Let’s start with a quick challenge: take a second to survey the Australian music landscape over the past 12 months and pick what is in your opinion, the biggest success story to emerge from the glut of talented artists we’ve bred Down Under.

Save for a few of you special outliers, we’re willing to bet you picked one of two names, and they both begin with C – Courtney Barnett or Chet Faker. The two have been virtually inescapable over the past 12 months.

Though they operate in disparate genres, both artists are young, talented, and have achieved considerable success at home. Most remarkably, both artists have managed to channel that homegrown success into considerable buzz overseas.

On the heels of critically well-received full-length debuts, the two artists quickly embarked on respective full-scale assaults of the much-coveted US market – the requisite SXSW appearance, talk-show performances, festival slots, and glowing write-ups in the likes of Spin and Pitchfork.

Barnett in particular was heralded as the return of the voice-of-a-generation rock hero, a long missing piece of the musical puzzle whose time had finally come. She was compared to everyone from Lou Reed and Kurt Cobain, to Lena Dunham and even Adele.

Despite the fact that the geographical context behind her music was largely lost on them, the US media simply couldn’t get enough of Courtney Barnett. The mainstream media in Australia soon caught on, though in typical fashion, about three months late.

As Tone Deaf wrote last week, Channel Seven recently sent their cameras to follow the notoriously self-deprecating rising star around for the purpose of a profile on their Sunday Night program. It was followed by a similar feature on the ABC the next evening.

But for those of us who’ve been paying particularly close attention to the rapidly shifting sentiment towards Barnett, what the songwriter’s appearance on Sunday Night crystallised was not only her ascendence into mainstream consciousness, but her status as the latest victim of Australia’s tall poppy culture.

When it was announced last week that Courtney Barnett would be entering the purview of parents Australia-wide, a collective groan could be heard from some, instead of jubilation and delight in the fact that there was finally another Australian headliner in the making.

The comments sections of Australian publications, including this one, which once slathered praise on the wordy rocker, had suddenly become a minefield of caustic sentiment. The general opinion surrounding Barnett could suddenly be boiled down to, “Oh, just get over her already.”

“The general opinion surrounding Barnett could suddenly be boiled down to, ‘Oh, just get over her already.'”

Chet Faker was not spared either. After releasing one of the biggest albums of 2014 and dominating the triple j Hottest 100, a Chet Faker primed for the overseas market was not one Australians wanted anything to do with. Well, not its internet commenters, anyway.

The question, of course, is why? Why did so many of us ditch the Courtney Barnett bandwagon as soon as it veered its way onto a freeway that looked bound for overseas recognition?

Interestingly, fellow Aussies Tame Impala have arguably achieved even more success overseas than Courtney Barnett. And yet, have we seen the same level of pushback at their success? Assuredly there was some, but certainly not to the same extent.

The sentiment towards Kevin Parker and co has remained comparatively spotless since they first appeared on our radars, though their rise was arguably more protracted than the ‘overnight sensation’ narrative surrounding Barnett, which is dubious at best.

What’s more, it’s still a nationwide love-in when it comes to Barnett overseas. US fans in particular still lap up every interview, profile, new track, and talk-show performance, which now includes a spot on late-night staple Conan.

So why does Courtney Barnett suffer the slings and arrows of the people who should be adoring her the most? And why haven’t Tame Impala suffered the same fate, even though their profile is arguably bigger than both Barnett’s and Chet Faker’s?

It’s certainly not like we don’t support Aussie music in general. We demand our Grand Final entertainment be true blue and we all agree radio should play more Aussie music. In fact, the more Aussie music a station plays, the more we like it.

We even purport to love it when our Aussies ascend to the global stage. Sure, some of us would prefer it weren’t the likes of pop acts like 5 Seconds of Summer or Sheppard, but one could argue Barnett has a tad more ‘street cred’ than the aforementioned two.

However, when the ‘Depreston’ singer is seemingly at that flashpoint moment we’d like to see all of our artists get to, many of us choose to abandon her and write her off altogether. ‘Up-and-coming’ turns to ‘overexposed’, ‘acclaimed’ to ‘overrated’, and we should all just get over her already.

It’s hard to speculate on the reason why an act like Tame Impala have seemingly been spared the tall poppy syndrome. The fact that they are a band potentially insulates them from any resentment, since there’s no perceived cult of personality ensnaring them.

“Why did we ditch the Courtney Barnett bandwagon as soon as it veered its way onto a freeway bound for overseas recognition?”

Since Courtney Barnett and Chet Faker are both solo acts, we’re given a prominent figurehead to attack. After all, it’s not like Barnett has lost all of her humility since ‘making it’. As far as she’s concerned, she’s undeserving of the accolades and feels as though she’s “tricked everyone“.

The whole thing seems counterintuitive. Barnett has achieved success by being herself, playing her own songs, sticking to her own unique style, and remaining quintessentially Australian. You may have even noticed she insists on wearing the merch of her Aussie muso peers during TV appearances.

Pioneering sociologist Max Weber once argued that tall poppy syndrome arises because, for certain social groups, the acquisition of prestige and power is a zero-sum game, there simply isn’t enough of it to go around.

It should come as no surprise, however, that music rarely plays by the rules of reality. When an artist becomes a superstar, their success props up the artists around them. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. So quit with the Courtney Barnett and Chet Faker hate and just get over it already.

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