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Liminal Electronic Musics: Post-Punk Experimentation in Australia in the 1970s-1980s

Knowles, Julian D. (2008) Liminal Electronic Musics: Post-Punk Experimentation in Australia in the 1970s-1980s . In Wilkie, Sonia and Hood, Anthony, Eds. Proceedings 'Sound : Space' Australasian Computer Music Conference, 2008, pages pp. 37-45, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.

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Abstract

This paper presents a survey of some key experimental electronic music scenes in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s that were situated outside the frame of music institutions and the electro-acoustic music tradition. Specifically it focuses on experimentalism in the popular music field in this period, outlining the 'little bands' scene in Melbourne and the scene around the Terse Tapes and M Squared labels in Sydney, It locates a set of international reference points in No Wave, industrial music and Krautrock and discusses the work of some individuals who traversed the popular music and experimental music scenes, acting as a nexus for musical ideas. The paper proposes that experimental practices in popular music exert a significant force on experimental electronic music practices in a wider sense and the links to more academic forms of music experimentation need to be better understood. In doing so the paper calls for a more expanded and complete view of the historical development of electronic music as a way of better understanding current experimental electronic music scenes in Australia.

Item Type:Conference Paper
Status:Published
Keywords:Electronic music; popular music; post-punk; experimental music; electro-acoustic music, Australia; Little Bands; No Wave; Terse Tapes; M Squared; Clifton Hill Community Music Centre; Severed Heads; Primitive Calculators; Tom Ellard
Subjects:410000 The Arts > 410300 Cinema, Electronic Arts and Multimedia > 410304 Other Cinema and Electronic Arts
410000 The Arts > 410100 Performing Arts > 410101 Music
ID Code:14112
Deposited By:Knowles, Julian
Deposited On:21 July 2008
Alternative Locations:http://www.acmc08.org/
Copyright Owner:Copyright 2008 Julian D. Knowles