The Hook: Does Australia's country music have an image problem?

23 August 2010

We ask three industry insiders whether Australian country music has an image problem.

Tim Daley
Country Music Channel, Program Director
The perception in the Australian mainstream is that country music sucks. In the vacuum of any real media exposure in the metro areas, that perception is really hard to break. The main way to break through it is to try to get those artists some exposure in mainstream media, if it’s Hey Hey… or Sunrise or 60 Minutes, whatever the case may be. It doesn’t help when James Tobin does a cross from Tamworth for Sunrise and you see a couple of really badly dressed linedancers yukking it up for the camera, so everyone in the studio has a laugh about the country music bumpkins. There’s a lot of really good country music out there, good enough for a mainstream audience to consume. But breaking through the perception barrier is difficult and it’s a long-term project.

John Williamson
Artist
Yes, sure. And it all starts with the word “country.” Country music has such an American connotation. Keith Urban hasn’t made it any easier. A lot of young kids think they want to be a Keith Urban, but don’t know what he has done to get there. They just want to follow the American style. But if they’re going to make it in Nashville, they almost have to become it. A lot of our artists have a problem with that, and there’s some confusion. We have to think about our music as ‘the best of Australian’. We need our own songs. Australiana – I hate that term, it’s too much like Americana. I guess “Bush” is more appropriate for us.

Tim Holland
ABC Music, A&R/Label Manager
The image problem is the single biggest problem with Australian country. It’s not country music that has the image problem, it’s just Australian country music. When Taylor Swift comes to Australia, even her support act does all the TV shows we can’t get our artists on. That’s because the brand of US country is much stronger and perceived as much more relevant than the Australian brand right now. Has it been hampered by perceptions of guys in Akubras and Driza-bones? Absolutely. We have to be focused on the future and developing new talent, and looking at what they’ve done in the US. Most of the industry (here) is crying for change.