Top of the Tots: The Wiggles as Australia's Most Successful (Under-Acknowledged) Sound Media Export

Abstract

The Wiggles produce hugely successful CDs, DVDs and interactive entertainment for pre-school children. They are Top of the Tots, as their 2004 album of the same name proclaims. However, the artists have been largely overlooked by the popular music and media academies. I argue that this omission can be attributed to problems of categorisation, particularly existing frameworks in television studies that limit how we gauge ‘quality entertainment’ and its audience; and in popular music and sound studies traditions that are yet to formally engage with listeners who are of pre-school age. The Wiggles are artists whose target audience historically has been overlooked by sophisticated, diverse and evolving academic traditions. As a result, their pioneering cross-media and international successes have largely been ignored. In this article, I seek to explore The Wiggles in terms that go beyond the narrow parameters of ‘children's entertainment’, offering more ‘grown-up’ ways to understand the group's success.

Bluey, Requestival, Play School and ME@Home: the ABC (Kids) of communication cultures during lockdown

“…Housed at the online portal www.abc.net.au/education, these included links to television and radio broadcasts, apps, podcasts, online first and only resources and curated social media. The ABC online outlet is part of the broadcaster’s long history of providing educational support (Giuffre, 2013; Griffen-Foley, 2019, 2020; Harrison, 2011). What was different this time was the extensive and express link made between programming and formal teaching, notably with the ‘Teaching Resources’ provided on the ABC TV Education website (2020b: online).…”

Prisons and picnics: tough talk and accent in Australian TV drama

“…Examples include Thank God You’re Here (2007), Kath & Kim (2008–2009), Wilfred (2011–2014), Rake (2014), miniseries The Slap (2015) and yet to be released CBS version of Upper Middle Bogan (2013–). At the same time, however, Porter’s comments largely ignore previous gains made by Australian-accented shows like Prisoner and The Wiggles Show (1998; 2004–2005; see Guiffre, 2013). Porter’s suggestion that Australian accents are only now, in the post-broadcast moment, ‘cutting through’, with international audiences ‘getting more and more used to an Australian accent’, is a misnomer that fails to acknowledge, learn from or listen to TV’s past.…”