Anthems: New Zealand's Iconic Hits (excerpts)

It just went nuts. For some reason that struck a chord: the five of us, singing that song was just the coming together of some really great ideas with the right people at the right time.

– Margaret Urlich on the massive NZ success of When the Cat's Away single 'Melting Pot'

It went from 1200 people to 2000 people to 10,000 people in a period of 18 months. It just became so huge that it was almost unmanageable, and that's when we ended up with security guards on the road. At one point we had 28 security guards ... It got a point where we felt like five women cowering in the middle of this absolute chaos.

– Debbie Harwood on the rapid growth of the crowds attending When the Cat's Away live shows in the late 1980s

I always had a sense of 'Royals' as something for me and my peers. You know, I was 15 and most of my friends were 15 or 16, and I really felt like I hadn't heard a lot of pop music that was talking to us in language that actually felt authentic to us.

– Lorde (Ella Yelich O'Connor) on writing breakthrough 2013 single 'Royals'

It was all about fun and it's always been about fun, but...we had no idea how much the rest of New Zealand wanted to have fun too.

– Annie Crummer on why group When The Cat's Away took off in New Zealand, in the late 1980s

Our goal was to entertain, you know, appreciate that people had made the effort to come to our show, and just put on the best show we could.

– Margaret Urlich on the ethos behind When The Cat's Away's tours in the late 1980s

When I think about the journey of that song, I think about that moment and how it really was just that moment over and over — you know, people sending it to their friends and downloading it for free on Soundcloud. It went exactly the way I hoped it would go.

– Lorde remembers watching the exponential growth of 'Royals' over a single day on the internet

It's a mistake to think that because all these platforms had her sitting on them, that that meant everyone was going to rush out and grab it — no. It had to be a brilliant song that everybody told each other about.

– Kiwi music veteran Mike Chunn on how 'Royals' sold itself on its strengths as a song

There was a time when I just got sick of singing it, that I stopped. And now I fricking love singing it, and I really see the joy in their faces. And it's because it's been a long time...and they're still joyful when they sing that song, so...you have that, it belongs to you.

– Annie Crummer on the life cycle of pop song 'Melting Pot', near the end of the first clip

I don't think that it can ever be understated how influental SoundCloud as a distribution platform for free music amongst young artists has been on pop music. The ability to finish something, not wait for anyone to tell you it's good enough, and just being able to upload and click — it changed everything.

– Apple Music Global executive Zane Lowe, near the end of the second clip