Aussie artists have been making huge waves overseas this year and few have made a bigger splash than the likes of Sia, 5 Seconds Of Summer, and Iggy Azalea, all storming the US Charts in recent months in numbers too big too ignore.
The folks of USA Today have certainly noticed, and following on from tipping several Aussie acts to crack America earlier this year, the American paper has declared 2014 the year of ‘A-pop’, coining the term while branding a new wave of Australian-bred acts that are “pushing to the forefront of the pop genre.”
“Move over, K-pop. A-pop is rising from down under,” begins the article from USA Today (via FasterLouder), announcing that the 2012 K-pop boom triggered by the (ongoing) YouTube success of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ has been shouldered aside by the collective success of US #1 hits from Sydney pop punks 5SOS, Adelaide gun-for-hire Sia, and “the It Girl of summer” Iggy Azalea.
So who else is driving the A-pop wave? USA Today anoints 17-year-old Queensland RnB singer Cody Simpson, teenage LA-via-Melbourne comedy viral group The Janoskians, and 19-year-old actor/singer Troye Sivan as being part of the A-pop revolution, largely due to their success on YouTube, with metrics that outstrip the aforementioned chart-topping successes.
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Troye Sivan has 2.5 million subscribers and over 112 million views on YouTube, while ‘Happy LittlePill‘ – the lead cut from his August-released TRXYE EP – has reached over 2.6 million views alone. Gross out posse turned boy band, The Janoskians, have scored nearly double that figure for ‘Real Girls Eat Cake‘, largely thanks to their 1 million subscribers.
Rising to fame with online covers of Justin Timberlake and Jason Mraz, Cody Simpson, who shares both management and tour duties with Justin Bieber, is pulling ridiculous viewing numbers for his singles: ‘All Day’ (27 million views), ‘Pretty Brown Eyes’ (20 million), ‘Summertime’ (12 million), and ‘On My Mind’ (24 million).
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Georgie Powell, music partnerships manager for YouTube Australia and New Zealand, tells USA Today that global reach afforded by the internet is creating unprecedented opportunities and successes for artists from Down Under. “Australia is an export nation when it comes to online content. For every view of an Aussie video on YouTube, there are nine from overseas,” he says.
So who’s next to crest the A-pop wave? According to the US paper’s YouTube analysis, other acts “gathering steam” are Matt Corby, The Jezabels, Gossling, Lisa Mitchell (despite the fact she hasn’t uploaded a video in a year) and Brisbane’s Emma Louise, who’s currently enjoying a Top 5 position in the UK Charts thanks to a remix of a remix (go figure), as The Music reports.
No love for Brisbane’s Sheppard though, it might seem like a bit of an oversight considering their multi-platinum single ‘Geronimo’ is the third best selling single locally in 2014 while the band are being groomed for the US market by Bieber’s management. Plus, there’s a lack of Vance Joy, with ‘Riptide’ steadily making its way up US Singles charts – maybe the Cleo Bachelor of the Year contender isn’t A-pop enough?
