I went with Men at Work only because 1) I think of AC/DC as more '70's, 2) Mel Gibson is a horrible racist, and 3) novelist Peter Carey was not an option.
@mossygreen Men at Work was far more popular here than in Australia. We had a person come work temporarily at the company I was at, this was in 1982. She was from Australia, so we asked her what "chunder" meant. She looked at us very strangely, and then explained it. Turns out she had never heard of Men at Work or the song.
@2many2no This album ruled my early 80's high school days. Before school would start I would pop this cassette into my boombox as everyone was hanging out in the halls. OMG, I am old! :( I still consider this to be one of the best albums of all time.)
@wilfbrim I actually patched a hole in my muffler with one of those.. Cut it open, put some sort of paste or something on it, and attached it with some steel electric fence wire twisted as tightly as I could.. Worked well until it was time for an inspection!
Air Supply? Rick Springfield? Scratch AC/DC from that list. As mentioned, they were from the 70's. While she also gained fame first in the 70's, my favorite Australian import may be Olivia Newton John. The sultry makeover in Grease? Things my childhood dreams were made of. Physical came out in 1981. I almost hate to admit it, but the Physical tour was the very first 'real' concert I went to. Totally worth it to see her in Spandex.
@einrad oh, I saw it on the big screen, too, at around 9 or so, but thought it was totally cheesy except for the scene with Gene Kelly and maybe the scene where the Muses come alive off of the mural wall and I to this day love the entire soundtrack.
@sublimosa Olivia was the most beautiful and talented female singer ever until recently. And she's still in my top 5. I loved her 'country' style songs, but "Magic" is my favorite.
I remember the first time I saw "Mad Max", I assumed it was European (my best guess was Scandinavian) because the dialogue was dubbed. It never even occurred to me that it came from an English speaking country. Only after I saw "Mad Max 2" that I realized the original was (also) Australian.
Despite what Mel Gibson has become, he was a certified MOVIE STAR back in the 80s and 90s. I'll grant you that nowadays he is more certifiable. Maybe he was always nuts but hid it well? Maybe dementia crept up on him and "The Passion of the Christ" is when the voices in his head took over? It is a shame. Mel Gibson could have still been an action movie star despite being older [1] if he hadn't gone bat-shit crazy.
[1] See Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, et al.
The Coca-Cola Kid starring Eric Robertson which, @thismyusername happened to feature one of the guys from Crowded House for the Australian Coke ad music-
To this day, I won't buy the batteries hawked by Jacko, the Energizer pitchman, I hated those ads so much!
I'm voting Midnight Oil partly because of late 1980s computer history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WANK_%28computer_worm%29
I went with Men at Work only because 1) I think of AC/DC as more '70's, 2) Mel Gibson is a horrible racist, and 3) novelist Peter Carey was not an option.
@mossygreen AC/DC first got airplay in '77 in 'merica..
@mossygreen Men at Work was far more popular here than in Australia. We had a person come work temporarily at the company I was at, this was in 1982. She was from Australia, so we asked her what "chunder" meant. She looked at us very strangely, and then explained it. Turns out she had never heard of Men at Work or the song.
@SIMBM I also learned about vegemite because of Men at Work.
@pitamuffin awful stuff..a friend gave vegemite to me to eat when I was in Australia..reconsidered calling the person friend after that!
The summer of 1980 was Back in Black.
@2many2no This album ruled my early 80's high school days. Before school would start I would pop this cassette into my boombox as everyone was hanging out in the halls. OMG, I am old! :( I still consider this to be one of the best albums of all time.)
@mfladd we were discussing 8 tracks @ work today..talk about old!
@2many2no I blame you for getting me hooked again :) One more -
@mfladd That was what made them so great. You may call them a formula band, but every song had a hook. Still can't get too much.
The Enerjoizah, it'll surproise yah!
He was also on the Max Headroom TV show.
I am utterly shocked at how many the poll is missing:
I realize it might be lacking the "popularity" part of "pop"-culture, but I'm going with The Church. Here's "Under the Milky Way":
@jqubed Great choice!
I can't believe that you didn't mention Foster's oil cans. The beer was just OK, but those monster cans made an impact at parties in college.
@wilfbrim I actually patched a hole in my muffler with one of those.. Cut it open, put some sort of paste or something on it, and attached it with some steel electric fence wire twisted as tightly as I could.. Worked well until it was time for an inspection!
@jsh139 Misquote! It's, "That's a knife," as @jasontoon correctly stated.
@cinoclav Google Image Search was wrong!!!
@jsh139 Yep. And now I want this shirt, alas it's not available.
Air Supply? Rick Springfield? Scratch AC/DC from that list. As mentioned, they were from the 70's. While she also gained fame first in the 70's, my favorite Australian import may be Olivia Newton John. The sultry makeover in Grease? Things my childhood dreams were made of. Physical came out in 1981. I almost hate to admit it, but the Physical tour was the very first 'real' concert I went to. Totally worth it to see her in Spandex.
@cinoclav I'm with you there. I saw Xanadu on the big screen and didn't think it was cheesy.
@einrad YOU were the other person that saw it?!
@einrad oh, I saw it on the big screen, too, at around 9 or so, but thought it was totally cheesy except for the scene with Gene Kelly and maybe the scene where the Muses come alive off of the mural wall and I to this day love the entire soundtrack.
@sublimosa Olivia was the most beautiful and talented female singer ever until recently. And she's still in my top 5. I loved her 'country' style songs, but "Magic" is my favorite.
I don't know if he was popular in the 80's, but my vote would be for The Real Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.
@arieltf He didn't really gain any sort of fame until the late 90's.
I remember the first time I saw "Mad Max", I assumed it was European (my best guess was Scandinavian) because the dialogue was dubbed. It never even occurred to me that it came from an English speaking country. Only after I saw "Mad Max 2" that I realized the original was (also) Australian.
Despite what Mel Gibson has become, he was a certified MOVIE STAR back in the 80s and 90s. I'll grant you that nowadays he is more certifiable. Maybe he was always nuts but hid it well? Maybe dementia crept up on him and "The Passion of the Christ" is when the voices in his head took over? It is a shame. Mel Gibson could have still been an action movie star despite being older [1] if he hadn't gone bat-shit crazy.
[1] See Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, et al.
What, no Kylie Minogue?
Nevermind, I'm actually quite fine with never hearing that music again.
@denboy Put it on mute, I'm happily voting for modern Minogue.
The Coca-Cola Kid starring Eric Robertson which, @thismyusername
happened to feature one of the guys from Crowded House for the Australian Coke ad music-