It’s all too easy to poke fun at soap-turned-pop stars, but no one predicted that legitimate Hollywood outfit Guy Pearce would be next in line. The former Neighbours actor cum A-lister is set to release his album Broken Bones on 7 November, with live appearances in Melbourne and Sydney to follow.

First single Storm is surprisingly (for those unschooled in Pearce’s musical passions) good. The track falls squarely in the Aussie singer-songwriter category, somewhere between Augie March and the John Butler Trio, with a funky baseline sliding playfully under Pearce’s croon.

So why such snobbery over soap singers? Any drama student will tell you the “triple threat” (actor-singer-dancer) is deadly. Prejudice persists, we presume, because for every Kylie Minogue there’s a Bec Cartright, for every Natalie Imbruglia a Stephanie McIntosh. Take a look at five of Erinsborough’s most memorable musical exports:

1. Especially For You – Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan

Ugh. So sweet you can pour it in your morning coffee. The video is more fan-art than music promo, with the Stock Aitken Waterman songwriting machine tapping (or should that be hammering?) into the Aussie-British love affair with dream TV couple Charlene Mitchell and Scott Robinson. From here, Minogue built a spectacular pop career; Donovan not so much, although he’s still ploughing his furrow in musical theatre.

2. Mona – Craig McLachlan

Talking of musical theatre stars, McLachlan (aka the adorable Henry Ramsay) showed promise with the John Farnham-esque Mona (“hey” guitar strum “ooh”). He has since proven most comfortable acting on the box – as mystery-cracker Doctor Blake – and onstage, with roles like Grease’s Danny Zuko and Frank N Furter for The Rocky Horror Show – for which he won a 2014 Helpmann award.

3. Torn – Natalie Imbruglia

With Torn, Imbruglia (aka Beth Brennan) injected some understated cool into the diabetes-inducing pop of her Neighbours forebears – and made us want to “hug a hoodie” long before David Cameron suggested it. In the 17 years since Torn was released, Imbruglia has continued to work in music and acting, while never managing to replicate the chart success of that one song.

4. Born to Try – Delta Goodrem

You wouldn’t pick PG-rated Goodrem (aka Nina Turner) to be the most polemical artist on this list, but Delta inspires die-hard fandom in Australia for her self-penned ballads and Little Miss Pony good looks, and the (possibly unfair) ridicule of everyone else, including, most recently Marlon Wayans. In similar but lesser shades, is the up-and-down career of Natalie Bassingthwaighte (aka Izzy Hoyland).

5. Don’t It Make You Feel Good – Stefan Dennis

We leave you now with all the one-hit-wonders, best personified by Stefan Dennis’s delightfully camp Don’t It Make You Feel Good. Dennis joins twins Gayle and Gillian Blakeney, Bruce Samazan, Stephanie McIntosh, Holly Valance and Alan “Karl Kennedy” Fletcher in carving out music careers of questionable substance. Can you find the perfect blend?

Bonus extra: “Russ le Roq” Crowe, thanks to this star-studded Neighbours scene also featuring Pearce, Donovan and McLachlan.