Beats with a message: how Aotearoa made new sounds its own

Music never comes from nowhere. Musicians hear the sounds around them, borrow what excites them, and bend it to say something about who they are. Aotearoa has a long history of doing exactly that.

'Poi E' (1984)

In the early 1980s the town of Pātea in Taranaki had just lost its main employer, the freezing works. Singer Dalvanius Prime wrote 'Poi E' with te reo Māori expert Ngoi Pēwhairangi and recorded it with the Pātea Māori Club, a local kapa haka group. It mixed breakdance rhythms from the United States with a Māori action song, sung entirely in te reo. It went to number one in 1984, at a time when the Māori language was struggling to survive, and showed that Māori culture belonged at the top of the charts.

'E Tū' (1988)

Hip hop reached Aotearoa through dance and graffiti before local rap was recorded. In 1988 Upper Hutt Posse released 'E Tū', the first New Zealand rap single. It was bilingual, with a chorus like a haka, and it told the story of Māori warriors and resistance. It turned an American style into something that could only have come from here.

Reggae, hip hop and 'How Bizarre'

Taonga pūoro return

Traditional Māori instruments like the kōauau (flute) and pūrerehua (a spinning disc on a cord) almost fell silent after colonisation. From the late 20th century, Hirini Melbourne, Richard Nunns, Brian Flintoff and others revived them. Each instrument has a name and its own voice, and belongs to a whānau of instruments. Today you can hear them in film scores and new music, played by people who have learned them properly.

A bedroom-sized studio

In 2013 Lorde, aged 16, went to number one in the United States with 'Royals', a song built on a spare beat, finger clicks and her voice. It showed that a track made with simple tools in Auckland could reach the world. Your own track can carry your place and your story too.