1.
Music of Australia
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The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music is a part of the heritage of a 40. Contemporary fusions of Indigenous and Western styles mark distinctly Australian contributions to world music, tastes have diversified along with post-World War II multicultural immigration to Australia. Indigenous Australian music refers to the music of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, Music forms an integral part of the social, cultural and ceremonial observances of these peoples, and has been so for over 60,000 years. Traditional Indigenous music is best characterised by the didgeridoo, the best-known instrument, archaeological studies of rock art in the Northern Territory suggest people of the Kakadu region were playing the instrument 15,000 years ago. Contemporary Indigenous Australian music has covered numerous styles, including rock and roll, country, hip hop, Jimmy Little is regarded as the first Aboriginal performer to achieve mainstream success, with his debut 1964 song The Royal Telephone highly popular and successful. In 2005, Little was presented with a doctorate in music by the University of Sydney. It would be Yothu Yindi that would bring Indigenous music to the mainstream, with their 1991 song Treaty, from the album Tribal Voice, would go on to reach No.11 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The bands performances were based on the traditional Yolngu dance, the success of Yothu Yindi—winners of eight ARIA Awards—was followed in by Kev Carmody, Tiddas, Christine Anu, and numerous other Indigenous Australian musicians. For much of its history, Australias bush music belonged to an oral and folkloric tradition, early Australian ballads sing of the harsh ways of life of the epoch and of such people and events as bushrangers, swagmen, drovers, stockmen and shearers. Convict and bushranger verses often railed against government tyranny, Classic bush songs on such themes include, The Wild Colonial Boy, Click Go The Shears, The Eumeralla Shore, The Drovers Dream, The Queensland Drover, The Dying Stockman and Moreton Bay. Later themes which endure to the present include the experiences of war, of droughts and flooding rains, of Aboriginality and of the railways, isolation and loneliness of life in the Australian bush has been another theme. Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australias unofficial National anthem, is a quintessential Australian folk song, Celtic, English, German and Scandinavian folk traditions predominated in this first wave of European immigrant music. The Australian tradition is, in sense, related to the traditions of other countries with similar ethnic, historical and political origins, such as New Zealand, Canada. The Australian indigenous tradition brought to this mix novel elements, including new instruments, some of which are now internationally familiar, such as the didgeridoo of Northern Australia. A number of British singers have spent periods in Australia and have included Australian material in their repertoires, e. g. A. L. Lloyd, Martin Wyndham-Read and Eric Bogle. Kellys lyrics capture the vastness of the culture and landscape of Australia by chronicling life about him for over 30 years, david Fricke from Rolling Stone calls Kelly one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise. In the 1970s, Australian Folk Rock brought both familiar and less familiar traditional songs, as well as new compositions, to live venues, notable artists include The Bushwacker Band and Redgum
2.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
3.
Music journalism
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Music journalism is media criticism and reporting about popular music topics, including pop music, rock music, and related styles. Journalists began writing music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on what is now thought of as classical music. An influential English 19th-century music critic, for example, was James William Davison of The Times, the composer Hector Berlioz also wrote reviews and criticisms for the Paris press of the 1830s and 1840s. The 1840s could be considered a point, in that music critics after the 1840s generally were not also practicing musicians. However, counterexamples include Alfred Brendel, Charles Rosen, Paul Hindemith, in the early 1980s, a decline in the quantity of classical criticism began occurring when classical-music criticism visibly started to disappear from the media. Also of concern in classical music journalism was how American reviewers can write about ethnic and folk music from other than their own, such as Indian ragas. The performers be treated as human beings and their music be treated as human activity rather than a mystical or mysterious phenomenon, the review should show an understanding of the musics cultural