A Nation Deals With The Hottest 100 Songs Of All Time Result
Did you listen to Triple J’s Hottest 100 Of All Time results and find yourself wondering whether the Hilltop Hoods tune The Nosebleed Section is really the 17th “hottest” song of all time? Perhaps you searched for a track by the likes of PJ Harvey or Dusty Springfield in the list of songs chosen by the youth of the nation, only to find Blink 182’s Dammit being celebrated instead? You’re probably terribly upset right now.
First of all, expecting the list to be reflective of the hundred greatest songs of all time was incredibly naive. Do you find the annual Hottest 100 poll run by the station to be an accurate representation of the greatest songs released during the previous year? Of course not. It is the Hottest 100 Songs Triple J Listeners Heard On Triple J During The Past Year. And that’s okay – it’s a poll for their listeners, it’s not as though any music that doesn’t make the list is going to be destroyed by angry villagers in a massive bonfire and the only thing that will be left for future historians to judge the musical tastes of the rest of us will be the hundred songs approved by Triple J fans or anything horrific like that. Yes, I understand it’s “upsetting to realise that other people have different music taste to you” but you’re going to get through it, I promise.
One issue that has raised some hackles around town is the distinct lack of women featured in the Hottest 100 Of All Time. Let’s take a look at former Associate Editor of Defamer Australia Clem “CLAM BESTOF” Bastow’s thoughts in today’s edition of The Age.
However, as the countdown progressed, something sinister emerged: of the 100 tracks that ended up comprising the list, there were no female artists.
The only women to appear in any notable capacity were The White Stripes’ drummer Meg White (Seven Nation Army, number 20), Massive Attack guest vocalists Elizabeth Fraser (Teardrop, 22) and Shara Nelson (Unfinished Sympathy, 93), Pixies bassist Kim Deal (Where Is My Mind, 29), Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky (1979, 35; Bullet with Butterfly Wings, 51; Today, 78), and Pulp keyboardist Candida Doyle (Common People, 81). And that’s it. Female artists with a history of solid Triple J airplay disappeared from the proceedings: Frente, P. J. Harvey, Tori Amos, Hole, Missy Elliott, Garbage, The Mavis’s, Bjork and Missy Higgins. They were all, to borrow Maya Arulpragasam’s stage name, M.I.A.
And as Clem points out, that’s not how Kurt would have wanted it.
Throughout the online debate of the morning after the countdown, I kept thinking of Kurt Cobain. The sensitive Piscean who played with gender and proclaimed, “the future of rock belongs to women”, who learned from riot grrrl and used entertainment as a tool to “blow (sexism) wide open”. What would he think, not of his band’s top spot result, but of the near-total maleness of the Hottest 100 Of All Time?
Most people who voted for Teen Spirit would’ve done so from a sense of Cobain’s having soundtracked their adolescent alienation. One of his major powers as a songwriter was the sense that Cobain understood what you were going through. But I doubt he would have understood this poll. Forgetting women’s contribution to rock music is, as that famous last word of Teen Spirit rings out, a denial.
What did you think of the results? Do you even care?
The music poll that keeps on rockin’ in a man’s world
How to Rise Above the Disappointing Results of Triple J’s Hottest 100 of All Time
The Hottest 100 Of All Time
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Comments
Triple J’s “Top 100″ Of All Time has managed to straddle the line between “entry level” alternative music and the worst of Dad rock while mixing in a strong helping of dull.
Is this really so surprising?
Defamer needs “like this” button.
Its hard to get too emotional about the make up of the list when music is such a personal taste, although there are always areas of near universal agreeance as to what makes a good song and what blows massive chunks (most would agree that Aqua’s ‘Dr Jones’ was not going to make the grade).
I was reading an article in yesterday’s ‘Mx’ paper (courtesy of those purveyors of truth, News Limited) written by an Alex Dickinson (who also writes a social commentary for the Punch magazine – another News vehicle for the slightly disenfranchised Liberal voter). His main point referenced that there was a distinct lack of Gen Y related anthems in the list, and that Gen X has ‘hijacked’ the voting. I think that this is a point that is worth raising, as the flow of music from Gen X to Y is not the same gravitation that was evidenced from the 70’s to 80’s to early 90’s as it is from 90’s to now. Music has been bastardised by the creation of all these new genres of sound, and the end result we end up hearing a mish-mash of noise that somehow gets labelled ‘electro-funk’ (WTF?) or another similar tag. There are a few bands to rise from the mess of music that is the 21st century, but by and large the absence of alot of modern day bands is because they do not hold a candle to those who beat the path before them (if the votes are to be our barometer).
