bangalore
Member

What is the most "distinctively australian" music act you've ever heard? I'd be interested to hear younger readers' opinions in particular.

antonnalan
Member

imo, every aussie act Ive heard has a distinct aussie sound, the most aussie being the rock artists, Im one the younger ones here, do I count?
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Hijinx
Member

I'm not sure at the moment, I'll get back to you on that.

May 28th

Having stalled at #2 for a couple of weeks, Soulja Boy finally gets his first #1 with "Live Those Days Tonight". It's the chart's 54th number one. This means that after an impressive 5 weeks at #1, Katy Perry falls to #2 with "Architects". Far East Movement still hold at #3 with their Cataracs collab in "Shake Me Down". Beyonce continues her ascent to #4 with "Best of Tomorrow". This pushes Rihanna down a spot to #5 with "Rolling in the Deep".
Proving consistency, Iyaz scores his 4th consecutive top 10 hit with "Reptiles" now up to #6. Ke$ha also compliments her former #1 "Rope" with "Bridge Burning" joining it in the top 10 at #9. Flo Rida's latest replaces his previous hit "China" in at #10.
LMFAO look set to hit the top 10 soon as "Feeding Line" jumps from #19 to #11, however their big hit "Fall at Your Feet" drops out this week.
Brokencyde start their run well, with "Shot Yourself in the Foot Again" rising three places to #21. Right behind them is Rihanna with "Set Fire to the Rain" rising well. Lower down there are new peaks for Britney Spears, Chris Brown, New Boyz, Taio Cruz & Nicki Minaj.

NEW ENTRIES

Although not actually a single, Glee Cast have managed a very impressive debut at #12 with "Our Perfect Disease", it instantly beats the peak of their only other entry to date, "Jump into the Fog".
A little lower but still impressive, T-Pain debuts at #15, which like Glee Cast, instantly beats the peak of only other entry (as main artist) "Helena Beat".
Clearly unstoppable at the moment, Glee Cast also have another entry at #37 with "Techno Fan", it's their 3rd entry to date.

TW	LW	TI	HP	Artist	Title
1	2	8	1	Soulja Boy Tell 'Em	Live Those Days Tonight {1 Week @ #1}
2	1	12	1	Katy Perry	Architects {5 Weeks @ #1}
3	3	11	3	Far East Movement	Shake Me Down (feat Cataracs)
4	7	8	4	Beyonce	Best of Tomorrow
5	4	16	4	Rihanna	Rolling in the Deep (feat Pitbull, Lil Wayne & Snoop Dogg)
6	11	4	6	Iyaz	Reptile
7	5	13	1	Ke$ha	Rope {1 Week @ #1}
8	8	8	8	Jason Derulo	April Fool
9	13	3	9	Ke$ha	Bridge Burning
10	17	4	10	Flo Rida	Mary (feat T-Pain, Pitbull & Afrojack)
11	19	3	11	LMFAO	Feeding Line (feat Akon & GoonRock)
12	NE	1	12	Glee Cast	Our Perfect Disease
13	6	9	6	Psycho Teddy	Windows
14	9	17	1	Kid Rock	Love My Name {4 Weeks @ #1}
15	NE	1	15	T-Pain	Don't Stop (Color on the Walls) (feat Pitbull & Lil Wayne)
16	10	15	1	Flo Rida	China {4 Weeks @ #1} (feat Chris Brown, Justin Bieber & Dev)
17	12	14	3	Willow	Sick, Sick, Sick
18	15	6	15	Jessie J	Supercollider
19	14	12	5	David Guetta	2 Days (feat Rihanna, Flo Rida, Akon & Lil Wayne)
20	16	16	2	The Black Eyed Peas	Under Cover Of Darkness
21	24	2	21	Brokencyde	Shot Yourself in the Foot Again (feat Ke$ha)
22	26	2	22	Rihanna	Set Fire to the Rain
23	20	12	9	Crazy Frog	Time & Place
24	18	12	8	Justice Crew	Contact High (feat Flo Rida)
25	27	6	25	Britney Spears	Control
26	22	9	21	The Black Eyed Peas	Machu Picchu
27	32	3	27	Chris Brown	Exile Vilify (feat T-Pain)
28	21	11	12	Miley Cyrus	Circles
29	30	5	29	New Boyz	Fragile Bird (feat Cataracs & Dev)
30	25	14	25	Jessie J	Lotus Flower
31	23	10	15	Cody Simpson	A.I.M. Fire! (feat Usher)
32	33	4	32	Taio Cruz	Something to Believe In
33	35	2	33	Nicki Minaj	When We Were Kids
34	31	16	6	Britney Spears	She's Like a Comet
35	28	19	3	Katy Perry	Help is on the Way
36	29	9	19	Akon	You Are a Tourist (feat Lil Wayne, Akon, Pitbull, Snoop Dogg, Akon & Flo Rida)
37	NE	1	37	Glee Cast	Techno Fan
38	37	12	27	Rihanna	Someone Like You
39	36	7	22	Chris Brown	Conversation 16
40	34	11	16	Justin Bieber	All of This

