Australian vs. Non-Australian Awareness of Australian Music

As I pondered the idea of “Australian Music”, I began to wonder what sorts of topics I could discuss. Being an international student, many of my friends are also non-Australians, so was asking them for ideas really an option? I know a few Australian artists, but even the ones I know I wouldn’t know enough about to write anything on. So I began to wonder if I was alone – perhaps I’d be surprised and my friends would know a lot about various Australian artists. And if not, I could just ask an Australian friend…surely they’d know a lot about different Aussie artists…right?

To satisfy my curiosity, I set off on a quest to find out about awareness of Australian music – Australians vs. Internationals.

I knew I’d need to find a quick and easy way to measure their exposure to Australian music – after all, with the semester wrapping up and finals just around the corner no one would be thrilled about sitting down for three hours and taking a 400 question test. So, I kept it simple. I asked two questions:

1) List as many Australian bands / music artists as you can.

2) What do you think of when you think of “Australian Music”?

I asked five Australians and five others from around the globe (one each from Canada, USA, England, Wales, and Ireland).

The results, not surprisingly, proved that Australians do indeed know more Australian artists than non-Australians. The five Australians each listed 15 – 32 artists, given them an average of 23.4 listed artists per participant. The internationals, on the other hand, only listed 7 – 14 artists each, giving them an average response of 9.2 artists per participant.

After compiling the responses, I made some comparisons between the responses of each group. The Australians listed a total of 82 individual bands and artists, and the international group listed 33. Of the artists listed, 18 appeared on both lists. This left the Australians with 64 additional Aussie bands / artists that the internationals couldn’t think of. I suppose this was to be expected since I was asking questions about musicians from their home country. What surprised me, however, was that the non-Australian group was able to come up with 15 bands / artists that the Australians didn’t! This may not seem like a high number (especially compared to the 64 additional musicians the Aussie group came up with), but I found it interesting.

The following shows a breakdown of the responses I received:

Both Groups Listed:

AC/DC

Dannii Minogue

Delta Goodrem

Gyroscope

Hilltop Hoods

Karnivool

Keith Urban

Kylie Minogue

Natalie Imbruglia

Powderfinger

Rogue Traders

Savage Garden

Shannon Noll

Silverchair

Sneaky Sound System

The Beautiful Girls

The Veronicas

Thirsty Merc

Only Australians Listed:

Adam Brand

After the Fall

Airbourne

Alchemist

Alex Lloyd

Arcane

Astriaal

Augie March

Bee Cartright

Be’lakor

Bernard Fanning

Berzerker

Beyond Terror Beyond Grace

Birds of Tokyo

Black Majesty

Blood Duster

Butterfly Effect

Casey Chambers

Christine Anou

COG

Cold Chisel

Colin Bullock

David Helfcott

Dead Letter Circus

Demolition

Destroyer 666

Ebone

Embodied

Evermore

Faker

Frensel Rum

Gina Sefferies

Grinspoon

Hobbs Angel of Death

Human Nature

Jimmy Barnes

John Butler Trio

Kaiser Chiefs

Knightmare

Lee Kernaghan

Lior

Lord

Midnight Juggernauts

Midnight Oil

Muscles

One Dollar Short

Paul Kelly

Pete Murray

Psycroptic

Regurgitator

Scissor Sisters

Something for Kate

Something with Numbers

The Amenta

The Cat Empire

The Furor

The Gas Giants

The Herd

The Living End

The Presets

The Waiff

Tonker

UMI

Vanishing Point

Only Internationals Listed:

Allan Fletcher

Holly Valance

INXS

Jason Donovan

Jet

Kim Valentine

Kisschasy

Men at Work

Panu

Pendulum

Russell Crowe (1 girl insisted he had a brief music career)

Stephanie Macintosh

Stephen Fry

The Australian Pink Floyd

The Grates

I found the results intriguing – particularly the artists that only the non-Australians came up with. What is it about these 15 musicians that non-Australians would know them but people from their own country wouldn’t be able to come up with names? Perhaps a look at the responses I got for the second question could help…

When I asked what specifically people think of when they think of “Australian Music”, a few answers came to the surface. From the Australian group, a few people said rock music, while one said they perceived Australian music to be an eclectic range of music, diverse, and open to interpretation. He continued to say that some Australian songs even incorporate the Australian experience. The international group had a different range of answers to this question. This group seemed to think of the pop, techno, and alternative genres. One participant said she thought of “bad rap” music, while two others think of failed soap stars turning to music (specifically from “Neighbours”). Others said that the didgeridoo comes to mind when they think of Australian music.

It’s difficult to say what causes these differences in perspective on Australian music. Is it just that there isn’t the same level of exposure to Australian music across the globe? Or perhaps internationals know more Australian bands, but don’t realize that they ARE Australian (a few people were surprised to hear that AC/DC and Savage Garden were actually Australian bands)? And what of the musicians that only the internationals were able to name? It seemed like a few of those names were former “Neighbours” actors (listed by girls from England and Wales) – perhaps an indictor that the Australian soap opera is even bigger (or at least more obsessed over) in the UK than it is here in Australia?

The mystery may be unsolved, but the results remain intriguing…

posted by Cassidy