As a Gen Xer, I personally don’t get the Hilltop Hoods and others from that ilk, but there are obviously alot of listeners that do. My personal choice for 1 would not have been Nirvana as it did not have the same impact as say, Under the Bridge or Throw Your Arms Around Me, but as long as bands like Short Stack, Metro Station and those other truly awful teeny-bopper emo bands don’t make the list then the Force is balanced.
On the female front, I would have thought Garbage would have made the grade with at least one of their songs, but I don’t think there is anything too sinister behind the Sausage Fest that is the list.
I think it’s much less of an indication of listener bias or sexism or what the fuck ever than people are making out, and it’s certainly not “sinister”. At most, it shows that it’s an imperfect voting system that favours artists with a few big hits that consolidate votes. Maybe it’s also evidence that there’s a herd mentality at work in which people vote for the songs they consider more worthy or historically important. But really, who cares about that?
If we’re going to unreasonably extrapolate conclusions from the results of this poll, how about this: in last year’s Hottest 100, Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’ came in at #21, while Kings Of Leon’s ‘Sex On Fire’ came in at #1. Yet in the Hottest 100 Of All Time, they came in at #92 and #90 respectively! That’s an 18-place gain!! ARE PEOPLE JUST PRETENDING TO LIKE REALLY SHIT MUSIC? WILL THEY VOTE FOR BETTER MUSIC IF THEY THINK NO ONE WILL NOTICE? Let’s have some editorials on that serious question!!
This sin of omission is worrying, yes. But to turn to what is actually in the list, one may infer that the ‘yoof’ believe the Hilltop Hoods to have contributed the greatest Australian song of all time. This, my friends, is dire.
For one, the male listener would not admit to their mates that they are into the latest female rock band or singer. How many males do you know would admit that they bought the latest Bjork or Sarah Blasco album?? Even though they are (or were) good artists.
Secondly, the female listener, as many females tend to do, criticise other females. This especially applies to females in the public spotlight. They may be great artists and musicians, but if they have a big nose or bad haircut or act like a slut in public, then that far outweighs the fact that they make good music.
Also, Richard, I think that the majority of people who can be fucked voting in a Triple J poll are blokes who spend alot of time on the internet, or reading liner notes on albums in their tiny, darkened berdrooms. Same reason most of the contestants on Rockwiz are male. Not to say there aren’t chick music nerds, they’re just not as visible, or active online.
BTW, can i just add that the new Sarah Blasko album is AWESOME! I’ve never been a big fan of the Blas, in fact I scored the album for free, but FUCK it’s good!
**Disclaimer…I am a chick…and a music nerd…who had better things to do than vote in the Hottest 100 of all time :)
Richard: Seriously, plenty would
It’s worth acknowledging that many of these songs are just ones with significant airplay in the last year. Best example is God Only Knows by the Beach Boys at #40something. That probably *is* one the best pop songs ever written, but was totally absent from polls in 1989-91 and 1998. People just saw Big Love this year.
Because I’m an old, I think the list from 1991 is actually pretty super, and the 1998 not bad either.
i dunno…look, it’s pretty appalling that there were no female-fronted bands (i’m not counting guest vocalists or bassists/keyboardists cos they’re not exactly the ’spokesperson’ of a band, in a general sense) but i think you’ve got to keep in mind the kind of demographic that was voting.
Triple J listeners, like Jess said, vote by and large on the Triple J songs heard on Triple J, in addition to the subtle judgements and criticisms a lot of the jjj presenters imply (i’m poking you here, Robbie Buck) in their commentary. As it is, I was kind of suprised some of the cheesier stuff – Guns N Roses, Greenday, Yellow by Coldplay – was deemed ‘cool’ enough to make it, but hey, i’ll take pleasure in the little victories.
I don’t think enough ‘importance’ is/has been given to a lot of influential women in music here, but i think the list also reads like a pretty white-bread, middle-class alternative cliche.
I’m not calling the list racist, but…
Part of me is grateful for Triple J (please don’t ever make me listen to a Vile and Jackie Ho program, EVER) but there is a tonne of stuff about the station that gives me the irrits, too.
