Fringe to Famous: Indie and Mainstream Cultural Production in Australia

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Drawing on dozens of original interviews and close analysis of Australian examples sampled from across 40 years of indie music, comedy, film, computer games, and graphic design, Fringe to Famous explores how some of Australias leading cultural practitioners negotiate their position between the margins and the mainstream in the contemporary period. Fringe to Famous critically re-examines the relations between independent and mainstream cultural production at a time when the very meaning and relevance of those terms is being widely debated. In recent decades, critically-aware artists and their entrepreneurial business partners have engaged in a playful negotiation of marginal and mainstream tastes, harnessing the values associated with the creative undergroundtransgression, independence, authenticityfor both aesthetic and commercial ends. At the same time, crises in the business models of commercial media industries and the proliferation of online distribution have made mainstream increasingly difficult to define.

Author Bio

Tony Moore is Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of Dancing with Empty Pockets: Australias Bohemians since 1860 (2012), The Barry McKenzie Movies (2005) and Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788 1868 (2010). Moore has a background as a documentary maker and current affairs producer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearing as a cultural historian on the BBC/ABC series Brilliant Creatures (2014). Mark Gibson is Associate Professor and Head of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of Culture and Power: A History of Cultural Studies (Berg, 2007) and Editor of Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. His research interests include cultural industries and cultural policy, everyday life and theories of power in communications and cultural studies. Chris McAuliffe is Professor of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Australia. Previously, he was Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne. McAuliffe has curated extensively and written widely on Australian art and culture. He is the author of Art and Suburbia (1996) Linda Marrinon: Let Her Try (2007) and Jon Cattapan: Possible Histories (2008). Maura Edmond is Research Fellow in Communications and Media Studies at Monash University, Australia. She has written about arts and culture for a range of Australian publications and cultural organizations. Her research has been published in New Media and Society, TV and New Media, Screening the Past, Media International Australia, Senses of Cinema, and elsewhere.