Kiwi rock: popular music and cultural identity in New Zealand

Abstract

The New Zealand popular music scene has seen a series of high points in recent years. Published in 1989 were John Dix's labour of love, Stranded in Paradise, a comprehensive history of New Zealand rock'n'roll; an influential report by the Trade Development Board, supportive of the local industry; and the proceedings of a well-supported Music New Zealand Convention held in 1987 (Baysting 1989). In the late 1980s, local bands featured strongly on the charts, with Dave Dobbyn (‘Slice of Heaven’, 1986), Tex Pistol (‘The Game of Love’, 1987) and the Holiday Makers (‘Sweet Lovers’, 1988) all having number one singles. Internationally, Shona Laing (‘Glad I'm Not A Kennedy’, 1987) and Crowded House (‘Don't Dream It's Over’, 1986) broke into the American market, while in Australia many New Zealand performers gathered critical accolades and commercial success.

New Zealand popular music, government policy, and cultural identity

“…Accordingly, it is necessary to distinguish between 'local music' as a cultural signifier, and 'locally made music'. The first is difficult to identify with any precision (for a fuller discussion that remains relevant, see Shuker and Pickering 1994). The second is more straightforwardly delineated, as is an argument for its support purely on economic grounds: if it has also some local cultural resonance then that must be regarded as a bonus.…”

“…The constraints of a small local market, reflecting a population of then some three and a half million, and the tyranny of distance from international markets worked against the commercial viability of locally made music. There was limited radio and television exposure for local artists, 2 and few government initiatives to support the industry (for details, see Shuker and Pickering 1994).…”

Why Cover? An Ethnographic Exploration of Identity Politics Surrounding 'Covers' and 'Originals' Music in Dunedin, New Zealand

“…Scholarship on the Dunedin Sound covers many aspects of the mediatisation and musicology of the movement. These topics include, but are not limited to, record production and 'technostaglia' (Holland and Wilson 2015), historical and musicological aspects of the movement (Bendrups and Downes 2011), record label dynamics and touring (Shuker and Pickering 1994), indie canonism (Bannister 2006a), a cultural geographical approach (McLeay 1994, Homan 2000, gender (Bannister 2006b), and the nature of indie (Mitchell 1994). The phrase 'Dunedin Sound' is the nomenclature that is used to describe both a period of musical output and an aesthetic approach that is linked geographically to the city of Dunedin.…”

The promotional state ‘after neo-liberalism’: ideologies of governance and New Zealand's pop renaissance

“…Although somewhat parsimonious compared to current state funding levels, QUEIIACNZ offered significant support to cover recording costs for the then leading independent labels Flying Nun, Pagan and Jayrem. Nevertheless, these proto-promotional state supports made little impact – nor were they intended to – on enhancing domestic sales or subverting the dominance of imported sounds (Shuker and Pickering 1994, p. 268; Shuker 2008). Further reflecting the paucity of state support from the 1970s through to the 1990s were debates over popular music's status as Culture in the Arnoldian sense.…”