An Anthology of Australian Albums: Critical Engagements

by Jon Stratton (Editor), Jon Dale (Editor), Tony Mitchell (Editor)

Overview

An Anthology of Australian Albums offers an overview of Australian popular music through the lens of significant, yet sometimes overlooked, Australian albums. Chapters explore the unique qualities of each album within a broader history of Australian popular music. Artists covered range from the older and non-mainstream yet influential, such as the Missing Links, Wendy Saddington and the Coloured Balls, to those who have achieved very recent success (Courtney Barnett, Dami Im and Flume) and whose work contributes to international pop music (Sia), to the more exploratory or experimental (Curse ov Dialect and A.B. Original). Collectively the albums and artists covered contribute to a view of Australian popular music through the non-canonical, emphasizing albums by women, non-white artists and Indigenous artists, and expanding the focus to include genres outside of rock including hip hop, black metal and country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501339868
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/06/2021
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Jon Dale is a writer and researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. He teaches across a number of fields (popular music, experimental writing, media studies, criminology, sociology, screen studies) at a number of institutions. He also writes for the English music magazine Uncut, and contributes liner notes and essays to a number of record labels and other publications. He is currently working on several books about DIY and post-punk music, and texts on experimental film and diary film making. He also runs the record labels Tristes Tropiques and Rose Hobart.

Jon Stratton is Adjunct Professor in the School of Creative Industries at the University of South Australia. His most recent publications include Black Popular Music in Britain since 1945 (edited with Nabeel Zuberi, 2014) and When Music Migrates: Crossing British and European Racial Faultlines 1945-2010 (2014).

Tony Mitchell is an honorary research associate at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania (1994), editor of Global Noise: Rap and Hip hop outside the USA (2001), co-editor of North Meets South: Popular Music in Aotearoa New Zealand (2004), Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now: Popular Music in Australia (2007), Home, Land and Sea: Situating Music in Aotearoa New Zealand (2011) and Sounds Icelandic (2017).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors
Preamble
Introduction
Jon Stratton with Jon Dale (University of South Australia, Australia)
1. The Missing Links, The Missing Links
Jon Stratton (University of South Australia, Australia)
2. Wendy Saddington and The Copperwine, Wendy Saddington and The Copperwine Live
Julie Rickwood (Australian National University, Australia)
3. Coloured Balls, Ball Power
Paul 'Nazz' Oldham (University of South Australia, Australia)
4. The Scientists, Blood Red River
Jon Stratton (University of South Australia, Australia)
5. The Plums, Gun; Deadstar, Deadstar; Milk; Over The Radio
Caroline Kennedy (Monash University, Australia)
6. Shakaya, Shakaya
Panizza Allmark (Edith Cowan University, Australia)
7. Striborg, Spiritual Catharsis
Catherine Hoad (Massey University, Aotearoa/New Zealand)
8. Curse ov Dialect, Wooden Tongues
Sarah Attfield (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
9. The Drones, I See Seaweed
Adam Trainer (Edith Cowan University, Australia)
10. Roger Knox & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Stranger In My Land; Roger Knox, Give It a Go
Liz Dean (University of Melbourbane, Australia) with Roger Knox
11. Dami Im, Dami Im
Sarah Keith (Macquarie University, Australia)
12. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
John Encarnacao (University of Western Sydney, Australia)
13. Sia, This Is Acting
Laura Glitsos (Curtin University, Australia)
14. Flume, Skin
Ed Montano and Gene Shill (RMIT University, Australia)
15. A.B.Original, Reclaim Australia
Suzi Hutchings (RMIT University, Australia) and Dianne Rodger (University of Adelaide, Australia)

Editorial Reviews

"[It] provides a timely collection of rural, urban and even national shifts that perversely reveals parallel changes in what constitutes 'the mainstream'." --Popular Music History

"Girl meets boy; girl meets girl, girls beat boys; hippies to hip-hop, brothers to others... The close readings of Australian albums since 1965 here show how work in these force fields plays out. Enjoy these symptoms, this creativity and attitude!" --Peter Beilharz, Professor of Critical Theory, Sichuan University, China, and Professor of Culture and Society, Curtin University, Australia

"One of those publications that, when it appears, causes the reaction, 'Fantastic! - about time there was a book on this!' And what a welcome publication it is: stellar authors celebrating, with scholarly rigour, the diversity and dynamism of Australia's landmark rock/post-punk/metal rock/electronica/Indigenous hip-hop (and beyond) albums over the last half-century, with particular focus on developments in the new millennium." --Linda Kouvaras, Associate Professor of Music, University of Melbourne, Australia

"Here is a collection of essays that opens readers' ears to the history of popular music in Australia. It's not the reinforcement of a canon (there's no AC/DC here), but rather an eclectic playlist aimed at broadening our understanding of the Australian music industry, its musicians and its audiences, from 1965 to the present day." --Sarah Hill, Senior Lecturer in Music, Cardiff University, UK

From the Publisher