EXITS

LW	TI	HP	Artist	Song
38	3	38	Bon Iver	The Look
39	12	27	Cali Swag District	Need You Now
40	28	1	LMFAO	Fall At Your Feet {4 Weeks @ #1}

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bluezombie
Member

Please don't.

392414
Member

Lady Gaga.

Well, thats like asking what is the most distinctively Belarussian or Japanese music you've ever heard?

A perfectly fine question, if you can, at the very least, define what qualities you find 'Australian'? Even then, you would have to define what parameters there are for something entitled 'music'. Further, you would then have to synthesise those answers and somehow create something labeled Australian music. However, you want a distinct answer, therefore leading to something which is not vague. Hence, you must develop a framework for the explicit distinction of vaguely Australian music and distinctively Australian music.

In my next response, I will address your second statement.

bangalore
Member

What is the most distinctively Australian artist of all time?

Musically, most people would probably say Midnight Oil or Cold Chisel, then to a lesser extent Skyhooks, AC/DC, Divinyls, Mental as Anything, the Choirboys, Australian Crawl, Hoodoo Gurus, Goanna, the Angels, Noiseworks, INXS, Men at Work and Icehouse - essentially all the 70s/80s pub rock bands. For many, pub rock is the most distinctively Australian style of music there is.

But we also have a lot of old country and folk artists like Tex Morton, Slim Dusty, Rolf Harris, The Bushwhackers, John Williamson and Redgum. And we have "Bush music", influenced by Celtic folk, which dates back to the beginning of our British heritage. The Dingoes famously blended bush music with RnB to record "Way out West". Not to mention Paul Kelly, the John Butler Trio, the Church and the Waifs.

Then there's our Aboriginal music. Yothu Yindi, Christine Anu and Gurrumul are famous for mixing traditional pop/rock sounds with traditional Aboriginal sounds.

Then you have Nick Cave. And then you have the Wiggles, and there must be other styles of music I haven't mentioned.

Lyrically, though, it's a different story. You have a few rock bands that wrote about Australian places, experiences, etc:
Midnight Oil - "Beds are Burning", "The Dead Heart", "Blue Sky Mining"
Cold Chisel - "flame trees", "shipping steel", "bow river", "Star hotel", etc
Skyhooks - "carlton", "somewhere in sydney", "Balwyn calling" etc
Australian Crawl - "the Boys light Up", "errol", "reckless", "Beautiful people"
Goanna - "Solid Rock"

The (modern) country/folk artists:
Slim Dusty - "Duncan", "Pub with No Beer"
John Williamson - "Old Man Emu", "True Blue"
Redgum - "I Was Only 19", "I've been to Bali too"
Paul Kelly - "leaps and bounds"
Tex morton - "the ned kelly song", "Goondiwindi grey"
Richard Clapton - "Down In The Lucky Country"
Smoky dawson, buddy williams, bushwhackers band, kev carmody, etc

Then you have the late 19th and early 20th century Australian poets like Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson who wrote bush ballads like "waltzing matilda". They didn't record them but published them in magazines and books.

Then there's comedy/novelty artists like Joe Dolce, Kevin Wilson, Rolf Harris etc

Then you have Aboriginal music. Yothu Yindi write songs partially in aboriginal languages, and there was an underground wave of bands in the 80s including Waurumpi Band, No Fixed Address and Coloured Stone who wrote about Australian issues.

So going back to my question, what is the most distinctively Australian artist of all time. Someone both musically AND lyrically Australian, obviously. So I think it's a tie between Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, Slim Dusty, Yothu Yindi, Paul Kelly and Redgum with John Williamson close behind, but of course, there HAS to be someone I haven't mentioned yet!

What do you think?

antonnalan
Member

Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel would be most distinct in my opinion, followed by maybe Crowded House (if they count).

TravD
Member

Chris Sorbello