New Zealand Music
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New Zealand Music
The music of New Zealand has been influenced by a number of traditions, including Māori music, the music introduced by European settlers during the nineteenth century, and a variety of styles imported during the twentieth century, including blues, jazz, country, rock and roll, reggae, and hip hop, with many of these genres given a unique New Zealand interpretation. Pre-colonial Māori music consisted mainly of a form of microtonal chanting and performances on instruments called taonga pūoro: a variety of blown, struck and twirled instruments made out of hollowed-out wood, stone, whale ivory, albatross bone, and human bone. In the nineteenth century, European settlers - the vast majority of whom were from Britain and Ireland - brought musical forms to New Zealand including brass bands and choral music, and musicians began touring New Zealand in the 1860s. Pipe bands became widespread during the early 20th century. In recent decades, a number of popular artists have gone on ...
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Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern (the blues scale and specific chord progressions) of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove. Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current str ...
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Bic Runga
Briolette Kah Bic Runga (born 13 January 1976), recording as Bic Runga, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist pop artist. Her first three studio albums debuted at number one on the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, New Zealand Top 40 Album charts. Runga has also found success internationally in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom with her song "Sway (Bic Runga song), Sway". Early life Runga was born in Christchurch. Her mother, Sophia Tang, was a Chinese Malaysian lounge singer in Malaysia when she met Joseph Te Okoro Runga, a Māori people, Māori ex-serviceman. They moved to New Zealand to live. Runga is of Ngāti Kahungunu descent. Regarding her name, she explains: "'You say it Bec, rather than Bic. ... It's Chinese, it's a strange vowel sound which doesn't seem to translate in Australia. It means the colour of jade, which might mean green.'" Runga grew up in Hornby, New Zealand, Hornby, Christchurch surrounded by a musically incline ...
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John Psathas
John Psathas, (born Ioannis Psathas, el, Ιωάννης Ψάθας; 1966) is a New Zealand composer. He has works in the repertoire of such high-profile musicians as Evelyn Glennie, Michael Houstoun, Michael Brecker, Joshua Redman and the New Juilliard Ensemble, and is one of New Zealand's most frequently performed composers. He has established an international profile and receives regular commissions from organisations in New Zealand and overseas. Early life and education The son of Greek immigrant parents, Psathas grew up in Taumarunui and then Napier. He attended Napier Boys' High School and left early to study composition and piano at Victoria University of Wellington. He supported himself as a student partly by playing up to nine gigs a week in a jazz trio. Psathas studied further with composer Jacqueline Fontyn in Belgium before returning to New Zealand, where he has since lectured in music at Victoria University and continued to fulfill a busy schedule of commission ...
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Douglas Lilburn
Douglas Gordon Lilburn (2 November 19156 June 2001) was a New Zealand composer. Early life Lilburn was born in Whanganui and spent his early years on the family sheep farm in the upper Turakina River valley at Drysdale. He attended Waitaki Boys' High School from 1930 to 1933, before moving to Christchurch to study journalism and music over the next three years at Canterbury University College, then part of the University of New Zealand. In 1936 his career in music was set when his tone poem ''Forest'' won visiting composer Percy Grainger's national composition competition. In 1937 he began studying at the Royal College of Music in London, tutored in composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams until 1939. The two men remained close: in later years Lilburn sent Vaughan Williams gifts of New Zealand honey, knowing that the older man was fond of it. Letters of thanks from Vaughan Williams in 1947 and 1948 confirm this. Lilburn's early works display the influence of Jean Sibelius; the s ...
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New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, per the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Act 2004. It is currently based in the Michael Fowler Centre and has frequently performed in the adjacent Wellington Town Hall before it was closed in 2013. It also performs in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. History A national orchestra for New Zealand was first proposed with the founding of the Radio Broadcasting Company in 1925, and broadcasting studio orchestras operated in major cities from the late 1920s. A national orchestra was formed in 1939 for New Zealand's Centennial Exhibition in 1940. The orchestra became permanent in 1946 in the aftermath of World War II as the "National Orchestra of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service" (by Oswald Cheesman and others); the inaugural concert took place on 6 March 1947. ...
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Brooke Fraser
Brooke Gabrielle Ligertwood (née Fraser; born 15 December 1983) better known by her maiden name Brooke Fraser, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter best known for her hit single " Something in the Water", released in 2010. Fraser released two studio albums ''What to Do with Daylight'' (2003) and '' Albertine'' (2006) through Columbia Records before signing a recording contract with Wood + Bone. Her third studio album, '' Flags'', was released in 2010 and is her most successful album to date. Her most recent album, ''Brutal Romantic'', was released in November 2014 through Vagrant Records. Fraser became a member of the Australian Christian music group Hillsong Worship from 2005 to 2010; she rejoined the group in 2016 since she was the songwriter and lead vocalist for the Grammy winning song "What a Beautiful Name", which was credited under her married name Brooke Ligertwood. Other well-known songs written and performed by Fraser (both with Hillsong Worship and as a solo artist ...
