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55 albums · 1962–2021

Music of New Zealand, from Split Enz and the Dunedin sound to Fat Freddy's Drop, Lorde and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Lorde singing into a hand-held microphone on the Glastonbury stage in 2025
The horn section of Fat Freddy's Drop in hats and suits under purple stage lightsA kapa haka group in a line on the carved stage at Te Matatini, the crowd seated on the grass before them
Lorde at Glastonbury, 2025. Photo: Raph_PH, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Fat Freddy's Drop at the Rudolstadt festival, 2013. Photo: Schorle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A kapa haka group on the stage of Te Matatini in Hagley Park, Christchurch, 2015. Photo: Schwede66, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

New Zealand's popular music has a label at its heart, Flying Nun of Christchurch and the Dunedin sound of the Clean, the Chills, the Bats, the Verlaines and Straitjacket Fits; before them the Howard Morrison Quartet and Ray Columbus in the sixties, Split Enz, Hello Sailor and Th' Dudes, Dave Dobbyn's Loyal, Herbs and the Pātea Māori Club's Poi E, then the Mutton Birds and Shihad, Bic Runga, Neil Finn on his own and with his brother, Hinewehi Mohi's Oceania, Che Fu and Scribe, the Wellington dub of Fat Freddy's Drop, the Black Seeds and Salmonella Dub, Lorde's Pure Heroine and Melodrama, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams from Lyttelton, Six60, Alien Weaponry's thrash in te reo Māori, Avantdale Bowling Club, the Beths and Benee today. The list has 55 records from 1962 to 2021, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; Kiri Te Kanawa stands for a classical tradition that would need a list of its own, as would the waiata and haka beyond a few records, the choirs of the Pacific Island churches, brass bands and country. About 45 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 18%Pop 11%Soul & R&B 6%Other 65%
  • Rock 18%
  • Pop 11%
  • Soul & R&B 6%
  • Other 65%

The genres named most: new zealand, pop, pop rock, indie rock, soul, hip hop.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: New Zealand 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.