Kylie Minogue has released three catchy and well-received records in the last four years. The Kid LAROI continues to break international charts with his releases. Crowded House performed at Glastonbury in 2022. And Royel Otis are currently playing sold-out shows in Europe.

You could draw the conclusion that times have never been better for Australian music. Except it’s not entirely true. While acts from the Land Down Under seem to be getting more traction overseas, local audiences don’t feel about them the same way.

ARIA Awards 2024 was the perfect reminder of why home-grown acts deserve more attention on their home turf.

PART 206 OF “AM I EVER GONNA SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN?” A RANDOM COLLECTION OF UNKNOWINGLY OBVIOUS FACTS ABOUT AUSTRALIAN MUSIC SCENE

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Two news articles showed up on my feed in one week. One was a tell-tale analysis entitled “Behind The Sharp Decline In Support For Australian Artists”. The other was Southern Cross University’s announcement about “cutting all creative arts programs amid declining demand.”

The main argument justifying the decline in the first article was two-fold. 1. The Australian population is simply not big enough to support home-grown artists. 2. If that wasn’t enough, the charts are dominated by American and British acts. The impact was measured based on streaming numbers. Astonishingly, artists from the Land Down Under “only rank 9.2 per cent with (local) fans” who use that medium to reproduce music. 

Enter the shocker from the second article. One of the regional NSW universities is saying goodbye to all new enrollments for creative arts-related courses, including music. The reason? There’s currently no demand for such fields of study. According to the Uni’s Vice-Chancellor, NSW’s situation is not isolated but rather “a national trend.”

A pretty bleak picture for the future of the local music industry, right? Especially that November is Aus Music Month.

On the other hand, Australian acts of all formats continue to deliver high-quality music that resonates with global audiences. Their inclusion in popular festival line-ups, more frequent overseas headline tours, and nominations for international music awards are testament to that. So what the hell is going on?

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The Australian Recording Industry Association just celebrated its biggest night of the year, the ARIA Awards. The gala took place in a special place – the historic Hordern Pavilion in Sydney. And I must admit that watching the 2.5-hour replay on YouTube made me feel optimistic. (But I can’t stress enough how much I wish the awards were livestreamed globally as they happen again, not after they night had already finished).

Interestingly, though, when you look at the nominations this year, the ones in the most coveted categories went to globally recognisable Aussie artists. Let’s take the Best Dance/Electronic Release as an example.

The host, Tim Blackwell from Nova, mentioned an interesting fact. According to recent studies, Australia is the third largest market for electronic music. The acts in this genre are taking the world by storm, which the nominations proved quite clearly. 

As of late, Confidence Man seem to be more often in London than in Australia. According to his Resident Advisor’s profile, Dom Dolla‘s audience is mostly in Ibiza and the US. If my memory serves me well, RÜFÜS DU SOL reside in Los Angeles. FISHER took the gong for Best Electronic Song at the International Dance Music Awards in Miami twice in a row for the same songs he didn’t win with at the ARIAs. And CYRIL’s first global banger, “Stumblin’ In”, was popularised by Bayern Munich – that famous football club from Germany.

When it comes to the winners and losers, two acts cleaned up this year.

Troye Sivan probably doesn’t need an introduction. He’s been steadily building his career with excellent releases and high-profile collaborations (i.e. with Charli XCX, Mark Ronson or Kacey Musgraves) for years. While he’d won ARIAs before, he was visibly emotional accepting the three gongs for Best Solo Artist, Best Pop Release and Album of the Year. He almost broke into tears, thanking his team and family for their support, too. 

I remember seeing Royel Otis last year at the Reading Festival in one of the smaller tents at a ridiculous o’clock. Who would have thought that just over a year later, those two shy, humble mates from Sydney making a one-of-a-kind indie-pop would take home four ARIAs?! They won in the Best Group, Best Rock Album, Best Engineered Release and Best Produced Release categories.

A few artists also made notable observations about the Australian music industry.

While accepting her award for Best Independent Release, Angie McMahon stated that she was afraid she’d be “expired” in the business after recently turning 30. A pair of presenters (for the love of God, I can’t remember who it was anymore) used the phrase “content formerly known as art”. And I reckon everyone in the room could relate.

As usual, hilariously spontaneous moments happened. Like G Flip not being able to read the teleprompter. Or Troye Sivan talking about “hooking up with random people” with his mom present in the audience and claiming that she’d seen “some pretty random sh*t at my gigs”.

Some turns of events also took me by (a very positive) surprise.

My new fave hip-hop act, 3%, were crowned in the Best Hip Hop/Rap Release for their dope debut record, Kill The Dead. Upon its acceptance, Nooky pointed out it was the first timnd e so many “Blackfellas” were nominated in this category (also The Kid LAROI and Kobie Dee). Speed beat Polaris and Dune Rats to the Best Hard Rock/Hevy Metal Album. And First Nations storyteller and activist DOBBY was honoured in the Best World Music Album for his Warangu; River Story.

One of the night’s highlights, though, was Missy Higgins‘ induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame. 

When it was announced earlier this year, a pointless discussion started aabout whether she should be taken into consideration at all. As if only the artists who are no longer with us deserved that honour and/or recognition. I’ve heard a few interviews with Missy since then, though, and she took all that critique very graciously. 

Her acceptance speech also circled back to the topic I started this post on. She highlighted the need to prioritise Australian music over international releases. “We can’t lose it”, she stressed.

So here’s what I think about it.

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While global success is something that many artists aspire to, local support is the first step to achieving that. How can this be achieved then?

Protecting the local market through some kind of legislation is an obvious solution. Australian radio stations do already have specific (although slightly confusing) quotas to play a certain percentage of local acts. Ideally, the music industry wants it to be 25% for every broadcaster, no matter how they categorise themselves. That way, listeners would have a better chance to discover their new favourite home-grown artist.

Live music is another significant factor in changing that worrying trend. While local acts don’t seem to have a problem selling out their own headline shows around the country, relatively few get the opportunity to gain exposure when major international stars tour Australia. I discussed that issue already in the post about the so-called “Michael’s Rule”. It basically recommends that there should be a guaranteed Aussie support artist for each international act because such exposure cannot be underestimated. 

There’s also the intangible aspect of simply giving more love to local artists just for the heck of it, which is what I’m doing on my channels. While most music industry news outlets, promoters and publications (obviously) make money on artists who sell themselves, like Taylor Swift (who was chosen as the Favourite International Act for the fourth time!), Coldplay, Denzel Curry or Pearl Jam, there should be room for emerging bands and personal music discoveries on every platform, too.  

Triple J Unearthed has been doing a stellar job on that front, allowing unsigned artists to upload their music to their platform. In fact, that’s the whole idea behind the music discovery platform. But young punters are far more interested in following musicians who are trending than giving love to local bands. Sad but true.

One thing is for sure, though. Australian music keeps punching above its weight. Last night’s ARIAs have proven that yet again. And I’m sure that, sooner or later, local audiences will wake up and give the home-grown artists the attention they deserve. 

The full list of ARIA 2024 winners is here.

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