WHAT THE AIR WAS LIKE UP THERE

Overseas Music and Local Reception in the 1960s

Abstract

This paper looks at he popular music from overseas which New Zealand audiences were exposed to in the 1960s, the ways in which this music was disseminated, and the influence of this music on what was produced locally. In order to provide this, the paper also outlines some aspects of New Zealand popular musical culture which were influential as mediating elements in the reception of overseas music, including the problem of availability of recordings, and the role radio and, to a lesser extent, television broadcasting played in the dissemination of "foreign" models.