APRA:
A
CENTURY
OF
SONG

Australia and New Zealand were dancing to the roaring twenties - art deco architecture reached skyward, modernist artists reimagined beauty and jazz clubs pulsed with new rhythms. The nation felt young, ambitious and ready to embrace the world. 

Image: Grace Funston and Roy Brinsden, 1926. Credit: Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Radio popularity surged in the 1930s and suddenly music from London, New York and beyond streamed into Australian and New Zealand lounge rooms. In 1932, the ABC launched in Australia and families gathered around ornate wireless sets, hearing the world's greatest performers as if they were in their sitting room. 

Image: Child listening to radio broadcast, WA 1924. Credit: From the collection of The National Film and Sound Archive

The Great Depression hit hard, but music both on and off the movie screen offered something when little else could. As the decade ended with war on the horizon, music became the soundtrack of resilience.

Image: Stumbling Happy 7. Credit: Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

World War II brought American troops to Australian and New Zealand shores, shifting cultural influence from Britain toward the US. Jazz, swing and folk music reflected this new alliance, while cinema attendance soared.

Image: Paramount Theatre, QLD. Credit: From the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive

Television was demonstrated for the first time while the Broadcasting Act of 1942 mandated 2.5% of radio airtime for Australian music - the first time government recognised local music's importance.

Image: The Man From Snowy River, 1920. Credit: From the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive

Jingles like those for the famous “Aeroplane Jelly”, composed by Albert Francis Lenertz in Australia in 1930, and “An Apple A Day” composed by Ivan Perrin in New Zealand in 1941, began playing on radio, marking the beginning of some of the most iconic advertising campaigns. By the 1940s, the jingle dominated radio, reportedly playing over 100 times a day, making it one of the earliest examples of saturation advertising.

Image: Aeroplane Jelly song sheet music, 1930. Credit: From the collection of The National Film and Sound Archive

Rock 'n' roll hits both countries in the mid-1950s, uniting teenagers against post-war conservatism. Johnny O'Keefe released “Wild One” in 1958, becoming the nation's first rock star. Kids finally had music that felt like theirs.

Image: Johnny O'Keefe. Credit: Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Long-playing records arrived in 1951, changing how albums were made and sold. Television broadcasts began in 1956 and suddenly, Australians could see their music as well as hear it. New Zealand followed suit in 1960. The future of music consumption was being written.

Image: ABC TV. Credit: Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Australian children's music found its north star in 1966 with Play School. More than just a television program, it became a masterclass in how to communicate with children through song, with “There's a Bear in There”, written by Richard Connolly, becoming embedded in Australian national culture.

Image: Benita Collings and Big Ted. Credit: Reproduced by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales © ABC

Olivia Newton-John won a talent contest in 1965 that sent her to London. Helen Reddy moved to the US in 1966, where she'd later write “I Am Woman”. Both built international careers through the 1970s, opening doors for Australian women in a male-dominated industry. 

Image: Olivia Newton-John and Pat Carroll. Credit: Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Melbourne folk-pop group The Seekers reached #1 in the UK with “I'll Never Find Another You” in 1965. In 1967, they performed for 200,000 people at Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl - the largest concert crowd Australia had ever seen. Two years later, The Easybeats’ “Friday on my Mind”, written by George Young and Harry Vanda, became a worldwide hit, reaching #6 in the UK. In 2001 it was named Best Australian Song of all time by APRA members. 

Image: The Easybeats. Credit: Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Jimmy Little appeared regularly on ABC television through the 1960s, becoming one of the first Aboriginal artists to achieve mainstream recognition in Australia with his hit “Royal Telephone” making the pop charts in 1963.

Image: Jimmy Little. Credit: The Little Family

Across the ditch, songwriters like Ruru Karaitiana, who wrote the first wholly produced, recorded and manufactured in New Zealand hit “Blue Smoke” (sung by Pixie Williams) along with artists like the Māori Showbands gave pop music in New Zealand its unique Pacific flavour, built on the foundation of waiata written by Apirana Ngata, Tuini Ngawai and Kohine Ponika. 