backgrounds and intentions. A key finding in a 2005 study of journalism in America was that the profile of the average classical music critic is a white, 52-year old male. Demographics indicated that the group was 74% male, 92% white, davis, one of the most respected voices of the craft, said he had been forced out after 26 years. Music writers only started treating pop and rock music seriously in 1964 after the breakthrough of the Beatles, one of the early music magazines in Britain, Melody Maker, complained in 1967 about how newspapers and magazines are continually hammering pop music. Melody Maker magazine advocated the new forms of pop music of the late 1960s, by 1999, the quality press was regularly carrying reviews of popular music gigs and albums, which had a key role in keeping pop in the public eye. As more pop music critics began writing, this had the effect of legitimating pop as an art form, as a result, in the world of pop music criticism, there has tended to be a quick turnover. In the realm of music, as in that of classical music. Frank Zappa declared that, Most rock journalism is people who cant write, interviewing people who cant talk, in the 2000s, online music bloggers began to supplement, and to some degree displace, music journalists in print media. In 2006, Martin Edlund of the New York Sun criticized the trend, arguing that while the Internet has democratized music criticism, slate magazine writer Jody Rosen discussed the 2000s-era trends in pop music criticism in his article The Perils of Poptimism. Rosen noted that much of the debate is centered on a perception that rock critics regard rock as normative … the standard state of popular music … to which everything else is compared. At a 2006 pop critic conference, attendees discussed their guilty pop pleasures, reconsidering musicians and genres which rock critics have dismissed as lightweight. Rosen stated that this new paradigm is called popism — or, more evocatively
4.
Prahran, Victoria
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Prahran is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,5 km south-east of Melbournes Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Stonnington, at the 2011 Census, Prahran had a population of 11,191. Prahran is a part of Greater Melbourne, with shops, restaurants. The area of Prahran, centred along Commercial Road was one of Melbournes gay villages, the shopping street Chapel Street is a mix of upscale fashion boutiques and cafes. Greville Street, once the centre of the Melbournes hippie community, has many cafés, bars, restaurants, bookstores, clothing shops, Prahran takes its name from Pur-ra-ran, a compound of two Aboriginal words, meaning land partially surrounded by water, in 1837 by George Langhorne. The proximity of the Yarra River and a swamp to the southwest explains that description, in 1837 George Langhorne named the area Pur-ra-ran, a compound of two Aboriginal words, meaning land partially surrounded by water. When he informed the Surveyor-General Robert Hoddle of the name, it was written as Prahran, Prahran Post Office opened on 1 April 1853. Large emporiums sprang up along Chapel Street, Prahran also became a major entertainment area. The Lyric theatre, built on the corner of Victoria Street in 1911, the Royal was the second old theatre built. The Empress, another theatre on Chapel Street, was destroyed by fire in 1971. The site was operated by the clothes and homewares chain Waltons for the next decade and was later developed into the Chapel Street Bazaar. Further complementing the high rise developments was a low density development between Bangs and Bendigo Streets, in the 1970s, the suburb began to gentrify, with much of the remaining old housing stock being renovated and restored. The area had a substantial Greek population and many took advantage of the rise in property values during the 1980s, paving the way for further development and it was during the 1990s that solidification of the areas homosexual community occurred. Many gay and gay-friendly businesses, including bars, clubs and bookstores were found along Commercial Road, in Prahran,61. 2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 4. 2%, Greece 3. 5%, New Zealand 3. 4%, China 1. 6%, Prahran is home to a large collection of architecturally significant commercial buildings, with many on the Victorian Heritage Register. Retains the original arcade, but decorative roof was removed in the 1950s, also known locally as Birdland due to pigeons which once bred in the recessed balconies of the building and the large eagles which adorn the facade, but are now screened by chicken wire. Was a Dan Murphys cellar for many years, but currently a JB HiFi store, reads Emporium - Built in 1914 on the corner of Chapel Street and Commercial Road. Its twin beacons, which sit atop large copper domes, were once visible like lighthouses for miles around
5.
