Aussie pub rock on agenda for Royal Geographic Society event in London
Published on 23 July, 2007
Aussie pub rock is the focus of an academic paper to be presented at the esteemed Royal Geographic Society - Institute of British Geographers' conference in London in August (29-31).
Central Queensland University researcher Dr Margaret Rogers is due to talk about 'Big Balls: Pub Rock, Geography and Australian Masculinity' during a session on 'Masculinity, intersectionality and place'.
"Pub rockers such as The Aztecs, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, The Angels and Rose Tattoo personified the rough, tough, bad boy face of Australian masculinity in the 1970s," Dr Rogers said.
"Their version of pub rock was forged and tempered in the unforgiving and defiantly masculine pub culture that dominated and defined contemporary Australia and Australian popular music.
"The pub rockers' sexual prowess, larrikinism, willingness to fight and fondness for alcohol proclaimed their uncompromising masculinity and reinforced their Australian identity.
"Although many of the pub rock musicians cited were born in the United Kingdom their music was a phenomenon that belonged to the geographic location of Australia and the historical time of the 1970s.
"In a decade that celebrated a new look Australia, shaped by the end of the cultural cringe, public recognition of Aboriginal rights and the integration of multiculturalism, the lived experience of pub rockers and their audiences reflected and reinforced historical mythologies that defined popular conceptions of traditional Australian masculinity and Australian identity."
Central Queensland University researcher Dr Margaret Rogers is due to talk about 'Big Balls: Pub Rock, Geography and Australian Masculinity' during a session on 'Masculinity, intersectionality and place'.
"Pub rockers such as The Aztecs, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, The Angels and Rose Tattoo personified the rough, tough, bad boy face of Australian masculinity in the 1970s," Dr Rogers said.
"Their version of pub rock was forged and tempered in the unforgiving and defiantly masculine pub culture that dominated and defined contemporary Australia and Australian popular music.
"The pub rockers' sexual prowess, larrikinism, willingness to fight and fondness for alcohol proclaimed their uncompromising masculinity and reinforced their Australian identity.
"Although many of the pub rock musicians cited were born in the United Kingdom their music was a phenomenon that belonged to the geographic location of Australia and the historical time of the 1970s.
"In a decade that celebrated a new look Australia, shaped by the end of the cultural cringe, public recognition of Aboriginal rights and the integration of multiculturalism, the lived experience of pub rockers and their audiences reflected and reinforced historical mythologies that defined popular conceptions of traditional Australian masculinity and Australian identity."