From jazz and folk to pop and rock, the collection has significant holdings ranging from those documenting ladies dance bands of the 1920s and 1930s through to the The Kenn Brodziak Beatles Australian Tour Collection, the Troubadour Folk Music Collection and the Sunbury Festival Collection - each collection exploring a diverse aspect of popular music and culture in Melbourne.

The history of rock and pop, however, forms the core of the collection with photographs and costumes providing a potent reminder of live performances. Highlights in this part of the collection include photographs by Laurie Richards taken during the 1960s which chart the growing popularity of local performers such as Johnny O’Keefe, Col Joye, Lonnie Lee and Johnny Devlin. International visitors were also captured with striking images being taken of performers such as Johnny Ray, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In this spirit we have also acquired live performance photography taken by Kathleen O’Brien during the 1970s, Peter Milne in the 1980s and Shellie Tonkin during the 1990s.

Popular music from the 1970s to today is well represented  through posters, photographs and costumes donated by performers of the day. Large collections such as the JUKE Magazine Archive (a massive archive which includes photographs, press releases, news clippings, correspondence and advertising material documenting Australian rock music from 1974 to 1993), provide a background for the Split Enz and Kylie Minogue costume collections and smaller holdings of material relating to Skyhooks, Nick Cave and Hunters & Collectors.

Although our focus is on the documentation of popular music, Australia’s classical music heritage, both historical and contemporary, is well documented by a large collection of programmes and photographs including the Bonnie McCallum Collection which features visiting international performers from the 1930s to the 1960s such as soprano Lotte Lehmann, pianist Claudio Arrau and violinist Isaac Stern.