Image: Ruru Karaitiana with First Pressing Blue Smoke. Credit: Audioculture

AC/DC, Cold Chisel and Midnight Oil cut their teeth in the pubs of Adelaide and Sydney in the early 1970s while Dragon, Split Enz and Th’Dudes earned their stripes in Auckland before making the trip across the Tasman. In 1977, a little band called INXS started at the Whale Beach pub. Across the country a circuit emerged - working-class venues where bands could play six nights a week, honing their craft. Pubs became the training ground for a generation of musicians.

Image: INXS at Miami Arena, 1988. Credit: Paul Natkin/Archive Photos via Getty Images

In 1973, Vic Simms released The Loner from jail, considered to be the first Aboriginal protest album. In 1981, Us Mob and No Fixed Address released the soundtrack to Wrong Side of the Road, spotlighting police harassment to non-Indigenous audiences. Redgum’s voice on the Vietnam War “I Was Only Nineteen” hit #1 in 1983, while in New Zealand, "French Letter" by Herbs protested nuclear weapons testing in French Polynesia. Musicians weren't just entertainers - they became voices for social change.

Image: Vic Simms. Credit: Roderick Macrae/The Sydney Morning Herald

The first major Australian music festivals emerged, with Pilgrimage for Pop at Ourimbah in January 1970, just five months after Woodstock, followed by the Sunbury Music Festival in Melbourne. Across the Tasman, The Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival, Nambassa and then Sweetwaters emerged. These outdoor gatherings created new spaces for local music culture.

Image: 1973 Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival poster. Credit: Audioculture

FM radio arrived in Australia in 1974 with stations like 2MBS in Sydney bringing crystal-clear sound and expanded programming. By 1980, commercial radio began with EON-FM, followed by the expansion of ABC and triple j on FM frequencies. In 1982 it arrived in New Zealand, the medium transforming how both countries discovered and experienced music, enabling album rock and giving pub bands access to the airwaves.

Image: Double J poster. Credit: From the collection of The National Film and Sound Archive. Reproduced by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales © ABC. 

While Home and Away (its theme song written by composer Mike Perjanik) and Neighbours streamed into homes around the world, the girl next door, Kylie Minogue, moved into pop signing with Mushroom Records in 1987 and releasing her cover of “Locomotion”. It spent seven weeks at #1 and sold over 200,000 copies - the highest-selling Australian single of the decade. She was quickly propelled to international stardom, releasing “I Should Be So Lucky” in the UK in 1988. Melbourne's girl next door had become a global icon. 

Image: Kylie Minogue. Credit: Tony Mott

Shows like C’mon and Let’s Go brought music to the masses in New Zealand throughout the 1960s before Countdown launched on the ABC in Australia in 1974, becoming essential viewing for music fans. Rage followed in 1987 and triple j's Hottest 100 began in 1989, creating new ways for Australians to discover and celebrate music. Music videos became as important as the songs themselves. The screen was rivalling the radio.

Image: Molly Meldrum with Tim and Debbie on Countdown. Credit: Reproduced by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales © ABC

OMC’s “How Bizarre” put the Urban Pasifika sound on the world map in 1995. Savage Garden's “Truly Madly Deeply” topped charts in the US and UK and in 1997 Natalie Imbruglia's “Torn” became a global hit. Australian and New Zealand pop was now manufactured for global consumption, with producers targeting international markets from the start. The Wiggles also rode the global bandwagon, finding major success with a US breakthrough in the early 2000s, sharing their knowledge of children’s education through music.

Image: Savage Garden, 2000 APRA Music Awards. Credit: APRA AMCOS

Silverchair brought Seattle-style grunge to Newcastle, releasing Frogstomp in 1995 when the band members were just 15. Regurgitator experimented with electronic sounds and The Avalanches built entire songs from samples. Yothu Yindi’s “Treaty” hit the airwaves, winning Song of the Year at the 1991 APRA Music Awards, and Christine Anu’s version of the Warumpi Band’s “My Island Home” at the Sydney Olympics brought Indigenous music into the mainstream. Local music was diversifying faster than ever.

