The Datsuns
Most New Zealand music is absolutely terrible. Like many countries, New Zealand artists tend to try and copy American artists, leading to bland, soulless music. The early-2000’s saw an explosion of such artists, with a rare exception being The Datsuns, easily New Zealand’s best-ever band.
Their 2003 debut titled, The Datsuns, had some great songs like Sittin’ Pretty and In Love.
The Datsuns came from a hideous small town on the North Island, called Cambridge, but their brand of heavy rock-and-roll was very popular in England for a short period of time around 2004.
British Hills teacher, Jordan, once attended a Datsuns’ concert at his university and lost a toe-nail.
Their 2003 debut titled, The Datsuns, had some great songs like Sittin’ Pretty and In Love.
The Datsuns came from a hideous small town on the North Island, called Cambridge, but their brand of heavy rock-and-roll was very popular in England for a short period of time around 2004.
British Hills teacher, Jordan, once attended a Datsuns’ concert at his university and lost a toe-nail.
Lorde
New Zealand’s most famous artist is Lorde. She is the only New Zealand singer to ever have a number one hit in the USA and did so at age 17! The song was called Royals, and while it is not a bad song, how it became the number one song in the world is a mystery.
The song is about “normal” kids having a good time riding the bus to home parties and being satisfied with this lifestyle, while most of the popular music they listen to is about rich people with “tigers on a gold leash” living a super star life.
The song is about “normal” kids having a good time riding the bus to home parties and being satisfied with this lifestyle, while most of the popular music they listen to is about rich people with “tigers on a gold leash” living a super star life.
Crowded House
Crowded House was led by New Zealand’s greatest-ever musician, Neil Finn, and sometimes joined by his brother, Tim Finn. Their style of listener-friendly wuss rock was very popular in the 1990s.
They were very popular in Australia and Australians often try to claim Crowded House is an Australian band.
Their most famous song is “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, but their best lyrics come from the song “Chocolate Cake” with the line “May the excess of fat on your American bones/ Cushion the impact as you sink like a stone”.
Nesian Mystik
Another New Zealand group that had two or three good songs before becoming terrible is Nesian Mystik. Their style of Polynesian rap/hip-hop in songs like “For the People” or “It’s On” is the perfect New Zealand-style of hip-hop music.
Nesian Mystik even tried to make it big in Japan around 2006/2007… but failed horribly. You can still find some of their songs on very old karaoke systems.