Rock music in Australia
Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock, and Aussie rock, has a rich history, rooted in an appreciation of various rock genres originating in the United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent, in continental Europe and Africa. Australian rock has also contributed to the development of some of these genres, as well as having its own unique Australiana sound with pub rock and its Indigenous music.
Rock music in Australia
From 1955 to 1975, three distinct "waves" of Australian rock occurred. The first wave was from 1955 to 1963 and was influenced by American and British styles with local variants provided by artists such as Johnny O'Keefe, who had a hit with "Wild One", which appeared in July 1958. Late in that stage, clean-cut acts, which featured on TV's Bandstand and toured as the "Bandstand family", were representing local music on the record charts. The second wave from 1964 to 1969 was directly influenced by The Beatles and their tour of the country in June 1964. Two major acts from that era are The Easybeats and Bee Gees. A weekly magazine, Go-Set, which was published from 1966 to 1974, and aimed at teenagers and twenty-year-olds, quickly became the most influential and popular music-related publication of the period. The third wave from 1970 to 1975, with the advent of pub rock, was typified by early exponents, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Blackfeather, and Buffalo. Internationally, AC/DC started as a pub rock group in November 1973 and became one of the most well-known Australian rock bands, with more than 71 million sales in the US alone by 2014. Beginning in that era was Countdown, which was a popular music TV program on national broadcaster ABC, and ran from November 1974 until July 1987.
After 1975, Australian rock began to diversify, including local contributors to punk and indie rock styles. By the 1980s baby boomer acts were prominent, which included John Farnham, whose album, Whispering Jack (October 1986) peaked at number one on the Australian charts for 25 weeks and was certified 24x platinum indicating shipment of over 1.68 million copies—the highest by any Australian artist. Also in that decade and the next, Indigenous rock groups such as Yothu Yindi and Warumpi Band achieved wider recognition.
1950s to early 1960s: "First wave" of Australian rock[edit]
In the mid-1950s American rockabilly and rock and roll music was taken up by local rock musicians and it soon caught on with Australian teens, through films, records and from 1956, television.[1] Although issued in 1954, "Rock Around the Clock", a single by United States group Bill Haley and His Comets, did not chart in Australia until 1956.[2] Initially considered a novelty song, the track and the related film of the same name: "was like a beginner's guide to rock and roll, and inspired legions of local copyists".[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.[2][3] Other early recorded examples by Australians include non-charting singles: "Saturday Night Fish Fry" by Les Welch (1954), "Rock Around the Clock" by Vic Sabrino (August 1955) and "Washboard Rock 'n' Roll" by the Schneider Sisters (November 1956).[3]
Back in September 1953 US entrepreneur, Lee Gordon, arrived in Sydney and soon established himself nationally by organising a record-breaking tour by US singer Johnnie Ray in August 1954. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described Gordon as "the 'midwife' of Australian rock 'n' roll, [he] cut an imposing figure in his role as label manager, tour promoter and all-round music entrepreneur".[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.[5] He also promoted local talent by using Australian acts as support on those tours.[5]
In 1956 the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers (AARM) was established to regulate the music industry's releases.[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. EMI (Australia) also locally distributed Decca (The Rolling Stones' label) as well as the US Capitol label (The Beach Boys). During this period, however, a number of local companies in Australia expanded into the growing Australian music market, which grew considerably after the emergence of the first wave of American rock 'n' roll. In 1952 merchant bank, Mainguard took over a struggling Sydney engineering firm, retooled and relaunched it as Festival Records.[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.[7]
