A question of Musicianship?

Historically, there has always been some argument between musicians from Melbourne and Sydney as to which city had the best music scene. Those musicians from Melbourne argued that the Sydney scene was not very good. Those from Sydney argued that the Sydney scene was best. Some musicians that when a Sydney band went to play in Melbourne  they had trouble finding venues, and when bands from Melbourne went to Sydney they had trouble in the same way.

The issue of city rivalry has existed not just in a music sense but in a sporting sense, and in other senses too numerous to mention. Whilst this particular post doesn't want to start a fresh argument, it does want to create a forum for a discussion into the standards for musicianship in Melbourne and Sydney.

Several musicians stated that the origins of the Melbourne music scene lay in the place of jazz in the Melbourne scene, a factor which was not so obvious in Sydney. If such a point is in fact true, or arguable, then how can such a point be proven?

One way I believe this can be examined is by looking at the styles of drumming, bass playing, singing styles, and of course examining the guitar and piano playing styles of popular songs from both cities. This kind of study may be classed as musicology, and I am interested in examining the construction of popular songs aimed at the teen market prior to 1966, through the Go-Set period into the rock era.

I am interested in examining the complexity of this music, any help along these lines would be of interest to me. If there are any "fake books" that exist will Australian 60s and 70s pop and rock music, I would like to see them as they can help with analysis.

Questions on how we rate musicianship can be both emotional and rational, and can be clouded by the question of fandom.

So this is a big question to be addressed in this blog!! Any help would be useful.

One more note on this topic relate to the question of "why should we do this?", also "why do we need to analyse pop and rock songs?". The answer can be found in questions of high culture vs low culture, in Australia, the low culture approach has resulted in "cultural cringe" that has effectively meant that aspects of Australian culture and music have largely been ignored by a majority of the population and has been late in being a study of academics. This blog will do its best to overcome the "cringe" elements, and treat this issue with respect and good judgement.