The Netherlands has multiple musical traditions. Contemporary Dutch popular music is heavily influenced by music styles that emerged in the 1950s, in the United Kingdom and United States. The style is sung in both Dutch and English. Some of the latter exponents, such as Golden Earring and Shocking Blue, have attained worldwide fame.
Nomeansno was a Canadian punk rock band formed in Victoria, British Columbia and later relocated to Vancouver. They issued 11 albums, including a collaborative album with Jello Biafra, as well as numerous EPs and singles. Critic Martin Popoff described their music as "the mightiest merger between the hateful aggression of punk and the discipline of heavy metal." Nomeansno's distinct hardcore punk sound, complex instrumentation, and dark, "savagely intelligent" lyrics inspired subsequent musicians. They are often considered foundational in the punk jazz and post-hardcore movements, and have been cited as a formative influence on the math rock and emo genres.
Diesel is a Dutch pop/rock group that became one of the relatively few Dutch acts to chart in the U.S. when their song "Sausalito Summernight" entered the U.S. Top 40 in 1981.
The Blue Diamonds were an Indonesian and Dutch 1960s rock and roll duo, best known for their million-selling chart-topping single, "Ramona". Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) brothers Ruud de Wolff and Riem de Wolff founded the group shortly after immigrating to Driebergen-Rijsenburg in the Netherlands in 1949. They were born in Batavia, Indonesia.
Indonesian rock is rock music from Indonesia, a product of the culture and globalizing outlook of the country, similar to this genre's music globally. Indonesian-specific ideas about individualism, interdependency, modernism, and the supernatural have also been observed in the rock videos and music of the nation.
Kane was a Dutch rock band. In its final stage, the group consisted of the two original members, Dinand Woesthoff and Dennis van Leeuwen (guitar). The band was inspired by U2, Pearl Jam, Queen, and Nirvana.
The Cats were a Dutch rock band formed in Volendam in 1964.
Indorock is a musical genre that originated in the 1950s in the Netherlands. It is a fusion of Indonesian and Western music, with roots in Kroncong. The genre was invented by Indo repatriates in the Netherlands after Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945, and became popular especially in Germany. Indorock is one of the earliest forms of "Eurorock". Its influence on Dutch popular music was immense.
The Tong Tong Fair is the largest festival in the world for Indo (European-Indonesian) culture, held annually in the Netherlands. In 2009 it was renamed to 'Tong Tong Fair'. Established in 1959 it is one of the oldest festivals and the fourth largest grand fair in the Netherlands. It is also the annual event with the highest number of paying visitors of the Dutch city of The Hague, having consistently attracted more than 100,000 visitors since 1993.
Nederbeat is a genre of rock music that began with the Dutch rock boom in the mid-1960s influenced by British beat groups and rock bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Much like British freakbeat, it is essentially the Dutch counterpart to American garage rock. Among the best-known Nederbeat groups are the Golden Earrings, The Motions, The Outsiders and Shocking Blue.
The Kentucky Colonels were a bluegrass band that was popular during the American folk music revival of the early 1960s. Formed in Burbank, California in 1954, the group released two albums, The New Sound of Bluegrass America (1963) and Appalachian Swing! (1964). The band featured the influential bluegrass guitarist Clarence White, who was largely responsible for making the acoustic guitar a lead instrument within bluegrass, and who later went on to join the Los Angeles rock band the Byrds. The Kentucky Colonels disbanded in late 1965, with two short-lived reunions taking place in 1966 and 1973.
Earth and Fire were a Dutch rock and pop band. Formed in the Netherlands by twin brothers Chris and Gerard Koerts, and most popular from 1970, after adding a female singer, turning frontwoman, Jerney Kaagman.
Dutch rock is a form of rock music produced in the Netherlands, primarily in the English language as well as in Dutch.
Andy Tielman was an influential Indo (Eurasian) artist, recognised as the "godfather" of Indorock, the style of rock and roll played by Indo artists in the 1950s and 1960s. He is considered one of the most important figures in Dutch popular music, and "defied the notion that early rock and roll was a phenomenon of white and black musicians from America".
The Bintangs are a Dutch rhythm and blues band. Founded in 1961 in Beverwijk as an indorock band, they soon began playing a rougher, rhythm and blues-inflected style. The band had a four-year hiatus in the 1980s but reunited and are still active. The band has gone through many members, with Frank Kraaijeveld as a constant element. They scored one hit, in 1970, and though commercial success has eluded them nationally and internationally they remain a popular live act.
Rudi Wairata aka Rudy Wairata(1929/1930 –1981) was an influential Indonesian musician who had fronted the Mena Moeria Minstrels and the Amboina Serenaders. Wairata's style of playing was influenced by Sol Hoʻopiʻi and Andy Iona. Along with George de Fretes he was a prominent musician in the genre of Hawaiian steel guitar music. His song "Rock'n Roll Breezes" may be the first Indo-rock song.
George de Fretes (1921-1981) was a musician from Indonesia who found fame in the Netherlands. Like his fellow countrymen Ming Luhulima and Rudi Wairata, he found sizable popularity in the Netherlands and Europe playing Hawaiian music.
Wanda de Fretes is a singer and recording artist who was popular in the Netherlands in the 1960s. She is also the daughter of legendary Moluccan steel guitarist George de Fretes and singer Joyce Aubrey. In addition to her solo efforts, she also recorded with her mother as the duo Wanda & Joyce. Besides singing pop and rock'n roll, she also sang traditional Indonesian and Malayan songs.
Joyce Aubrey was a singer and recording artist who was popular in the Netherlands in the 1960s as part of the duo Wanda & Joyce. She is also the mother of singer Wanda de Fretes as well as the ex-wife of legendary steel guitarist George de Fretes. In addition to her solo efforts, she also recorded with George de Fretes and the Amboina Serenaders, a popular Netherlands based band whose members included Ming Luhulima and Rudi Wairata. Some of their songs did well in Germany as well.
