Johnson/Antipodean Riffs, 6. The Lost History of Jazz

This article seeks to develop existing cultural histories of genre and broadcasting in Australia. I argue that jazz was present on early music television but its history as such has been lost, and by extension, the genre’s contribution to broader popular music legacies in Australia has been overlooked. The article draws on original production documents for the pioneering local public service broadcaster program, Six O’Clock Rock, a programme from the late 1950s and early 1960s that featured an equal mix of jazz and pop/rock during its debut season. This mix was later replaced with a more homogeneous rock and pop schedule; however the question of why jazz was replaced has yet to be addressed.