These are the Aussie music moments that defined 2024

2024 has been a stellar year for music — you’d be hard pressed to find someone arguing otherwise. But, perhaps more importantly, it’s been a stellar year for music on our own shores. Whether it was local artists getting the international flowers they always deserved, or global superstars stopping the nation, Australia has been truly spoiled for music moments.

While the rest of the world was sipping espresso, having a brat summer and hailing a midwest princess, there were some key cultural moments Down Under that gave us Aussies plenty to be proud about.

Here are some of the Aussie music moments that defined 2024.

Kylie gets a Grammy

She’s global pop royalty, but she’s our global pop royalty. It was hard not to feel the patriotism flood through you as Kylie, who is still reaching new audiences almost 40 years into her music career, picked up a Grammy for her smash ‘Padam Padam’ in the Best Pop Dance Recording.

This moment was a real victory lap for our pop princess — the grand finale in an absolute banner year. Padam!

The Eras Tour stops a nation

The Australian leg of Taylor Swift’s mammoth Eras Tour was always going to be a cultural moment, but no-one could’ve predicted just how all-conquering it would become.

It felt like everyone had a ticket, and anyone who didn’t was searching everywhere for a ticket. Even if they were unsuccessful, they still spent the hours making friendship bracelets and sat outside stadiums singing along to every word. It was a stratospheric moment in music history that proved, even in a struggling live music economy, Aussie fans are still ready to turn out for their faves.

Royel Otis take on the world

The world fell in love with this Sydney band once their cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ went viral. Then, against all odds, lightning struck twice — they achieved greater viral success with a cover of The Cranberries’ ‘Linger’.

That one-two punch served as a catapult for the world to uncover the band’s own music. From older classics like ‘Oysters In My Pocket’ to newer gems like ‘Foam’, Royel Otis are set on world domination. And if they keep on this seemingly unthinkable trajectory — they’ll achieve it.

Fred again.. fever

Taylor Swift wasn’t the only international superstar who had the whole country clamouring to see them. From the second rumours started to spread that UK producer extraordinaire Fred again.. was going to announce a last minute tour, the scramble for tickets link began.

From his one-night-only Sydney Opera House show to his arena shows around the country, Fred sold out every single concert in a matter of hours. It was a testament to the power of hype and hype alone — last minute ticket drops that you could only find in certain Discord servers leads to more FOMO than you might realise.

The Bunnings Rave

What started as a joke ended up kickstarting a long-overdue conversation about live music in Australia — how do we get people to care?

Well, when Peking Duk and What So Not jumped on board with the idea of a rave held at Bunnings Warehouse, Bunnings gave their seal of approval. It started as a bit of a meme, but really became a beacon of how lateral thinking could be the answer to reviving our live music scene.

G Flip makes history

We all know triple j’s Hottest 100 is a quintessential cornerstone of not just Aussie music, but Aussie pop culture generally. It should only be fitting then that an Australian artist makes history on the countdown — exactly what G Flip did.

While G didn’t top the countdown back in January, they did snag seven entries (including second place for ‘The Worst Person Alive’). This makes G the record-holder for most songs in a single Hottest 100 countdown, a record that hadn’t been broken in almost two decades.

Splendour no more

Of course, not every defining music moment of the year was a positive one. Australia’s struggling festival scene took one of its biggest blows yet when Splendour In The Grass, longtime holder of the reputation of the country’s biggest festival, was cancelled.

With Kylie Minogue, Future and Arcade Fire set to headline, the loss of Splendour had industry and punters alike mourning the nation’s once great festival culture, and clamouring for ways to revive it.

But Australian fans are still turning out for Australian music

Despite there being less and less festivals to attend, Aussie fans are still turning out for Aussie music. In November alone, Troye Sivan, Dom Dolla and The Kid LAROI all played massive shows to sold out crowds around the country.

Live music is built into Australian culture, from pub karaoke to stadium spectaculars, and it’s a bloody relief to know that Aussies old and young still have the thirst for it.