Mighty Oz

While out on a run yesterday I heard Jet's tremendous "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," and I got to wondering why more Australian rockers don't make it big here, compared to, say, the number of Brits. Here are all the Australian rockers--for purposes of argument I'm using the term loosely--I can think of who had success here in the U.S. an' A.:

AC/DC
Air Supply
The Bee Gees
The Church
Crowded House
Natalie Imbruglia
INXS
Jet
Little River Band
Men At Work
Midnight Oil
Kylie Minogue
Olivia Newton-John
Savage Garden
Split Enz
Rick Springfield
Keith Urban
The Vines

To be sure, it's an impressive group, but it seems like slim pickins for an entire continent. But then I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

What else to make of this list I'm not certain, other than to note the fact that the 1980s were good for Australian music in the U.S., other decades not so: by my reckoning, ten of these acts made a splash here in the 1980s, and the other eight acts were big in either the 1970s, the 1990s or the 2000s. Certain of the artists straddle decades, of course, like the Bee Gees, AC/DC and fabulous Kylie Minogue.

But with the Vines and Jet, the millenium is getting off to a fine start for our musician friends from a land down under.