To start off with a little background, Men at Work are an Australian-based rock band out of Melbourne which is the coastal capitol of the southeastern Australian state of Victoria and has a population of 5.078 million.  Men at Work formed in 1978, and are one of many famous bands to come out of Australia during the 70s along with ACDC, Midnight Oil, INXS, and others.  Their band made music that falls into the new wave, pop rock, and reggae rock genres with some of their other famous songs including “Who Can It Be Now”, and “Be Good Johnny”.  Growing up, I listened to a lot of rock music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s as that is what my parents grew up on and would play on the radio.  There was one specific radio station my parents liked called 93XRT which had great radio hosts and was the home of “Chicago’s finest rock”.  I had heard this song on the radio multiple times, and had always really liked it because of the metal clanging intro and the flute that plays in the background throughout the song.  The song was released in 1980 as a single and is about an Australian man who travels the world and comes across people who are interested in his home country of Australia.  The basis of the song is based partly off of singer Colin Hay’s own experiences and travels abroad where people ask him questions about living in the “Land Down Under” which is also why the song is called “Down Under”.  Hay has even mentioned that the famous reference to “Vegemite” in the song derives from an actual encounter he had with a baker in Brussels, Belgium.  The interest from foreigners in Australia is one facet of the song, where the chorus is really about how Australia has been selling itself and how the country was overdeveloping.  The band had felt that there had been a loss in spirit throughout the whole country, and that the wealthy were plundering Australia.  They say that “Down Under” is ultimately about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic way.  Aside from that, the song is very upbeat with the pan flute that I mentioned playing in-between verses throughout the song.  And because Men at Work are a rock band, this song was bound to include drums and a guitar along with the singing of multiple band members.  And because of the significance the flute plays throughout the song, this rock song is unique in my opinion compared to other rock songs that I’ve heard.  And I think that many other people agree as this song is recognized as an Australian cultural classic.