Australian country music is a part of the music of Australia. There is a broad range of styles, from bluegrass, to yodeling to folk to the more popular. The genre has been influenced by Celtic and English folk music, the Australian bush ballad tradition, as well as by popular American country music. Themes include: outback life, the lives of stockmen, truckers and outlaws, songs of romance and of political protest; and songs about the "beauty and the terror" of the Australian bush.
Slim Dusty, who was the best-selling domestic country artist
Early country star Johnny Ashcroft
A 1905 collection of old bush songs compiled by Banjo Paterson. Australian country music is heavily influenced by American country music, but grew also out of an Australian tradition of Bush ballads and poetry.
Country singer Reg Lindsay and Joan Clarke on the Hour of Song radio program, 2UW Radio Theatre, Sydney in 1954
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
