>
> On Feb 6, 2009, at 1:30 PM, Wendy Lyon wrote:
>
> Incidentally, what is it about Down Under that all the good
>> punk/garage bands were from Australia and all the good pop bands were
>> from New Zealand?
>>
>
> Class? Australia is rude & working class, while NZ wants to be posh and
> Anglo?
>
Haha, I doubt that's the motivation for the NZ bands I think you're thinking of... Flying Nun bands, right? Or are we talking Split Enz etc?
There's not too much difference historically in class composition between Australia and NZ, except ethnic - not among the white working class anyway. Australia has had a more substantial industrial base and much more mining, and NZ more agricultural (so that today Australia is considerably wealthier). But it's possible that what you guys know as NZ avant-pop came out of more of a student milieu than the Aussie punks. Dunedin was the centre for the 1980s NZ scene, and that's a town entirely dominated by a university and associated bohemia. The Australian scene was I think more tied into what was happening in London, with Nick Cave et al tending to make it big over there.
The other thing NZ has done well is noise, drone, etc which is very much back in fashion these days. The Wire magazine just this month sent out to subscribers a compilation of new NZ psychedelic noise sort of stuff, leaning towards the ambient end. And it's really good! i got really into this stuff in Wellington in the late 1990s. These days the 'Wellington sound' tends towards dub and reggae influences, which is also a huge part of the Kiwi heritage that never made it into the Flying Nun stuff.
Cheers, Mike