Since 2007, André Rieu CDs, DVDs, television shows and concerts have saturated Australian media. Consequently, Rieu’s popularity—the extent of which is remarkable for a classical musician—has drawn significant attention from commentators, critics and musicians, much of which is negative in tone. This article describes the criticisms made of Rieu in the Australian media, and explores the socio-cultural motivations for these reactions. It explores Rieu’s position as a liminal classical and ‘popular’ musician, and proposes that Rieu can be viewed as a symptom of a diminishing cultural hierarchy. It furthermore associates criticism of the Rieu ‘phenomenon’ with anxieties about Arts status and funding in Australia, and proposes that disapproval of Rieu is used as a proxy for more general condemnations of Australian tastes.

Bourke, Chris. 2010. Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-455-0 (hbk). 381 pp. Scott, Derek B. 2008. Sounds of the Metropolis: The 19th Century Popular Music Revolution in London, New York, Paris and Vienna. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19530-946-1 (hbk). 320 pp. Wald, Elijah. 2009. How The Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19534-154-6 (hbk). 336 pp.

Homan, Shane, and Tony Mitchell, eds. 2008. Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now: Popular Music in Australia. Hobart: ACYS. ISBN 978-1-875236-60-2 (hbk). 295 pp.

This paper discusses sociocultural changes in music in post war Papua New Guinea, by presenting examples of under-researched early stringband activities in the Madang area. The musicians as social actors are seen to be undertaking an act of what the author calls ‘territorialization’, a means of cultural survival through music-making in an era of transition from traditional local chiefdom to modern independent state. The case of Aksim Siming of Kranket, a key figure in the early phases of Madang stringband music, will be presented, along with details of others who participated in guitar and bambooband activities.

Music video production in Vanuatu has developed in a distinctly different manner to either its Melanesian neighbours or the international anglophone music sector that dominates global markets. Produced on minimal budgets for artists with very low expectations of financial returns from their creative activities, a substantial proportion of Vanuatu music video production is orientated to (various aspects of) social communication amongst a culturally diverse and spatially dispersed national community. In addition to promoting musicians and the communities they emerge from, Vanuatu videos often convey specific public information messages, address social issues and tensions and/or reinscribe aspects of local cultural heritage in new contexts. This article provides an introduction and overview of Vanuatu music video production and case studies of key music video albums and individual tracks.

Reflections on 15 years of Perfect Beat (1992-2007)