As mentioned before, Melbourne has, on three occasions, shared the top position in “The Economist” Worlds Most Livable Cities. One of the main factors considered to earn such an incredible title is on the basis of cultural value. As with the year-round sporting events mentioned before, Melbourne's cultural activities can keep on the go all year round, with an incredible amount of festivals, parades and sites for every type of the culturally curious.

Melbourne is also well known for it's performing arts, visual arts, music industry as well as the architecture that has helped it to maintain it;s unique identity.

Architecture

Within a short time of your arrival in Melbourne you will be able to realize just how varied the architecture is here. Home to Australia's first architectural firms, Bates Smart, which also considered to be one of the world's best. Melbourne is also home to the very first building in Australia to be listed in the World Heritage Register, the Royal Exhibition Building.

Performing Arts

With over a hundred and fifty years of performing arts, Melbourne has an extensive line up of venues to attend.

The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic was created in 1853, making it Australia's oldest Orchestra to have operated continuously. In addition to that, it is the only orchestra to have been given the “royal status”.

There exist more theaters in Melbourne than in any other city in Australia. This is due mainly to the international presence that is popular here. Among some of the more popular live theaters are David Marriner's Princess Theater, the Palais Theater and Her Majesty's Theater. There are also quite a few theater companies that operate in Melbourne including the Melbourne Theater Company, which is well known for being the oldest in Australia.

Buskers

In case your not able to make any of the more professional performances, you can always catch a busker, another name for a street performer. Buskers are most often seen around the CBD (Central Business District) and other popular tourist areas. These performers put on a grand variety of shows, from clowns, to mimes, to full on rock and roll bands. You will be thoroughly entertained by there skill and if are genuinely pleased, please feel free to drop some change in there various collection cups, its the only way they earn money doing this.

Music

Melbourne has produced quite a few famous singers in it's history. Because of the city's love for music, many stars have been born that have created some of the most memorable music in the world.

Melbourne's music industry first appeared to be gaining strength in the 1960's with Olivia Newton-John's appearance. She was able to create the identity Australia needed to jump start this craze. Also among the famous was a more local folk band called The Seekers. Although they were big for a short time they never quite made it big on the international field but was, and still is, quite well known among the Aussies.

In the 70' and 80's Many acts became popular, most notably Nick Cave the Little River Band as well as Crowded House, who eventually wrote a song about the city of Melbourne, called “Four Seasons in One Day”.

Modern Music

More recent bands born from Melbourne's culture and magnificence include Jet, The Cat Empire and Madison Avenue. Many of Melbourne's T.V. Programs also paved a way for local talent to become international stars, Does Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue ring a bell?, they were both T.V. Stars-turned-popstars, coming from the shows Neighbors and Young Talent, respectively.

Independent Music is also abundant in Melbourne due to the many venues available in Melbourne and continues to flourish.

Visual Arts

The birth of Australia's visual art culture

Although the visual arts of Melbourne didn't begin until around the 1880's, Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria is in possession of the finest Australian art in the country. Melbourne's visual arts began in the late 19th century began with the Heidelberg school, whose creation was based largely on the artists movement to establish a visual arts culture in this city. The schools creation is considered to be Australia's major art movement.

Melbourne is home to an abundance of statues and sculptures and public artworks, many of which have been known to have great enhanced the cities popularity and beauty. More recently, Melbourne has received attention for its Stencil Graffiti scattered throughout the cities streets and walkways.

Moving Arts

Melbourne is also home to the Australian Center for the Moving Image. As you can guess by it's name, it is a school founded on improving the film culture of Australia. The school functions in all aspects of moving images, from film to television, animation and video games. Because of the cities strong moving arts cultural presence here, it hosts many film festivals and events to showcase the worlds top directors, animators and other moving artists. Such festival include: Melbourne International film Festival, Melbourne Underground Film festival and Melbourne International Animation Film Festival.

Fashion

Melbourne, which was once considered the leader of the textile industry, still has a small manufacturing presence but has since segmented its industry into more individualized and creative fashion areas.

Media

Newspapers

Robert Murdoch's Herald Sun and The Age, a Fairfax owned daily newspaper, are considered to be the two top daily newspapers in Melbourne. There is also a national newspaper, The Australian, which is also published by Robert Murdoch. In addition to these larger newspapers, there are also a few Weekly newspapers as well. Considering that Murdoch's News Corps owns over 50 million shares in Fairfax, it seems that this company has its hands on every type of written new publication in the region.

Radio

The commercial radio industry is lead by DMG Radio Australia, Austereo and Southern Cross Broadcasting, all based in Melbourne. DMG Radio Australia includes Nova 100 (100.3 Mhz) and Vega FM (91.5 Mhz), Austereo's line-up has Fox FM (101.9MHz) and Triple M (92.3). One of the most popular, or highest rated radio station, is 3AW. 3AW, which is frequency 693 kHz, is part of Southern Cross Broadcasting.