Oceanian & Pacific
This family covers Aboriginal Australian, Māori, Pacific Islander, and Hawaiian traditions in both rooted and modernized forms, from songline- and waiata-based vocal cultures to ukulele and steel-inflected island song, Pacific reggae hybrids, and the intimate fingerstyle world of slack-key guitar. The through-line is connection: land, kin, ocean, genealogy, ceremony, and language are not decorative background but musical structure.
History
Colonization, missionization, tourism, migration, and modern media radically changed the conditions of performance across Oceania, yet local traditions persisted and adapted. Contemporary Pacific artists often work in two temporalities at once—cultural reclamation and radio literacy—producing music that can function as ceremony, language work, protest, and plainly beautiful popular song at the same time.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Aboriginal Australian, Māori, Hawaiian, and Pacific music overviews
- slack-key guitar histories