The best rock bands from Australia

Happy new year to all you hubbers out there. Before we get into my latest remedial effort at trying to be entertaining I just wanted to wish everybody here a very happy and healthy 2010. That being said lets get down to business. As most of you who are familiar with any of my post here and my personality in general , I am a complete music geek ! I listen to many different kinds of music . It is a part of my daily diet of life as well as hanging out here on Hubpages. And today I would like to highlight and give a huge shoutout to rock and roll from the land down under. Besides Crocodile Dundee and Olivia Newton John , the great continent of Australia has produced some of the finest Rock and Roll that we have been blessed with on the planet .

And today I would like to highlight what to me is some of the best music the land down under has produced. And I would like to start with the band The Hoodoo Gurus. They were formed in 1981 , the year I was legally allowed in bars ,but lets not get into that. Anyway they made a minor splash here in the US , and for me personally this was one of my favorite tunes. I would like to present you with a tune from 1987 called " Whats my Scene ?"

Midnight Oil came out of Sydney in 1972 and was actually called " The Oils" early in their career. They were influenced by Cream , CCR , and of course the ever mighty Led Zeppelin. But they hit their stride when Peter Garrett their lead singer came to Sydney in 1975. And they were also a staple of radio airplay and MTV in the 80s. This particular song was probably their biggest hit called " Beds are Burning " Which came out in the latter part of the 80s. I hope you enjoy it!

Among the great music that came out in the 80s there can be no doubt that Crowded House and Men at Work also made a very large splash at this time. Men at Works debut album was one of the largest selling of the early 80s including among them the hit " Down Under ". Alas they pretty much faded away fairly quickly after that. But they made their mark and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge them.

Crowded House had a couple of pretty good tunes , but their one monster hit " Don't Dream Its Over ( Hey Now ) still gets airplay on the radio regularly today , especially on those stations you hear at the dentists office. ( Trust me I know ! ) But these two great bands were definite contributors to the sound of the 80s!

In the late 80s and very early 90s Australia produced another great band who had some minor success here in the US. The Church put out some of the best early alternative rock including a tune called " Metropolis " that I would have loved to share with you, except the quality was really bad.

These guys formed in 1980 out of Canberra, Australia and for me were one of the best alt - rock combos around. Including " Under the Milky Way " which got regular airplay on all the alt-rock stations stateside here in the late 80s and early 90s. I hope you like the tune as well !

Silverchair had some minor success in the early to mid 90s. And what I love about all these guys was the fact that they all met in " Newcastle High School ". And acheived success before they were old enough to shave ! But besides being young they are enormously talented. Daniel Johns their lead guitarist and primary singer was just an exceptional talent. They formed in 1992 and hit their stride in the early to mid 90s.

A good combo of youthful angst combined with musical talent.

Now there is no doubt that Australia has put out its fair share of hunks on the Big Screen including Hugh Jackman , Mel Gibson and Paul Hogan.

But along with all those bohunks they produced a band that was a monster of hit worldwide called INXS. INXS was a mainstay of early MTV and had a singer named Michael Hutchence who had the charisma of an Elvis and the Beatles. He would have every woman in the place swooning. My ex if she would have had her way would have put posters of him all over the house unless I had intervened !

They were formed in 1977 out of Sydney and along with the Jim Morrison of the 80s and 90s Michael Hutchence they made some great music. They had so many hits I would run out of space trying to list them. Sadly Hutchence committed suicide in 1997. They then had a TV show on CBS where they found his replacement singer. But no way they could capture the fire of the Hutchence era. But for you ladies I chose this number " Bitter Tears " . I have no doubt you will see why this guy was such a special performer

In the 70s and into the 80s Austrailia produced one of the legendary bands of all-time AC-DC.Malcolm and Angus Young came along in 1973 to start AC-DC and are now a staple and Icon of hard rock. Many consider AC-DC to be a metal band. But their music is primarily blues based hard rock. With Bon Scott as their original frontman they owned the latter 70s. Then Bon Scott passed in the typical rockstar way and they brought aboard Brian Johnson and then produced " Back In Black " one of the overall best albums ever produced . Their legend is without debate. And Angus Young is one of the best hard rock guitarist ever. I wanted to give you a taste of early AC-DC with a song called " Live Wire " . Angus Young does some sick guitar playing in this one !

So thanks for coming by hubbers and I hope you enjoyed my two cents worth on Australian rock !