Sounding Local? The Use of Music in Original Australian Streaming Productions

This chapter examines a tension at the heart of the Australian streaming industry between, on the one hand, a rapid increase in subscribers to international (i.e. Netflix) and local (i.e. Stan) platforms, and on the other, a relative lack of original Australian content produced for these services. These tensions are typified by the use of music: specifically, the reliance on non-local popular song complicates the distinction between supposedly regional and international productions, and this has implications for both the local reception of a series and the transnational perception of Australian identity. By examining two of the first original Australian streaming productions, Tidelands (Netflix, 2018) and Wolf Creek (Stan, 2016–2017), this chapter argues that the significant uses of non-Australian popular music fulfil an important narrative function in each series, relating to how they construct an opposition between notions of ‘home’ and its absence. These issues speak to wider themes concerning the musical representation of Australian national identity in streaming media.