• THE INDUCTEES - 2012

    TOY LOVE

    Toy Love was the ultimate flowering of Kiwi punk rock into new wave, and despite an existence of less than two years, the group is now considered one of the seminal acts of NZ pop.

NZ MUSIC OVERVIEW

“The tyranny of distance didn’t stop the cavalier, so why should it stop me?”

It’s a refrain from one of our most famous songs that perfectly sums up making music in New Zealand. These Shaky Isles are a world away from the musical epicentres – it’s a 12 hour flight from Los Angeles, 20 from NYC and 24 from London – and yet our musical creatives have continued to create and craft a soundtrack for generations of Kiwis which are uniquely us.

With the advent of radio in the 50s and 60s, Anglo-American music flooded the airwaves, and impressionable young musicians were inspired into being the next Elvis, Beatles, Stones, Dylan and others. That early music sounded a lot like it’s influences, but importantly, they were here; introducing audiences to the ‘sinful’ delights of rock ‘n’ roll.

Local music continued to evolve from there, and whether it was our geographic isolation, the multi-racial influences, our innate ‘Kiwi-ness’ or a bit of everything, music began to develop that sounded a little less like they were from “over there” and a lot more like they were homegrown.

The journey of our musicians and music industry are a direct reflection of the changing face of our culture; who we were, who we are, and what we might become. Over the following pages we have put together playlists from each decade which serve as an introduction – or a reminder – of the wealth of talent we have had, and continue to have, in New Zealand.

EXPLORE BY DECADE

1960’s

1970’s

1980’s

1990’s

2000’s

2010’s

ESSENTIAL LISTENING