Compact disc
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Compact disc is a digital optical disc data storage format released in 1982 and co-developed by Philips and Sony. The format was developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data. The first commercially available Audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released October 1982 in Japan, standard CDs have a diameter of 120 millimetres and can hold up to about 80 minutes of uncompressed audio or about 700 MiB of data. The Mini CD has various diameters ranging from 60 to 80 millimetres, they are used for CD singles, storing up to 24 minutes of audio. At the time of the introduction in 1982, a CD could store much more data than a personal computer hard drive. By 2010, hard drives commonly offered as much space as a thousand CDs. In 2004, worldwide sales of audio CDs, CD-ROMs and CD-Rs reached about 30 billion discs, by 2007,200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide. In 2014, revenues from digital music services matched those from physical format sales for the first time. American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with inventing the first system to record information on an optical transparent foil that is lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp. Russells patent application was first filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970, following litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russells patents in the 1980s. The compact disc is an evolution of LaserDisc technology, where a laser beam is used that enables the high information density required for high-quality digital audio signals. Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently in the late 1970s, although originally dismissed by Philips Research management as a trivial pursuit, the CD became the primary focus for Philips as the LaserDisc format struggled. In 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new audio disc. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the Red Book CD-DA standard was published in 1980, after their commercial release in 1982, compact discs and their players were extremely popular. Despite costing up to $1,000, over 400,000 CD players were sold in the United States between 1983 and 1984, by 1988 CD sales in the United States surpassed those of vinyl LPs, and by 1992 CD sales surpassed those of prerecorded music cassette tapes. The success of the disc has been credited to the cooperation between Philips and Sony, who came together to agree upon and develop compatible hardware. The unified design of the disc allowed consumers to purchase any disc or player from any company. In 1974, L. However, due to the performance of the analog format
6.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years
7.
The Age
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The Age is a daily newspaper that has been published in Melbourne, Australia, since 1854. It is delivered in both hardcopy and online formats, the newspaper shares many articles with other Fairfax Media metropolitan daily newspapers, such as The Sydney Morning Herald. As at February 2017, The Age had a weekday circulation of 88,000. The Sunday Age had a circulation of 123,000 and these represented year-on-year declines of 8% to 9%. The Ages website, according to third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb, is the 44th and 58th most visited website in Australia respectively, SimilarWeb rates the site as the seventh most visited news website in Australia, attracting more than 7 million visitors per month. The newspaper went compact in March 2013, with the Saturday and Sunday editions retaining the broadsheet format, on 22/23 February 2014, the final weekend edition were produced in broadsheet format with these too converted to compact format on 1/2 March 2014. The Ages parent company Chief executive officer, Greg Hywood, has foreshadowed the end of the print edition of the newspaper, with some analysts saying this will occur during 2017. The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen, the brothers John and Henry Cooke, who had arrived from New Zealand in the 1840s, the first edition appeared on 17 October 1854. The first edition under the new owners was on 17 June 1856, Ebenezer Syme was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly shortly after buying The Age, and his brother David Syme soon came to dominate the paper, editorially and managerially. When Ebenezer died in 1860, David became editor-in-chief, a position he retained until his death in 1908, in 1891, Syme bought out Ebenezers heirs and McEwans and became sole proprietor. He built up The Age into Victorias leading newspaper, in circulation, it soon overtook its rivals The Herald and The Argus, and by 1890 it was selling 100,000 copies a day, making it one of the worlds most successful newspapers. Under Symes control The Age exercised enormous political power in Victoria, Syme was originally a free trader, but converted to protectionism through his belief that Victoria needed to develop its manufacturing industries behind tariff barriers. In the 1890s, The Age was a supporter of Australian federation. After Symes death the paper remained in the hands of his three sons, with his eldest son Herbert Syme becoming general manager until his death in 1939, by the 1940s, the papers circulation was smaller than it had been in 1900, and its political influence also declined. Although it remained more liberal than the extremely conservative Argus, it lost much of its political identity. The historian Sybil Nolan writes, Accounts of The Age in these years generally suggest that the paper was second-rate, walker described a newspaper which had fallen asleep in the embrace of the Liberal Party, querulous, doddery and turgid are some of the epithets applied by other journalists. In 1942, David Symes last surviving son, Oswald Syme and he modernised the papers appearance and standards of news coverage. A takeover attempt by the Warwick Fairfax family, publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald, was beaten off and this new lease on life allowed The Age to recover commercially, and in 1957 it received a great boost when The Argus ceased publication
8.
