Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Kaleidoscope World, by the Chills
Until recently I lectured in the University of Auckland's School of Music. One of my most crowded classes was for a paper on the history, context and sociological impact of New Zealand popular music in our developing culture.
Students enjoyed it, it was mostly new to them and came with a great – although not always – soundtrack.
No set text could cover the ground but I recommended the final chapters of Chris Bourke's excellent Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964, John Dix's Stranded in Paradise (which moved the needle on from Bourke) and the website for AudioCulture/Iwi Waiata, which bills itself as “The noisy library of New Zealand music/Te pātaka korihi o ngā puoro o Aotearoa”.
One of the most prolific contributors to www.audioculture.co.nz has been Gareth Shute writing about bands, seminal solo artists, important venues and scenes, and articles across the genres from early rock'n'roll to the emergence of hip-hop and little-known alternative artists.
Shute has also written five books on our music scene.
Who better then to undertake a short history of popular music from waiata and early colonial folk songs to the rise of hip-hop and the recent politicised music – a blend of rap and jazz -- of Avantdale Bowling Club?
This is admittedly a surface skim, careers and genres go by at the turn of a page. Hello Sailor, for example, get imploded into a few pages alongside . . .
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To read this full review go to Kete Books here.
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