I think people need not worry too much about the results of triple j’s latest poll. In my opinion, Triple j is becoming increasingly irrelevent with the youth of Australia.
Funnily enough, a friend was listening to this in another room, whilst I continued on the high falutin’ path of re-consuming zeitgeist addendum.
I consider JJJ to be symptomatic of our vapid culture. The presenters are plastic imitations of real life human beings. Like their counterparts on commercial radio, they raise the appearance of being musically and culturally ignorant.
Further, I contend that adding ‘best of the brat’s’ Marieke Hardy to the “talent” changes nothing @ all-as talented and culturally intelligent as Marieke is, the fact remains that because she doesn’t playlist the music on her radio show, then she operates as a lure to attract government funding/horny young (wo)men, and younger members of the so-called culturally savvy intelligentsia brigade.
The hottest 100 of all time is an exercise in applying an abstract value as a precise measurement.
To me, this represents an oxymoron.
As for the lack of feminine representatives in the JJJ Hottest 100, this suggests a manifestation of our cultural imbalance. That, we somehow consider, that Artistic communications from a female, contain less worth and value than those that spring forth from a male.
It isn’t as if Dorothy Ashby, Alice Coltrane, Laurie Anderson, Patsy Cline, Polly Jean, Rickie Lee Jones, Aretha Franklin, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Joanna Newsom, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Bjork or Kevin Blechdom are either lacking in, or were never in possession of the necessary wherewithal needed to make important cultural statements via the artistic medium of music.
Some of the quoted names are amongst the most revered names that we celebrate in our musical culture.-Therefore; ability isn’t the reason for the exclusion of women from this list.
Whilst it is possible to define voters as somehow misogynistic or sexist, but I am having trouble entertaining that theory as a reason that sufficiently explains why people voted the way they did.
It doesn’t explain, for example; why women voted 100% male.-Do gay women prefer masculine made art?
If I had been interested in voting, I’d would be thinking of Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra, Otis Redding, The Ears, Chicks On Speed, Otis Jackson Jnr, JDilla, Echo and the Bunnymen, X-Ray Specs, and of course; Alice/Georgia/Kate/Polly/Patsy & Bjork from the list above.
Having said that, I would have probably voted for Sun Ra’s “We travel the spaceways”.
Maybe, I should consider myself as a misogynist man; or maybe, I could consider the reality that this decision had nothing to do with my considerations on the fairer species on any level.
Maybe the real issue is the ability of humans restrained by a cruel, profit orientated culture that is only concerned with ‘today’s sale’, to be able to make adequate decisions about the relative cultural merit of musical art produced over time by different types of people.
How does ‘the single’ become worthier than the b-side or the album track?
How does the simplistic, mawkishly obvious rock/pop of Guns’n’Roses surpass the sumptuous soul styling’s of Carla Thomas?
It doesn’t.
One was made to profit off people who like to fit in with the crowd.
The other was made with love…
Tetractys Merkaba – such a great post.
I’m straight, male, married, and voted for Tori Amos, Lisa Gerrard, Bjork and Sarah McLachlan among others. How does that fit with all the stereotypes? I don’t give a shit. It’s what I like.
I consider what I voted for to be my favourite songs ever. Yet none of the particular tracks I voted for have ever been played on air by Triple J.
To me, Triple J are only about 5-10% more open to playing “other music” than any regular FM station. Yet I listen to Triple J purely for the sake of that 5-10%.
Maybe if Triple J actually played a broader range of music, they would have more credibility. Maybe more special shows dedicated to different genres?
Right now, every second song seems to be Oz Hip Hop, which bores me to death, and it’s the main reason Hilltop Hoods made it so high in that list.
Another idea might be to run a “Hottest 100 Songs By Female Artists” survey, to make up for the laughable imbalance. Give female artists more attention, or get the audience at least *thinking* about which female artists are significant, and people might remember some of those songs next time there’s an “All time” survey too.
Another interesting point: the first Hottest 100 Of All Time list back in 1989 contained at least 10% female artists (Kate Bush, Bjork, Cocteau Twins, Enya etc).
20 years later, and the result is: 0% female.
Haven’t we come a long way in recognising the great contribution women have made to music.
Triple J = Tunnel Vision for Music Lovers.