Silverchair
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The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo competition conducted by SBS TV show Nomad and ABC radio station, Triple J. The band were signed by Murmur, and were successful on the Australian, as of 2011, Silverchair have won a record number of 21 ARIA Music Awards from 49 nominations. The band have received six APRA Awards with Johns winning three songwriting awards at the 2008 ceremony. All five of their albums have peaked at number-one on the ARIA Albums Chart, Frogstomp, Freak Show, Neon Ballroom, Diorama. Three of the singles have reached number-one on the related ARIA Singles Chart, Tomorrow, Freak. The songwriting and singing of Johns had evolved steadily while the band had developed an increased element of complexity. In 2003, following the release of Diorama, the band announced a hiatus, during which time members recorded with side projects The Dissociatives, The Mess Hall, Silverchair were reunited at the 2005 Wave Aid concerts. In 2007, they released their album, Young Modern. In May 2011, Silverchair announced an indefinite hiatus, as of 2016, Silverchair have sold 9 million albums worldwide. Silverchairs founders, Ben Gillies and Daniel Johns, attended the primary school in the Newcastle suburb of Merewether. As teenagers, singer-guitarist Johns and drummer Gillies, started playing music together – in one class they built a stage out of desks, when they moved on to Newcastle High School, a fellow student, Chris Joannou, joined the pair on bass guitar. In 1992, they formed Death Rides a Sandwich with Tobin Finane as a second guitarist – and they played numerous shows around the Hunter Region in their early teens, their repertoire was cover versions of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. In 1994 Innocent Criminals entered YouthRock, a competition for school-based bands. Early in the year they recorded demos of Acid Rain, Cicada, Pure Massacre, in April, the bands mainstream breakthrough came when they won a national competition called Pick Me, using their demo of Tomorrow. The competition was conducted by the SBS TV show Nomad and Australian Broadcasting Corporation alternative radio station Triple J, as part of the prize, Triple J recorded the song and ABC filmed a video, which was aired on 16 June. For the videos broadcast, they had changed their name to Silverchair, in a 1994 interview with Melbourne magazine Buzz, the band claimed the name derived from a radio request for Sliver by Nirvana and Berlin Chair by You Am I being mixed up as Silver Chair. It was later revealed they were named for the C. S. Lewis-penned novel The Silver Chair from The Chronicles of Narnia series, following a bidding war between rival labels, Silverchair signed a three-album recording contract with Sony Music subsidiary Murmur Records. Initially the group were managed by their parents, Sony A&R manager John Watson, who was jointly responsible for signing the group, subsequently left the label to become their band manager
9.
You Am I
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You Am I are an Australian alternative rock band, fronted by lead singer-songwriter-guitarist, Tim Rogers. Nine of their tracks appeared on the related ARIA Singles Chart top 50 with What I Dont Know bout You, their highest charting and you Am I have received ten ARIA Music Awards from thirty one nominations. The band have supported artists, such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, Sonic Youth. You Am Is second studio album, Hi Fi Way, appeared in the position in the book,100 Best Australian Albums. Their third album, Hourly, Daily was listed at number fifty five, the same two releases were also voted into the Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time list compiled by Australian youth radio station, Triple J, in 2011. Fourteen of their songs have been placed on the related annual Hottest 100 lists with Heavy Heart, the highest at No.9. You Am I were formed in Sydney in December 1989 by Tim Rogers on vocals, guitar, mellotron and Hammond organ, his older brother Jaimme Rogers on drums, Tim Rogers and Tischler were old school mates. At an early gig, a fan provided a big spiritual spiel about, the band took that as the inspiration for the working title for the groups name. This initial line-up was short-lived, Jaimme left before the end of the year after a fight with Tim. In the bands 1993 song, Jaimmes Got a Gal, Tim explained why his brother left and you Am I signed with an independent label, Timberyard Records, and in May 1991 issued a six-track extended play, Snake Tide. It was recorded in February at Electric Avenue Studios with Phil Punch as engineer, mixer and co-producer with the group, Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described the EP as rough hewn. You Am I appeared at the inaugural Big Day Out concert, by April 1992 Tischler had left the band because he didnt think he could fulfill Tims vision. He was replaced by their previous live sound mixer, Andy Kent, in May they released a five-track EP, Goddamn, which was produced by Tom Kazas. An alternate nine-track version of Goddamn, which was expanded by adding four tracks from Snake Tide, was also issued, McFarlane declared that By that stage, Rogers had established his credentials as a fine songwriter and the band a reputation as an exciting, dynamic live act. By mid-1992 they had signed with independent label, rooArt Records, on their subsidiary rA Records. The group released their third EP, Cant Get Started, as a set in October 1992. Before the end of the year You Am I supported Hoodoo Gurus on a national tour, late in 1992 Tim Rogers sent samples of You Am Is releases to Lee Ranaldo of American rock group, Sonic Youth. In January of the year both groups appeared at the second Big Day Out festival in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide
10.
