'There's No Aphrodisiac Like Newtown': The Evolving Connection to Place in the Music of the Whitlams

The Whitlams live in Newtown, Australia” is a byline that has appeared on each of the Sydney band’s albums since their beginnings in 1992. During this time the band has progressed from being on a small, independent label with a local audience to achieving national coverage and recognition, culminating with 8 ARIA award nominations in 1998. Of these they won three for Best Group, Song of the Year and Best Independent Release. Following this The Whitlams were signed to Warner Music (as it incorporated Festival Music), and have continued to make albums that still use inner city Sydney as a focus, but are pitched at a less localised audience. The Whitlams have used Sydney as a setting for major local events during this time, (the Sydney Olympics, State Government policies), but also just as a setting to express more personal issues (songs about relationships, aging). This paper will compare The Whitlams’ early releases to the music made after the band gained national attention, looking at how and why Sydney has remained a central theme, but has been expressed in different terms

Harry Styles as a Cecaelia: Sexuality, Representation and Media-lore in “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”

The music video for Harry Styles’s 2022 track “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” (directed by Aube Perrie) provides a surprising representation of the pop star (arguably at the peak of his career) appearing as a cecaelia (a monstrous figure with a human head, arms and torso giving way to tentacles around its midriff). The video is notable in two distinct contexts. First, in terms of Styles’s trajectory as a popular music performer who has received intense media attention because of his fan base, artistic persona and ambiguous sexual identity; and second, in terms of the articulation of a relatively minor media-loric (i.e. modern folkloric) entity in a high profile popular cultural context. The article discusses these aspects before moving to an analysis of the music video showing how Styles’s role as a cecaelia serves as a representation of his career position, public profile and desire to assert his creative-industrial agency in the early 2020s. The music video thereby illustrates the potential of media-loric figures to represent complex themes in contemporary cultural discourse

Complaint rock : a new type of Australian protest music?

7 page(s

Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience

2 page(s

Book review : 'Useful cinema'

Book review of 'Useful cinema', Acland, Charles R. and Wasson, Haidee (eds), Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2011, ISBN 9780822350095.1 page(s

#IsItOk to be a celebrity (disabled) comedian? : Approaching disability with Adam Hills’ television program, The Last Leg

12 page(s

'There's no aprodisiac like Newtown' : the evolving connection to place in the music of the Whitlams

"The Whitlams live in Newtown, Australia” is a byline that has appeared on each of the Sydney band’s albums since their beginnings in 1992. During this time the band has progressed from being on a small, independent label with a local audience to achieving national coverage and recognition, culminating with 8 ARIA award nominations in 1998. Of these they won three for Best Group, Song of the Year and Best Independent Release. Following this The Whitlams were signed to Warner Music (as it incorporated Festival Music), and have continued to make albums that still use inner city Sydney as a focus, but are pitched at a less localised audience. The Whitlams have used Sydney as a setting for major local events during this time, (the Sydney Olympics, State Government policies), but also just as a setting to express more personal issues (songs about relationships, aging). This paper will compare The Whitlams’ early releases to the music made after the band gained national attention, looking at how and why Sydney has remained a central theme, but has been expressed in different terms.15 page(s

You were watching Video Hits : the end of an era for Australian music television

9 page(s

Pitch perfect : the growth of Gruen and the case for serious entertainment

From transfer and nation to sweat and planet, ABC's Gruen franchise has been prompting debate and peeling back media spin since 2008. Liz Giuffre spoke to Gruen co-creator Jon Casimir about working on one of the most interesting and hard-to-define shows on Australian television.5 page(s

Book review : 'Rock and roll always forgets : a quarter century of music criticism'

A book review of 'Rock And Roll Always Forgets: A Quarter Century of Music Criticism' by Chuck Eddy. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2011. ISBN 9780822349969.3 page(s