The label formed in the wake of a flurry of new
post-punk-inspired labels appearing in New Zealand in the early 1980s, in particular
Propeller Records in
Auckland. Shepherd had intended to record the original local music of
Christchurch, but soon the label rose to national prominence by championing the emerging
music of Dunedin. "Ambivalence" by The Pin Group (the first band of
Roy Montgomery) was the first release from Flying Nun, although "Tally Ho" by
The Clean was the first release to draw public attention to the label, as it unexpectedly reached number nineteen in the New Zealand charts, bringing the label unanticipated profile and income. There followed the seminal
Dunedin Double, a release which cemented the place of the southern city in the forefront of New Zealand independent music. Flying Nun moved into the full-length album market in 1982 with the
Ego Gratification Album by
Chris Knox and
Beatin Hearts by
Builders (recorded 1982, Auckland). Many of New Zealand's most prominent
kiwi rock and
alternative bands have signed to Flying Nun at some stage in their careers. In 2000 Australian youth radio network
Triple J produced a list of the thirty "Greatest New Zealand acts of all time", twenty of them by Flying Nun artists. The label has been home to various styles of music, including the much-debated
Dunedin sound, "high-end pop with a twist",
lo-fi experimentation, strongly
Velvet Underground-influenced
pop,
minimalism,
industrial, and rock-electronic
crossover. In 1999 Matthew Bannister of
The Sneaky Feelings wrote
Positively George Street: A Personal History of the Sneaky Feelings and the Dunedin Sound, covering the New Zealand
music industry of the 1980s, including Flying Nun. In 1990
Festival Records bought a fifty-percent stake in Flying Nun, and then in 2000 merged it with
Mushroom Records, bringing Flying Nun into the Festival-Mushroom Records family of companies.
Warner Music Group acquired Flying Nun as part of its purchase of FMR (Festival Mushroom Records) in 2006. A consortium that included Shepherd bought back the label from Warner on 21 December 2009, for "more than what I sold it for". New Zealand musician
Neil Finn, his wife Sharon, and another business partner together own a quarter-share in the repatriated record label. In 2013, American label
Captured Tracks announced plans for selected
reissues of Flying Nun's back catalogue. The label's history and daily workings of Flying Nun were extensively covered in Roger Shepherd's 2016 autobiography,
In Love With These Times. In the
2018 Queen's Birthday Honours Shepherd was appointed an Officer of the
New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to the music industry. In the 2020s, Flying Nun ventured into retail with both an online store and physical locations selling records from their own artists alongside other albums on vinyl and CD. In 2022 they opened a record shop on
Cuba Street in
Wellington, and in 2023 they opened another retail store on
Auckland's
Karangahape Road. In 2022, Canadian author Matthew Goody published
Needles and Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981–1988, a comprehensive book charting the label's history, associated figures, and every release or band put out during its first seven years. The book took 10 years to write, and includes live photos, posters, artwork and other documentation. ==Roster, early 1980s to mid-1990s==