Oceania
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Oceania, also known as Oceanica, is a region centred on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The term is used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia. The term was coined as Océanie circa 1812 by geographer Conrad Malte-Brun, the word Océanie is a French word derived from the Latin word oceanus, and this from the Greek word ὠκεανός, ocean. Natives and inhabitants of this region are called Oceanians or Oceanicans, as an ecozone, Oceania includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. New Zealand, along with New Guinea and nearby islands, part of the Philippine islands, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, in geopolitical terms, however, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia are almost always considered part of Oceania. Australia and Papua New Guinea are usually considered part of Oceania along with the Maluku Islands, puncak Jaya in Papua is often considered the highest peak in Oceania. Oceania was originally conceived as the lands of the Pacific Ocean and it comprised four regions, Polynesia, Micronesia, Malaysia, and Melanesia. The area extends to Sumatra in the west, the Bonin Islands in the northwest, the Hawaiian Islands in the northeast, Rapa Nui and Sala y Gómez Island in the east, and Macquarie Island in the south. Not included are the Pacific islands of Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands and the Japanese archipelago, all on the margins of Asia, and the Aleutian Islands of North America. The islands at the extremes of Oceania are Bonin, a politically integral part of Japan, Hawaii, a state of the United States. There is also a geographic definition that excludes land on the Sunda Plate. Biogeographically, Oceania is used as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone or the Pacific ecozone, Oceania is one of eight terrestrial ecozones, which constitute the major ecological regions of the planet. The Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand, New Zealand, New Guinea, Melanesia apart from Fiji, and Australia constitute the separate Australasian ecozone. The Malay Archipelago is part of the Indomalaya ecozone, related to these concepts are Near Oceania, that part of western Island Melanesia which has been inhabited for tens of millennia, and Remote Oceania which is more recently settled. The term is used to denote a continent comprising Australia. New Zealand forms the corner of the Polynesian Triangle. Its indigenous Māori constitute one of the cultures of Polynesia. It is also, however, considered part of Australasia, the history of Oceania in the medieval period was synonymous with the history of the indigenous peoples of Australasia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia
11.
