Home› Oceania›Australia & Aotearoa›New Zealand
Music of New Zealand
Aboriginal songlines, didgeridoo (yidaki) and clapsticks, Torres Strait island song, Māori haka, waiata and taonga pūoro instruments.
Sung and searched in Māori. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
A brief history
Roots, reggae, and dub
Formed in 1979, Herbs are a New Zealand reggae vocal group and the 11th inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. In 1986, the song "Slice of Heaven" with Dave Dobbyn reached number one on both the New Zealand and Australian charts. In 1989, Tim Finn joined them for the Parihaka festival and, in 1992, Annie Crummer fronted the hit single "See What Love Can Do". Herbs are considered pioneers of the Pacific reggae sound, having paved the way for contemporary New Zealand reggae groups such as Breaks Co-op, Fat Freddy's Drop, Katchafire, Kora, The Black Seeds, Salmonella Dub, 1814, Tahuna Breaks, Six60 and Trinity Roots.
Popular music
Contemporary Māori music
European settlers brought new harmonies and instruments, which Māori composers gradually adopted. The action song (waiata-ā-ringa) largely developed in the early 20th century. Māori also gravitated towards Hawaiian music from artists like Ernest Kaʻai and David Lucla Kaili that toured New Zealand in the 1900s to 1920s, leading the adoption of steel guitars pioneered by Eruera Mati Hita. In the mid- to late-20th century, Māori singers and songwriters like Howard Morrison (1935–2009), Prince Tui Teka (1937–1985), Dalvanius Prime (1948–2002), Moana Maniapoto (1961- ) and Hinewehi Mohi (1964- ) developed a distinctive Māori-influenced style. Some artists; like Alien Weaponry have released Māori-language songs, and the Māori traditional art of kapa haka (song and dance) has had a resurgence.
Read the full article: Music of New Zealand Text under CC BY-SA 4.0
Playing now
What New Zealand is listening to in 2026
Articles
No articles for New Zealand yet. Save a Markdown file to content/articles/ with
country: New Zealand in its front matter.
Live radio
Radio from New Zealand
Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
Station directory by Radio Browser Streams come from each station's own server.