If Federation Square is Melbourne's loungeroom, then the big screen is the city’s TV.

Its schedule has the power to summon crowds, transfix viewers, or just gently flicker in the background - but it always beams our lives back at us. The History of Pop, commissioned by MAP Co, handed Gatherer Media the big screen's remote, and supported us to hold a mirror up to Australia's earliest pop stars, seminal music clubs to the forces that spurned our local post-punk revolution. When it plays, the dynamic beat, buzz and strum that underpins Melbourne's celebrated music scene is on display for all to see.

In late 2023 Gatherer was commissioned by Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co), the authority behind the development of Australia's largest ever arts project, to make a long-playing piece of archive-driven silent content for the big screen at Federation Square.

Having previously explored the emergence of Melbourne's Punk and Post-Punk electronic music scenes through two short documentaries Punk Gunk: The Birth of Punk (2017) and a 12-minute documentary on electronic music pioneer Ash Wednesday (2022), we were drawn to the idea of exploring the evolution of Australia's distinctive pop music scene from the first appearances of pop stars on live television to the evolution of synthesizer-driven 'minimal wave', in a purely visual form.

To tell the complex story of Melbourne's music effectively we drew on a variety of framing devices including Go-Set, Australia's first pop music newspaper (1964-1974), Juke Magazine (1975-1992) combined with an array of archival footage and photos licensed from Aztec Music Group, Umbrella Entertainment, the Australian Music Vault at Arts Centre Melbourne and privately-held archives exclusively as part of the project.

Produced in 4K and with a runtime of 50 minutes, The History of Pop presents a retrospective glimpse of a bygone world of squeaky clean pop stars, Go-Go dancers, mods and sharpies, hippies, groovers, pub rockers, punks and cool kids that have come to define their generation, all set against a backdrop of long-gone music venues, including Berties, Sebastians, Thumpin' Tum Discotheque and the Too Much Ballroom, crammed full of obsessed fans, trend-setters and insatiable music lovers.

Licensed by MAP Co for three years, you can catch The History of Pop playing at various times day or night on the big screen at Fed Square. Or if interested to know more please contact us.