Arcadia New Zealand

By Max Gunn, Student Support Coordinator, Otago

It is often easy to forget that New Zealand is a country of under 5 million people especially when you look at the disproportionate successes of its music industry. Music has a special significance in New Zealand and has been instrumental (excuse the pun) in forming our identity as Kiwis in our relatively new country.

Maori Music

One aspect that distinguishes New Zealand music from that of the rest of the world is it’s Maori influences. Traditional Maori music (for example Waiatas and the Haka) carries cultural significance and will always raise the hairs on one’s skin. These Maori influences were made more accessible to western audiences when mixed with pop music in the 1980’s where Maori tunes started getting widespread exposure.

Check out this song, ‘Poi E’ – a kiwi classic that epitomises that mixture of Maori tradition with western pop music.

NZ Reggae/Dub

When Bob Marley came to New Zealand in 1979, Reggae-esque music went boom in the land of the long white cloud. Soulful melodies with reggae undertones have, to me, become the real ‘kiwi’ sound. When a kiwi is feeling homesick oversees, they will often turn to some of our iconic reggae-influenced bands to make them feel at ease. Some of our more renowned bands in this genre are Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Black Seeds, Six60, Katchafire, the Herbs and Kora. For me, summer in New Zealand wouldn’t be complete without one of these bands blasting out the stereo as the barbeque sizzles away and the wind blows through the Pohutukawa trees. This music also suits our summer music festival scene suspiciously well.

Take a listen to what is now a kiwi summer anthem by arguably our most successful reggae influenced bands: Fat Freddy’s Drop.

Pop Music

Most recently, New Zealand music was pushed to the forefront of world music with pop sensation Lorde storming the charts. This was huge for the nation as it was proof that Kiwis really can ‘make it big’ on the world stage. But even before Lorde, New Zealand has had a strong pop music culture that is well worth investigating. In the 1970’s the Split Enz in their wacky outfits and crazy hairstyles were formed and completely wowed the nation. Neil Finn then split off from Split Enz and formed Crowded House who caused ripples throughout the world with songs such as ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ consistently being voted as one of the top 50 songs ever written. In fact, when Paul McCartney was asked what it was like being the best songwriter in the world. He reportedly answered, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Neil Finn.”

In the 1990s and 2000s Pop Singer/Songwriters dominated the scene such as; Dave Dobbyn and Bic Runga.

In Conclusion...

As a musician myself, I swell with pride writing about our incredibly rich music scene and again I feel like this may be because of how much we as New Zealanders associate with our music. Because of our small size, the music scene has a very friendly communal vibe where ‘everyone knows everyone’. So please, have a listen to some real kiwi music and be ready to fall into the arms of Kiwi Music.