Slim Dusty saw major metropolitan music radio stations abandon support for country artists, and despite record sales in the multimillions, after the 1950s, Dusty was rarely heard on-air outside regional centres in Australia. Dusty's 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to go gold and the first and only 78 rpm record to be awarded a gold disc. (The "Pub with No Beer" is a real place, in Taylors Arm, not far from Kempsey where Slim was born.) In 1959 and 1960, Dutch and German cover versions of
Timeline of trends in Australian music do this, in 1952. Until the late 1950s, Australian music was limited to jazz, country (with Slim Dusty being the biggest country star) and the music of its Indigenous peoples. Television was introduced to Australia in 1956, but because many people could not afford one at the time, the main medium for music was radio. Those who could not attend the concerts thus relied on the radio to hear the newest and most popular music. Nearly all the singles released in Australia at the time were recorded by Americans. The original 'rock and roll', popularised by Buddy Holly and Chuck