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| Kent Music Report | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kent Music Report |
| Founder | David Kent |
| Country | Australia |
| Launched | 1974 |
| Ceased | 1998 (as principal national chart) |
| Succeeded by | Australian Recording Industry Association charts |
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was an Australian national music chart and publication created by David Kent that documented weekly singles and albums performance across the Australia music market. It operated as a primary industry reference from the mid-1970s through the late 1980s and intersected with broadcasters and record companies including Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Channel Seven, Channel Nine, and retailers such as Woolworths and Coles Group. The report served as a source for historical research into charting by artists like INXS, Kylie Minogue, Midnight Oil, Men at Work, and John Farnham.
David Kent, a historian and Melbourne-based researcher, compiled regional sales returns to produce a national ranking beginning in 1974, initially distributed as the Australian Chart Book and later known widely by the report name. The publication emerged during a period when local outlets such as Go-Set and trade organizations like the Record Industry Association of Australia offered fragmented data, while multinational labels including EMI (company), Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and PolyGram operated separate promotion offices. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Kent liaised with retail chains, independent record stores such as Missing Link Records and Larrikin Records, radio networks like Triple J, and television music programs including Countdown (Australian TV series), which influenced public perception of chart placement.
Kent constructed charts from a mix of point-of-sale reports, retailer surveys, and sample returns from major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. He applied weighting schemes to reconcile returns from distributors such as Festival Records and Mushroom Records with international label shipments. The methodology attempted to account for airplay on stations like 2SM and 2JJ and for jukebox popularity tracked in venues associated with promoters like Concert Promoters (Australia). Academic users compared Kent’s approach with chart methodologies used by Billboard (magazine), Official Charts Company, and RPM (magazine). Kent later produced retrospective calendars and book volumes that reconstructed earlier decades, drawing on archives from institutions including the National Library of Australia and the State Library of Victoria.
The report issued weekly singles and albums charts, extended lists such as top 100 singles and top 100 albums, and periodic year-end summaries. Special editions reflected genres and themed lists covering ARIA Awards nominees, soundtrack compilations for films like Mad Max, and international artist performance for acts such as The Beatles, David Bowie, Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson. The publication evolved from typewritten sheets and mimeographed editions to professionally printed booklets and later computer-generated tables compatible with entities like Australian Recording Industry Association membership. Kent also produced monthly and quarterly supplements used by labels including CBS Records and by agencies such as APRA AMCOS.
Industry professionals—including label executives at Mushroom Group, promoters at Frontier Touring, broadcasters at Nova Entertainment and critics at publications like Rolling Stone Australia—relied on Kent’s charts for programming, marketing, and historical citation. Musicians from Crowded House, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, The Saints (Australian band), and Savage Garden cited chart history in publicity materials and biographies published by houses such as HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. Musicologists at universities including the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne used Kent’s datasets in studies of popular culture, and journalists from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age referenced the report in retrospective pieces. Criticism targeted sample bias and transparency, voiced by trade groups like the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia and competing chart compilers.
Kent’s lists recorded landmark achievements: the first Australian chart-topping acts to cross over internationally (e.g., Olivia Newton-John, Peter Allen), multi-week number ones by Daryl Braithwaite and Icehouse, and longevity records set by compilations such as Now That's What I Call Music!. The report documented breakthrough moments for indigenous and regional artists connected to labels such as CAAMA Music and festivals like Woodford Folk Festival. It preserved archival chart positions for global releases by The Rolling Stones, U2, Queen (band), Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Adele, and historic catalogue reissues like Elvis Presley box sets.
In the mid-1980s the Australian Recording Industry Association consolidated an official national charting process with more direct store-panel management and electronic data capture, and by 1988 ARIA established a chart system increasingly adopted by retailers including Dymocks and distributors like BMG. Kent’s publication continued as an independent secondary source and later published retrospective volumes aligning earlier weeks to ARIA conventions. The transition mirrors similar shifts that occurred with Nielsen SoundScan adoption in the United States and the modernization efforts by the Official Charts Company in the United Kingdom.
Kent navigated licensing and copyright considerations involving aggregated sales data, negotiations with labels such as RCA Records, and agreements with media outlets for republication. Disputes occasionally arose over proprietary retailer returns and database ownership paralleling cases heard by institutions such as the Federal Court of Australia and copyright rulings influenced by statutes like the Copyright Act 1968 (Australia). Data-use policies were also shaped by collective rights organizations including Screen Australia-affiliated archives and music rights administrators like APRA AMCOS.
Category:Australian music charts Category:Music publications