Image: Yothu Yindi, 1991 APRA Music Awards. Credit: APRA AMCOS

Music video culture reached its peak in the 1990s, launching careers and taking Aussie and Kiwi faces to the world. You had to look good and sound good - the visual was now as important as the audio. Max TV, Rage and Video Hits became essential viewing for any music fan. In 1995 the first Australian pay TV provider, Galaxy, launched.

Image: Launch of Rage. Credit: Reproduced by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales © ABC

Big Day Out launched in 1992, establishing Australia and New Zealand’s first major touring rock festival and creating a platform for both international and local acts to reach massive audiences, from Bic Runga and Kimbra to Yothu Yindi and You Am I.

Image: Big Day Out 1996. Credit: Shellie Tonkin and Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Local hip hop and electronic dance music finally broke into the mainstream in the 2000s. Hilltop Hoods and Scribe brought intelligent, socially conscious hip hop with a local angle to the fore, while Fat Freddy’s Drop began to export Kiwi flavoured dub to the world. Cut Copy, The Naked and Famous and The Presets pioneered electronic sounds that filled dance floors worldwide. LGBTQI+ venues became crucial spaces for championing these new sounds before commercial radio caught up, nurturing the careers that would define the decade. 

Image: APRAP 2009 - The Presets. Credit: APRA AMCOS

The iPod launched in 2001, putting 1,000 songs in your pocket. File-sharing platforms like LimeWire and Napster upended the business model - suddenly music could be free. From 2003-2008, the world’s first social platform, MySpace, became the discovery engine for indie and unsigned artists. iTunes arrived in 2005 with a legal alternative, but the damage was done. Music consumption had fundamentally changed. CD sales collapsed. Revenue models built on physical sales were crumbling, forcing the entire industry to adapt. 

Image: Headphones and mic. Credit: Lucinda Goodwin

Music creation was democratised in the 2010s. Artists relied less on record labels, radio play or expensive studios to reach global audiences. A laptop, talent and an internet connection were enough. Streaming platforms like SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube used algorithms to discover and promote music, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. Bedroom producers could wake up to millions of streams. Geography no longer mattered. 

Image: Kevin Parker, 2021 Billions Award. Credit: Matt Barber

Charlton Howard, aka The Kid Laroi, uploaded tracks to SoundCloud as a teenager and was soon collaborating with Justin Bieber and topping global charts. From Baker Boy and King Stingray to Marlon Williams and Ngaiire, creators from diverse backgrounds brought their own brand of storytelling and fresh sounds to the mainstream, reflecting the countries’ evolving identity. In 2019, the Waiata Anthems album translated hit songs from English into Māori with artists like BENEE, Stan Walker and SIX60, debuting at #1 in the Aotearoa Music Charts. 

Image: Ngaiire. Credit: Belinda Dipalo

The Naked and Famous played at Coachella in 2014. Flume won a Grammy in 2017. Rüfüs du Sol sold out the Colosseum Amphitheatre in LA. Dom Dolla's tracks dominated global dance floors. What began in local clubs and warehouses had become the sound of festivals from Coachella to Glastonbury. 

Image: Flume and Sarah Aarons, 2023 APRA Music Awards. Credit: Rod Hunt

Songwriters from GFlip to Troye Sivan became global pop stars, redefining what queer pop could be - unapologetically themselves whilst topping charts worldwide. Local artists were leading conversations about identity and representation in mainstream music.

Image: GFlip, 2019 APRA Music Awards. Credit: Leila Morrissey

In March 2020, COVID-19 shut down live music. Venues closed. Tours cancelled. Musicians lost their primary income. The silence was deafening - for artists, venue owners, crew and music lovers. Government support on both sides of the Tasman and organisations like APRA AMCOS with charities like Support Act helped some survive. The pandemic revealed how fragile the music ecosystem was, but also how essential music remained. When venues finally reopened, the battle for live music and local content continued. 

Image: Empty stadium seating. Credit: iStock

As artificial intelligence began generating music and threatening traditional notions of creativity and ownership, questions about copyright, attribution and the future of human creativity became urgent conversations for the industry. 

Image: Resonate 2023. Credit: Jess Gleeson