Australia

One of the last corners of the world colonized by Europeans, Australia is also home to the world's oldest living civilization. Today, Australian music tells stories millenniums old but also regularly scales the pop charts around the world. Somewhere in between, Aboriginal rock combines elements from both worlds.

The Aborigines, inhabitants of the continent for over 50,000 years, have a distinctive musical culture. Aboriginal creation myth holds that singing was the means of the world's creation. By the late 19th century, most Aboriginals had been forced into white communities and many tribes were massively depopulated. But in the 1970s, Aborigines reasserted their cultural traditions and began fusing western reggae and rock with traditional instrumentation and using music as a means of political protest. The iconic Aboriginal didgeridoo, a hollowed eucalyptus log, became a symbol of Aboriginal culture, and was first pressed into service in the late '70s by such reggae-influenced Aboriginal bands as No Fixed Address and Us Mob. In the late '80s Aboriginal rock entered the Australian charts with the politically-charged songs of multi-cultural group Yothu Yindi. Today, there are hundreds of Aboriginal rock bands, such as Blek Bela Majik and the Warumpi Band, some of which benefit from the support of the CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) and gain national exposure. There's also a thriving Aboriginal singer-songwriter scene, best exemplified by the music of Archie Roach, Kev Carmody and Ruby Hunter.

With its vast open plains, sheep and cattle ranching cowboy culture and influx of inhabitants with their own folk traditions, Australian country music bears a close resemblance to its American counterpart. Convicts and pioneers brought the music hall ballads and folk tunes of their homelands as well as the fiddle, concertina, banjo, mouth organ, penny whistle and tea chest. In the late 1880s, the Bush Balladeers literary tradition emerged providing Aussie singers with lyrical material they adopted into songs over the course of the twentieth century. In 1895, the nationalist poet and journalist Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson wrote the words to most famous Aussie tune (with music based on a Celtic folk tune), "Waltzing Matilda," the country's unofficial national anthem. By the 1930s, American country was making inroads via radio in the rural parts of Australia. Tex Morton (New Zealand born Robert Lane) earned the title "Father of Australian Country Music" mixing local material with American favorites. He augmented his singing with talents such as yodeling, trick shooting and even hypnosis before his music career picked up steam in the '60s. But Slim Dusty (David Gordon Kirkpatrick) was Australian country's most prolific star. Debuting on record in 1946, he recorded over a 1000 songs and released over 100 albums on numerous labels. Buddy Williams and Queenslander Shirley Thomas were also key figures in Aussie Country. For two weeks each January Tamworth, New South Wales hosts the Tamworth Country Music Festival honoring Australia's country past and present.

In Johnny O'Keefe, Australia boasted its first Elvis-type rock star. His breakout 1958 single "Wild One" was later recorded by Iggy Pop but he's best known as an Aussie TV personality. By the '60s, Australian artists were charting in both UK and USA. The Easybeats, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Bee Gees, the Master's Apprentices and others played guitar-oriented pop and psychedelia inspired by the British Invasion. In the late 70s, AC/DC's pared-down hard rock sound emerged as the country's most recognizable export (members were related to the Easybeats) while glam rockers Sherbert failed to launch. Likewise, Aussie pub rockers Cold Chisel never became a household name anywhere else with post-Vietnam tunes like "Khe-Sanh," but remain enduring favorites at home. On the softer side, the early '80s found the world ready for the sound of Air Supply, Men at Work and the Little River Band, while singer Olivia Newtown John went on to massive chart and film success. The harmonizing Bee-Gees reinvented themselves as a disco group and found massive success stateside with Saturday Night Fever.

Australia has its own jazz and classical traditions. In the mid-twentieth century, Australian jazz artists were split between a traditional Dixieland jazz revival and embrace of the emerging bebop sound. On the classical side, modern composer Peter Sculthorpe has drawn on Aboriginal influences to differentiate his Kakadu, Mangrove and Earth Cry.

Emerging from the punk era the Saints and Birthday Party earned critical notice. The latter spawned one of Australia's most recognized ex-patriots Nick Cave, a singer, poet and actor with an unusual preoccupation with death, murder and drama of biblical proportion. New wave Aussies INXS, Hunters & Collectors and Midnight Oil became key players in the New Pop/MTV-era. In the 90s, underground punk and indie rock of The Hard-Ons and Dirty Three gained cult followings abroad. But the cookie cutter grunge of Silverchair scored the biggest sales in the states. More recently, Aussie indie groups such as electronic act the Avalanches developed innovative sounds while retro-rock of the Vines, the Datsuns and Jet has kept pace with their Brit-pop brethren. Aussie exports such as Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia continue to be potent commercial forces, though few could better the worldwide sales scored by pop duo Savage Garden at the end of the '90s.—John Dugan