Music of Australia facts for kids
The music of Australia is the music made in the area of, on the subject of, or by the people of modern Australia. This includes its earlier Indigenous and colonial societies. Indigenous Australian music is a part of a 40–60,000 year history which made the didgeridoo. Combinations of Indigenous and Western styles show Australian additions to world music. Some people who do this are Yothu Yindi, Christine Anu and Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. During its early western history, Australia was made of many British colonies. Australian folk music and bush ballads such as Waltzing Matilda were influenced by Anglo-Celtic culture. Classical forms came from those of Europe. Current Australian music covers many trends. They are often similar to those of the US, the UK, and similar nations. There are oftem similarities in the Australian rock and Australian country music genres.
Notable Australian musicians include: the opera singers Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland; country music stars Slim Dusty (Australia's biggest selling domestic artist) and John Williamson; solo artists John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John, folk-rocker Paul Kelly; Dance group The Avalanches; jazz guitarist Tommy Emmanuel; pioneer rocker Johnny O'Keefe, global folk-rock band The Seekers, global rock and pop bands Men At Work, The EasyBeats, Bee Gees, Air Supply, Crowded House, AC/DC, INXS, Little River Band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Midnight Oil, Dragon, Silverchair, Youth Group, You Am I and Powderfinger; the "pop princess" Kylie Minogue, Pendulum, Pop Rock duo Savage Garden and alternative music stars the John Butler Trio and Xavier Rudd. Other popular artists and groups include The Choirboys, Chantoozies, Cheetah, Sharon O'Neill, Marc Williams, Peter Andre, Goanna, Australian Crawl, Rose Tattoo, Colleen Hewett, Keith Urban, The Angels, Ted Mullry Gang, Hush, The Mixtures, Helen Reddy, and Diana Trask.
Images for kids
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Horace Watson recording the songs of Fanny Cochrane Smith, considered to be the last fluent speaker of a Tasmanian language, 1903. Folk-singer Bruce Watson, descendant of Watson, composed a song about this picture and later performed it with singer Ronnie Summers, a descendant of Smith.
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Cover to Banjo Paterson's seminal 1905 collection of bush ballads, entitled The Old Bush Songs
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Joe Slater
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Country singer Melinda Schneider with folk-rocker Paul Kelly
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Kasey Chambers
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The Wiggles' lineup in 2007, riding in the Big Red Car during a concert
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Guy Sebastian and Jimmy Barnes 6 March 2008 State Theatre
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The Delltones with four radio awards
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AC/DC performing at the Ulster Hall in August 1979
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Nick Cave performing in 1986
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Cosmic Psychos, one of several Australian bands which influenced and interacted with the Seattle grunge scene
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Australian electronic music duo The Presets
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Pendulum bassist Gareth McGrillen. The band mixes numerous genres, including electronic.
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James Morrison