AC/DC
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AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. A hard rock/blues rock band, they have also considered a heavy metal band, although they have always dubbed their music simply rock. AC/DC underwent several changes before releasing their first album, High Voltage, in 1975, Malcolm. Membership subsequently stabilised until bassist Mark Evans was replaced by Cliff Williams in 1977 for the album Powerage, within months of recording the album Highway to Hell, lead singer and co-songwriter Bon Scott died on 19 February 1980 after a night of heavy alcohol consumption. The group considered disbanding, but buoyed by support from Scotts parents, decided to continue, ex-Geordie singer Brian Johnson was auditioned and selected to replace Scott. Later that year, the released the new album, Back in Black. The album launched them to new heights of success and became their all-time best-seller, the bands next album, For Those About to Rock We Salute You, was their first album to reach number one in the United States. Drummer Phil Rudd was fired in 1983 and replaced by ex-A II Z drummer Simon Wright, the band experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s with the release of The Razors Edge. Phil Rudd returned in 1994 after Chris Slade, who was with the band from 1989 to 1994, was asked to leave in favour of him, Stiff Upper Lip, released in 2000, was well received by critics. The bands line-up remained the same until 2014 with Malcolm Youngs retirement, in 2016, Johnson was advised to stop touring on account of worsening hearing loss and Guns N Roses frontman Axl Rose stepped in as the bands vocalist for the remainder of that years dates. Long-term bass player Cliff Williams subsequently indicated that he would retire from the band on the completion of their current world tour, Back in Black has sold an estimated 50 million units worldwide, making it the second-highest-selling album by any artist – and the highest-selling album by any band. The album has sold 22 million units in the US alone, AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and were named the seventh Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time by MTV. In 2004, AC/DC ranked No.72 on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Producer Rick Rubin, who wrote an essay on the band for the Rolling Stone list, referred to AC/DC as the greatest rock, in 2010, AC/DC were ranked number 23 in the VH1 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Brothers Malcolm, Angus, and George Young were born in Glasgow, Scotland, George was the first to learn to play the guitar. He became a member of The Easybeats, one of Australias most successful bands of the 1960s, in 1966, they became the first local rock act to have an international hit, with the song Friday on My Mind. Malcolm followed in Georges footsteps by playing with a Newcastle, New South Wales and their oldest brother Alex Young chose to remain in Britain to pursue musical interests. Malcolm and Angus Young developed the idea for the name after their sister, Margaret Young
12.
Crowded House
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Crowded House is a rock band formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1985. The founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn and Australians Paul Hester, later band members included Neil Finns brother, Tim Finn, and Americans Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed an OBE on both Neil and Tim Finn, in June 1993, for their contribution to the music of New Zealand. Founding drummer Hester left in May 1994 citing family reasons, but briefly returned for their Farewell to the World concerts in Melbourne, Neil Finn had decided to end the band to concentrate on his solo career and the Finn Brothers project with Tim. On 26 March 2005 Hester died by suicide, aged 46, in 2006 the group re-formed with a new drummer Matt Sherrod and released two further albums, both of which reached number one on Australias album chart. As of July 2010 the group has sold 10 million albums, in November 2016 they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Neil Finn and drummer Paul Hester were former members of New Zealand band Split Enz, Neil Finn is the younger brother of Split Enz founding member Tim Finn, who joined Crowded House in 1990 on vocals, guitars and keyboards for the album Woodface. Bassist Nick Seymour is the brother of singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour of the now defunct Australian rock group Hunters & Collectors. Finn and Hester decided to form a new band during the first Split Enz farewell tour, Enz with a Bang, Seymour approached Finn during the after party for the Melbourne show and asked if he could audition for the new band. The Mullanes formed in Melbourne in early 1985 with Finn, Hester, Seymour and guitarist Craig Hooper and they secured a record contract with Capitol Records, but Hooper left the band before the remaining trio moved to Los Angeles to record their debut album. At Capitols behest, the name was changed to Crowded House. Former Split Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner produced the track Cant Carry On and was asked to join the band and he toured with them in 1988, but was unable to become a full member due to family commitments. Thanks to their Split Enz connection, the newly formed Crowded House had an established Australasian fanbase and they began by playing at festivals in Australia and New Zealand and released their debut album, Crowded House, in June 1986. Capitol Records initially failed to see the potential and gave them only low-key promotion, forcing the band to play at small venues to try. The albums first single, Mean to Me, reached the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart top 30 in June and it failed to chart in the US, but moderate American airplay introduced US listeners to the group. A single, Dont Dream Its Over, was released in December 1986 and proved an international hit, New Zealand radio stations initially gave the song little support until months later when it became successful internationally. Ultimately, the reached number one on the New Zealand singles chart. It remains the groups most commercially successful song, in March 1987, the group were awarded Best New Talent, along with Song of the Year and Best Video awards for Dont Dream Its Over at the inaugural ARIA Music Awards
