Not only were the finalists announced on Monday night at the Mangere Arts Centre for this year’s Pacific Music Awards, it was also a moment to celebrate the launch of the Pacific Music Collection by AudioCulture.
The Pacific Music Collection ranges from romantic steel-guitar music in the 1940s, to early rock’n’roll, smooth vocal pop, music for tourists, soul, funk, hip hop, heavy metal, reggae, dance, and even the Urban Pasifika genre itself, which emerged to reflect a particular era and style.
AudioCulture Iwi Waiata’s Pacific Music Collection weaves its way through the decades, including the 1980s when Annie Crummer and Ardijah came to prominence, and the 1990s when the impact of the Fuemana family was first felt, and hip hop became increasingly popular via acts such as 3 the Hard Way, Sisters Underground, and King Kapisi.
As the timeline moves into the 2000s, the collection captures the growing role Pasifika artists played in the ascendancy of hip hop with the likes of Che Fu and Emcee Luicia. It also highlights the establishment of the prestigious Pacific Music Awards (which turn 21 this year).
Since then, Pacific artists are shown shaping every aspect of Aotearoa popular music, including reggae (Three Houses Down), indie rock (LEAO), metal (Shepherds Reign), and anything else you can think of, often emphasising their uniqueness by incorporating musical elements from their various ancestral homelands.
PMA Trustee Petrina Togi Saena, spoke about the new online library of pacific music and shared the importance of highlighting the stories and journeys of pacific music and artists.
“So the great team at Audio Culture have been profiling a lot of pacific artists and their stories for a long time, and they made the decision to put it together as a collection which is great to see” Petrina said.
“It’s amazing seeing it as a collection, we know a lot of the stories, but now Audio Culture does an amazing job to tell the full story of an artist, their journey and the iconic stories of pacific music from the 40s to now”
You can find the Pacific Music Collection here.
