INXS (pronounced "IN EXcess") are an Australian rock and new wave group. The band was formed on 16 August 1977, in Sydney, Australia. INXS began under the name The Farriss Brothers, which was created at Davidson High School, New South Wales, and originally consisted of Michael Hutchence, Andrew Farriss, Garry Gary Beers, Tim Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, and Jon Farriss. The band changed their name to INXS prior to the release of their self-titled debut album in 1980, which featured "Just Keep Walking," their first Australian hit single. Its follow-up, 1981's Underneath the Colours (produced by Richard Clapton), became a hit-album in Australia.

The band's worldwide peak of popularity came with 1987's Kick, an upbeat, confident album that yielded four Top-10 US singles and several international hits, including "New Sensation", "Never Tear Us Apart", "Devil Inside", and the #1 "Need You Tonight". They toured heavily behind the album throughout 1987 and 1988. The video for the 1987 INXS track "Mediate" (which played after the video for "Need You Tonight") duplicated the format of Bob Dylan's video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues," even in its use of apparently deliberate errors. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, INXS was a major force in Australian popular music, leading the way into worldwide popularity for several Australian bands. The band worked closely with several other Australian artists, such as The Models and Jenny Morris, helping to establish their careers. By the mid-nineties, however, their popularity had waned, especially in the US, where their Greatest Hits compilation failed to reach the Top-100. (At the 1996 BRIT Awards, Michael Hutchence presented Oasis with an award, after which their characteristically arrogant lead guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher remarked "Has-beens shouldn't be presenting awards to gonna-bes". In 1997, the group released a comeback album titled Elegantly Wasted, which garnered mixed reviews. It fared respectably in Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain (where INXS had ironically more success in the 90s than in the 80s), Sweden and Switzerland.