2003
| 275 minutes
To many, ‘pop’ - in the musical sense - is a dirty word. However, getting past such pretensions and stripping it down to its barest essence, pop is simply something musical that a lot of people like. It isn’t any particular style of music, in fact it can straddle genres as far ranging as country to rock to hip-hop to hi-energy, with many more in-between. Love is in the Air, a five-part series from the makers of Long Way to the Top, sets out to celebrate the vast array of Australian entries into this hard to nail down category, ranging from the ‘50s right through to now.
Production Notes
The five episodes, narrated by Toni Collette, are loosely themed. The Last Gig on Earth looks at that old ‘tyranny of distance’ thing, in both what our artists have faced in getting their tunes to the world, and what overseas acts have faced in getting their butts to our shores. She’s Leaving Home makes up somewhat for the shortcomings in highlighting most any female acts in LWttT, concentrating on many of the extremely talented woman performers this country has spawned; in particular Helen Reddy and Livvie. The third instalment is probably the one that will most interest Countdown kids. Ostensibly celebrating the Australian tradition of the ‘novelty’ song, once some filler is passed there’s plenty of Molly and those six o’clock Sunday shenanigans which will have the memories flooding back. I Should Be So Lucky (subtitled The Business of Star Making) is a study of the industry side of things, looking at a few specific acts including Kylie, Crowded House, LRB and Savage Garden. Finally, we’re in for National Anthems, an often entertaining look at many of those great Aussie songs both obscure and overplayed – from I Am Pegasus to Girls on the Avenue, Man Overboard to Accidently Kelly Street, with many more besides. Oh, naturally it culminates in the story of the song the series was named after.
