'I'm not a loser!': Amyl & The Sniffers and the Australian pub rock revival
'I'm not a loser!': Amyl & The Sniffers and the Australian pub rock revival
Ben Green (Griffith University) and Steven Threadgold (University of Newcastle)
Melbourne band Amyl & the Sniffers are foremost among a handful of contemporary bands that have drawn comparisons to the Australian pub rock tradition, in national and international media. Iconic artists from the 1970s to the 1990s such as Lobby Loyde, AC/DC and Cosmic Psychos are invoked by the band themselves and in critical reviews and discussions, constructing an Australian pub rock lineage whose unifying features include musical variations on overdriven guitar-based hard rock, as well as association with a trans-local, trans-historical set of cultural practices around live music and drinking. Accompanying the musical touchstones of the ‘revival’ is the expression of working class identities, experiences and aesthetics, with material struggles and stigmas central to the bands’ presentation and critical reception. This includes playing with stereotypical cultural references such as mullet hairstyles, retro clothing, alcohol-fuelled hedonism and violence. The treatment of these topics in the band’s lyrics and performances suggests both sincerity and irony, and their coverage in the media is haunted by questions of authenticity: are they really out-of-step ‘bogans’ or posing ‘hipsters’? Which is worse? Consequently, the apparent pub rock revival presents an opportunity to explore the evolving cultural memory of Australian pub rock and its relation to class, both historically and in the present, with particular attention to its significance for young people navigating everyday life.
Ben Green is a Research Fellow at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. He is a cultural sociologist with interests in popular music memory and heritage, regional music scenes, and youth studies.
Steven Threadgold is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Newcastle. His recent books include Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles (2018) and Bourdieu and Affect: A Sociological Encounter (2020).