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By Jagad, Sam M, Sam W and Mitch
In April 1956 Elvis Presley tops the Pop Charts with his first RCA single release "Heartbreak Hotel". By the end of the year he would be the first artist ever to have nine singles in the top 100 at one time.
In 1954, a new Fender Guitar was produced and revolutionised the sound of rock music, and the Stratocaster is now the most popular guitara ever made and copied. It was the choice guitar of such legends as Jimi Hendrix, Steve Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton
Bill Haley & the Comets begin their tour of Australia. Johnny O'Keefe achieves local acclaim in Australia after his breakthrough appearance on the tour. Their hit single “Rock around the clock” was a major success in Australia and therefore gave a platform for O’Keefe to showcase his talent. He was the first major Australian rock and roll artist. This was a part of the proclaimed "first wave" of rock music in Australia.
During the mid to late 1960's, bands in Australia begin to adopt the rock genre and formed hundreds of bands which would go on to have successful records. Bands like the Bee Gee's and the Easybeats come out of this 'second wave' of rock music. These bands would also go on to have success internationally in countries like the UK and America.
In 1963, the Beatles toured Australia bringing popularity of the genre down under.
In 1967 outdoor rock music festivals began. Monterey Pop Festival attracted 55,000 fans per day to a three day concert. In the summer of 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair drew 500,000 people to a three day concert in Bethel, New York.
The 'third wave' of rock music occurred in the 1970's when rock festivals gained popularity and many more bands from Australia started to gain international success. In the 1960's, few bands had made it overseas due to poor management but now more major bands entered the international rock scene from this ‘second’ wave including ACDC and Cold Chisel.
INXS, Cold Chisel and ACDC were all major Australian rock bands who achieved success both domestically and internationally during the 1970’s, when rock music was at its peak popularity in Australia
The popular music show Countdown which aired on ABC to showcase rock music among other genres including both well-renowned artists as well as up-and-coming artists. This began to air in 1974 and at first was not too well-known but began to garner a large audience over the years.
Triple J, which was formed in 1975, is a radio station that is government funded which also played a crucial role in popularising rock music in it's beginnings as its purpose is similar to Countdown's which is to give new and up-and-coming artists a chance to breakthrough and enter the mainstream music scene
The music industry was rescued from its economic crisis by the development in the 1980s of a new technology, digital recording. Vinyl records were replaced by the compact disc (CD), a technological revolution that immediately had a conservative effect. People were encouraged to replace their records, and to listen to the same music on a superior sound system.
In January 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame holds its first induction ceremony. While Elvis Presley is an obvious and appropriate inaugural choice, somehow the Beatles don't seem quite significant or popular enough to be included.
Throughout the developed world, alternative rock of various kinds became more popular during the 1990s, especially grunge.
The 1990s had no unifying stars (the biggest sensation, the Spice Girls, were never really taken seriously). The attempt to market a global music was met by the rise of world music, an ever-increasing number of voices drawing on local traditions and local concerns to absorb rock rather than be absorbed by it.
In 1991, the band Necrotomy played live on the Peter Couchman talk show special 'Couchman on Heavy Metal during a period of media controversy about Heavy Metal music. Metal as a form of music around the world underwent a massive stylistic evolution after this, with the emergence of many new styles such as black, doom and melodeath, to name a few.
Since the mid to late 2000s, the popularity of psychedelic rock music in Australia has been steadily climbing due in part to the worldwide success of Perth band, Tame Impala. The neo-psychedelic scene in Australia is inspired by the experimental psychedelic pop of Pink Floyd, the jangly guitar-driven sound of The Byrds, the distorted free form jams, and the sonic experiments of 60s psychedelic bands. Rather than being propelled by song lyrics, the edginess of the scene comes from the music which relies heavily on the use of effects including tape delays, phasers, sitars, fuzz boxes, and pitch modulators.
Gang Of Youths made almost every Aussie rock fan in the country stand up and take notice with the release of their debut record The Positions back in 2015. Sporting a unique brand of indie-rock mixed with a more verbose, soulful approach, Gang Of Youths’ profile has been rising significantly in recent years, with the group recently taking out the number one spot on the ARIA charts with their second record, Go Farther In Lightness.
While still ever present, rock music has been on the decline for a while now, with more and more people drifting to other genres such as Rap, Rhythm and Blues and Pop. Modern audiences seem to have lost interest in rock music in general, leading to the impending decline of rock music on the charts around the world. Some more recent examples include the likes of Green Day and Linkin Park, but even bands such as these have slowly been declining in popularity. It seems that for now, rock music as a genre may have gone into hibernation, but it may return to its former glory in the future.