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Flight Of The Conchords
Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2005) and, subsequently, the HBO American television series (2007–2009). Most recently, they released the HBO comedy special '' Live in London'' in 2018. The special was concurrently released by Sub Pop as their fifth album. The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following, and they continue to tour periodically. They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. They have been twice-nominated for a Grammy Award—winning Best Comedy Album in 2008—and have received seven ...
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Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is an Australian-American musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognized with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves International Award, thirteen CMA Awards and six ARIA Music Awards. Urban wrote and performed the song "For You (Keith Urban song), For You" from the film ''Act of Valor'', which earned him nominations at both the 70th Golden Globe Awards and at the 18th Critics' Choice Awards in the respective Best Original Song categories. Urban has released 11 studio albums (one of which was released only in Australia), as well as one album with The Ranch (band), the Ranch. He has charted 37 singles on the US Hot Country Songs chart, 18 of which went to number one, counting a duet with Brad Paisley ("Start a Band") and the 2008 single "You Look Good in My Shirt". Urban also worked with numerous artists from different music ge ...
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Gin Wigmore
Virginia Claire Wigmore (born 6 June 1986) is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Featured on the Smashproof single "Brother" in 2009, Wigmore went on to release four albums '' Holy Smoke'' (2009), ''Gravel & Wine'' (2011), '' Blood to Bone'' (2015) and ''Ivory'' (2018), with the first three having been chart-toppers on the New Zealand Albums Chart. She is known for her high pitched and raspy voice. Career International Songwriting Competition Inspired by David Gray's album ''White Ladder'', Wigmore wrote her first song, "Angelfire", at the age of 14. Two years later her father died of cancer and Wigmore stopped writing and playing music. She went to Argentina on an exchange program to teach at a kindergarten. On her return to New Zealand, she wrote "Hallelujah", a tribute to her father. Her sister entered the song in the US-based International Songwriting Competition in 2004, and Wigmore beat 11,000 songwriting aspirants from 77 countries to become the youngest and only ...
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Savage (rapper)
Demetrius C. Savelio (born 28 June 1981), better known by his stage name Savage, is a New Zealand rapper and a former member of hip hop group the Deceptikonz. Savage was the first New Zealand hip hop artist to have a commercial single achieve platinum certification status in the United States. Retrieved November 2016 The "International Breakthrough" accolade of the Pacific Music Awards was created in his honour. Savage also has applied his recognisable voice in the electronic dance music space with 5× platinum hit ''Freaks'' with Timmy Trumpet, and 4 times platinum hit '' Swing'' with Joel Fletcher. Early life and the Deceptikonz Savage grew up in Samoa and South Auckland, New Zealand, raised by his mother and siblings. Savage joined with friends to form a hip-hop group, the Deceptikonz, in 1997. Success was not instant, however, as the group struggled through several talent shows and small concerts. Their big break came in 1999 when they were signed to South Auckland (Pa ...
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Fat Freddy's Drop
Fat Freddy's Drop is a New Zealand seven-piece band from Wellington, whose musical style has been characterised as any combination of dub, reggae, soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, and techno. Originally a jam band formed in the late 1990s by musicians from other bands in Wellington, Fat Freddy's Drop gradually became its members' sole focus. Band members continued playing with their other respective groups—The Black Seeds, TrinityRoots, Bongmaster, and others—for much of their 20-year career. Fat Freddy's Drop are known for their improvised live performances. Songs on their studio albums are versions refined over years of playing them live in New Zealand and on tour abroad. The group gained international recognition in 2003 after their single "Midnight Marauders" was re-distributed by record labels and DJs in Germany. The group has toured Europe nearly every year since then. The first studio album by Fat Freddy's Drop, ''Based on a True Story'', was the first independently di ...
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The Naked And Famous
The Naked and Famous are a New Zealand indie electronic band from Auckland, formed in 2007. The band currently consists of Alisa Xayalith (vocals, keyboards) and Thom Powers (vocals, guitars). The band has released four studio albums: ''Passive Me, Aggressive You'' (2010), ''In Rolling Waves'' (2013), ''Simple Forms'' (2016) and '' Recover'' (2020). Since 2012, the band has been based in Los Angeles, California. History Xayalith (born 1986 in Auckland) is the daughter of Laotian refugees and was raised together with a younger brother. Her father introduced her to his native folk music and, at the age of 13, she taught herself guitar. Powers had been playing in local bands from an early age after he had been taught to play guitar by his father. 2007–2008: Early years The band formed in 2007 when Powers and Xayalith were working on what became two extended plays—''This Machine'' and '' No Light''—that they recorded with engineer Aaron Short, a fellow student at Auckland' ...
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