Sounds (originally known as Sound Unlimited) was a popular Australian television series featuring pop and rock music. It was broadcast on Saturday mornings on the Seven Network from the late 1970s to the late 1980s.
The series began as Sound Unlimited in late 1974, just before its longtime rival, the ABC's Countdown.
The show's producer and original host was the former commercial radio DJ Graham "Spider" Webb, who later handed the compère position to the former horse jockey and 1960s pop singer Donnie Sutherland. Jeffrey James was a co-compere with Webb and later with Sutherland but left the show.
Many music stars appeared on the show, and it is notable as the venue for the final public appearance, on 30 September 1978, of Australian rock'n'roll legend Johnny O'Keefe, who died a week later on 6 October.
The series is also notable for its role in the early career of filmmaker Russell Mulcahy. When Webb launched the forerunner to Sounds in 1974 he commissioned Mulcahy, then a staffer at the Seven newsroom, to film footage to accompany the songs he wanted to play on the show. The success of these clips encouraged Mulcahy to leave his TV job to become a freelance music video director. After relocating to the UK in the late 1970s Mulcahy became one of the most successful and sought-after video directors of the 1980s and his clip for The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the first music video shown when the MTV cable music channel opened in 1981.
Sound Unlimited (initially without the plural) was the first live studio programme broadcast in Australia in March 1975.