Academics list Australia’s most underrated albums, from Dami Im, Shakaya and Wendy Saddington

Academics have compiled a list of Australia’s most underrated albums for a book — including work by Dami Im and an Indigenous girl group once managed by Richard Wilkins.

NUI TE KOHA

3 min read

August 17, 2020 - 12:00PM

Pop star Dami Im is featured in a book by Australian academics which lists the nation’s most underrated albums. Supplied.

Lifestyle

Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Another six weeks stuck at home seems like a lifetime right now, but we’ve got you covered for daily entertainment.

Lockdown Life, a digital subscriber special, will give you a five minute brain break from coronavirus and arm you with some handy tips as well on keeping the family busy with movies to watch and bike rides to enjoy, and the adults well stocked with wine and recipes ideas — just to name a few.

So keep an eye out each lunchtime online.

Today we share Australia’s most underrated albums.

Dami Im at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest rehearsals. Picture: Supplied.

Australian music academics have compiled a list of the nation’s most underrated albums including work by pop star Dami Im and an Indigenous girl group once managed by Richard Wilkins.

The list features in a new book, An Anthology of Australian Albums: Critical Engagements, penned by 12 academics from 10 universities, including Melbourne University and RMIT.

Professor Jon Stratton, from the University of South Australia, was lead editor on the project, and says the list deliberately aims to show a different side to the Australian music story.

“It’s a strange list, and we think that’s really good, because in Australia, there’s this sense of, ‘What’s the great rock tradition?” Professor Stratton said.

“One of the things we wanted to do was disturb that and say, ‘No, look, there’s all these other interesting albums that should be talked about.’”

He added: “The Australian music industry is still, and always has been, primarily white and male.

Cairns-based duo "Shakaya".

“We wanted to disturb that as well, and put in more woman artists, more people of colour, more Indigenous work, have a much more balanced sense of what the music tradition is in Australia.”

“This collection is really unusual in the Australian music tradition, because it doesn’t focus on those albums which are most popular, or even those albums that are in some way considered to be most significant in terms of mainstream attention.”

The academics list most underrated albums include a 1965 album The Missing Links, a live work by blues artist Wendy Saddington, a dark metal record by Striborg, former X Factor winner Dami Im’s self-titled opus, and Shakaya, a rhythm and blues duo once managed by TV veteran Richard Wilkins.

Melbourne indie-rock star Courtney Barnett. Picture: Jason Edwards

Professor Stratton said Im’s inclusion in the book rages against “industry snobbery” aimed at reality show singers, and applauds her South Korean heritage.

Shakaya, he said, celebrates Indigenous artists working in a pop realm.

He said Saddington was a groundbreaking artist at a time when 1960s surf pop singer Little Pattie was “the acceptable formula for women in the music industry.”

Professor Stratton said he wants the underrated albums list to spark debate.

“We’re presenting an alternative tradition,” he said. “We’ve got the Missing Links rather than The Easybeats, The Scientists rather than The Birthday Party, Wendy Saddington rather than Little Pattie, and The Coloured Balls rather than Rose Tattoo.

“These are the albums that, on the whole, have not made the tradition, but they’re albums that are important for the development of Australian popular music and rock music.”