TMN RETROSPECTIVE REPORT: You Am I’s ARIAs Sweep – 1996

TMN celebrates two decades in this ever-shifting music industry by taking a look back at the key moments – both triumphant and tumultuous – in the Australian music business.

1996
YOU AM I’S ARIAS SWEEP

“A fucking triumph” is how future You Am I member Davey Lane describes the unlikely six-award ARIAs sweep by the swaggering You Am I. The success came off the back of their third record: suburban concept album Hourly Daily, which was released through independent label rooART (which had been quietly signing the best bands in the country), and distributed by Shock Records – who enjoyed its first #1 debut. It was You Am I’s second #1 album; by this point whispered reverence had burst into a roar. You Am I enjoyed a further #1 with 1998’s criminally underrated #4 record, and have since been stitched into the fabric of Australian musical history – but this was their watershed moment, and the start of the ‘which album is better’ bar-room debates that have lingered lovingly ever since.

Our year on year reports are published courtesy of the Australian Music Industry Quarterly magazine. For your free copy click here