Although most of the major labels were Sydney-based, Melbourne's vibrant dance and concert scene powered a local boom in rock 'n' roll and pop music and it became Australia's pop capital in the 1960s.[1] During the 1950s luthier Bill May expanded his Maton guitar company, becoming one of the first local manufacturers of the new electric guitars and amplifiers. In 1953 precision engineering company White & Gillespie established a custom recording division, which their company history claims was the first in Australia to press records in the new vinyl microgroove format. The new division soon included the W&G label and studio, which arguably had its biggest success with the earlier Australian releases of Melbourne band, later based in London, The Seekers.[7] In 1960 Melbourne consumer electronics company, Astor Electronics, created its own record division, Astor Records, which established the Astor label and also became a leading distributor.[7] Festival grabbed an early lead in rock 'n' roll by releasing Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" in Australia in 1956 after it had been turned down by EMI and Decca. It became the biggest-selling hit released in the country up to that time, and its success set Festival on its way to becoming the dominant Australian local record company for the next fifteen years.[4][7]
During this period Australia experienced an increase in migration, as hundreds of thousands fled post-war Europe.[2] The majority of migrants were from the UK, many of whom were "Ten Pound Poms" who took advantage of the Australian government's A£ 10 assisted-passage fare.[2] Also, for the first time since the 1850s Gold Rush, large numbers of non-Anglo-Celts came from other European countries including Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Poland.[2] These arrivals exerted a powerful influence on all aspects of Australian society and notably in popular music: many Australia pop and rock performers of the 1960s were migrants or their children.[2]
By mid-1957, inspired by Elvis Presley and Little Richard, Sydney-based singer Johnny O'Keefe achieved local acclaim after his breakthrough appearances on a Gordon-promoted tour by Haley.[8][9] O'Keefe carved out a national profile to become a legend of Australian rock music.[8][9] He hosted one of Australia's first TV rock shows, Six O'Clock Rock (1959 to 1961), and worked as an A&R with Gordon's label, Leedon.[8][9] He was the first Australian rock 'n' roll performer to attempt to break into the US market.[8] In early 1960 O'Keefe's 35 state US tour "made little impact" although his single, "It's too Late", charted locally in New Orleans.[8] Iggy Pop covered O'Keefe's March 1958 Australian hit, "Real Wild Child", in 1986.[8] Pop re-recorded it in 2008 with Australian band, Jet. For a few years, O'Keefe and other local rockers including Lonnie Lee & The Leemen, Dig Richards & The R'Jays, Col Joye & The Joy Boys, Alan Dale & The Houserockers, Ray Hoff & the Off Beats, Digger Revell & The Denvermen and New Zealand's Johnny Devlin & The Devils whipped up excitement on a par with their US inspirations.[1] In 1959, Lee Gordon would commission Lee Robinson to produce the first ever feature-length film of a Rock'n' Roll concert held at Sydney Stadium, entitled 'Rock'n'Roll'. It is likely the only one of its kind in existence, and features a number of the aforementioned Australian artists.
In January 1960 Festival was purchased by rising media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, and in April ARC was taken over by US-owned CBS, which closed the Coronet label and replaced the Australian CBS label.[7] The success of the "first wave" rock 'n' roll acts was brief: by the early 1960s the first boom had begun to fade. Between O'Keefe's last major hit in 1961 and Billy Thorpe's first hit in 1964, the local rock music scene had become blander and more conservative.[1] The charts were dominated by clean-cut acts, many were regular guests on TV pop show, Bandstand (1958 to 1972), and toured as members of the "Bandstand family", most were signed to Festival.[10] Bandstand explicitly "appealed to anyone from eight to eighty".[10]
An alternative to mainstream pop acts were instrumental surf groups, for instance The Atlantics[11] and The Denvermen in Sydney,[12][13] and Melbourne's, The Thunderbirds.[14] Many of the players in these dance bands had come from the jazz scene, and were also influenced by R&B and jump music of performers like Louis Jordan. Others were inspired by US surf guitarists Dick Dale and Duane Eddy, or UK's The Shadows and US band the Ventures.[1] The influence of The Shadows and their lead guitarist Hank Marvin on Australasian pop and rock music of the 1960s and 1970s is underrated.[1] Australian instrumental bands played at dance venues in capital cities and regional towns. Like Australian jazz groups, these rock 'n' roll musicians became accomplished players. Dance patrons moved as couples to traditional rhythms, and bands played a wide variety of musical styles. One of the popular dance crazes of the era was "The Stomp".[2] According to Digger Revell of The Denvermen "it was like what the Red Indians do when they're dancing around the teepee. I don't know where it came from but everyone was doing it at the time".[2]