The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of indigenous and Western styles are exemplified in the works of Yothu Yindi, No Fixed Address, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Christine Anu, and mark distinctly Australian contributions to world music.
President George W. Bush enjoys a performance of Aboriginal song and dance during a 2007 visit to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney with traditional instrument, the didgeridoo.
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.
Cover to Banjo Paterson's seminal 1905 collection of bush ballads, titled The Old Bush Songs
Eric Bogle
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, commonly known as Gurrumul and also referred to since his death as Dr G. Yunupingu, was a Yolŋu Aboriginal Australian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he played drums, keyboards, guitar and didgeridoo, but it was the clarity of his singing voice that attracted rave reviews. He sang stories of his land both in Yolŋu languages such as Gaalpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuynu, a dialect related to Gumatj, and in English. He began his career as a member of Yothu Yindi and later Saltwater Band, and his solo career brought him wider acclaim He was the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician at the time of his death. As of 2020, it is estimated that Yunupingu has sold half a million records globally.
Gurrumul in November 2012
Gurrumul playing at the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival (2011)