunes.

Until the late 1960s, many have argued that Australian popular music was largely indistinguishable from imported music: British to begin with, then gradually more and more American in the post-war years. The sudden arrival of the 1960s underground movement into the mainstream in the early 1970s changed Australian music permanently: Skyhooks were far from the first people to write songs in Australia, by Australians, about Australia, but they were the first ones ever to make money doing it. The two best-selling albums ever made (at that time) put Australian music on the map. Within a few years, the novelty had worn off and it became commonplace to hear distinctively Australian lyrics and sometimes sounds side-by-side with the imitators and the imports.