KEY POINTS:
C4's Rocked The Nation started its entertaining anecdote-heavy countdown of 100 Kiwi music moments this week. In case you missed it, here's a recap of the first episode's pivotal events and we'll be keeping a weekly tally of the countdown as the series progresses. Collect the set, as they say ...
100: In 1982, New Zealand band Spyz are the first Western rock act to play China, three years before Wham.
99: Savage's Swing features in the hit movie Knocked Up, leading to a major US record deal and a top 20 in the iTunes' hip hop chart.
98: Sweetwaters 99 goes sour leaving bands and tradespeople owed $3 million. Promoter Daniel Keighley later serves 12 months for fraud.
97: Local record label Music World provides music for the masses by using cheap knock-offs of overseas hits. The label's Golden Saxophones album sells half a million worldwide.
96: In 1809 sealers find themselves marooned in the South Island leading to the first European song written in New Zealand. Apparently the beginnings of "the Dunedin sound".
95: Pop Mechanix' manager attempts buying the band a number one single with dud cheques. It enters the charts at number 15 and disappears the following week.
94: Country band The Warratahs' first album The Only Game In Town spends 26 weeks in the top 40 and cements them in the hearts of middle New Zealand.
93: In 1970, 13-year-old soprano David Curtis records a song as his grandparents' Christmas present and winds up with a top 10 single with Wheel of Fortune.
92: Weekly music show Ready To Roll draws a million viewers a week by having the likes of Sharon O'Neill cover international hits.
91: In 1986, TVNZ refuses to pay record companies for screening music clips. The only video seen on TV for nearly a year is Queen's It's A Kind Of Magic due to Queen's record company buying advertising time.
90: Blindspott find unexpected success in Indonesia selling 40,000 legal copies of their albums and nearly half a million illegal ones.
89: Darcy Clay's home-recorded anthem Jesus I Was Evil reaches number five and wins him a most promising vocalist gong.
88: All-girl supergroup When The Cat's Away cover Melting Pot and find themselves with an unexpected number one and in huge demand as a live act.
87: Larry's Rebels' singer Larry Morris serves six and half years in the Big House for trying to sell LSD to undercover cop.
86: Concord Dawn's Morning Light becomes a worldwide dance anthem in 2002.
85: Long before New Zealand rock bands tour overseas, Maori concert parties take indigenous music to the world.
84: Neil Finn plays five nights in Auckland with a thrown-together supergroup of mates, including players from Radiohead. Johnny Marr from the Smiths and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
83: South Auckland band Ardijah help invent "poly-fonk", a mix of South Pacific funk and rock. Their debut album produces three top 20 singles.
82: Steriogram get the most expensive music clip ever made for a New Zealand band when director Michel Gondry creates a stop-motion classic using knitted puppets for Walkie Talkie Man.
Rocked The Nation, C4, Monday 8.30pm
