The Fold

How a new history of NZ pop music reveals media's revolutions

Gareth Shute joins Duncan Greive to discuss his new book, Songs From the Shaky Isles, that looks into the artists who have shaped our pop charts.

05 Aug 2025

The Fold

More about the episode

Gareth Shute is a historian of New Zealand music, who realised that there had never been a high level overview of the artists which shaped our pop charts. He’s just published Songs From the Shaky Isles, a book which flies through a century of recorded pop music on these shores. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss it, with particular reference to the way the rise of mediums like television, commercial radio and streaming impacted what was made and who got to hear it.