Why #tay4hottest100 is good for Triple J
The campaign to get a Taylor Swift song into the Triple J Hottest 100 has created a lot of column inches in recent days. Matt Saraceni argues the controversy is good for the station and how it should capitalise on #tay4hottest100 come Australia Day.
If Taylor Swift places Number one in the Triple J Hottest 100 — I will eat a hat.
Any hat you care to name I will consume it. There is absolutely no way that will happen. I’d bet a nudie run on it. In fact I am.
However, “Shake it Off” appearing in the countdown will be one of the best things to happen to Triple J and its audiences and everybody should be hoping it happens. Let me explain….
I love JJJ and what is represents but am concerned what it is and what it says it stands for are often different things these days.
I actually think JJJ ha largely moved up the stack from ‘indie’ to ‘smart-arsy’ and while carefully avoiding mainstream artists by focussing only on certain genres is missing a lot of great new music being broken by community stations ala RRR or PBS that have presenters in touch with music at a grass roots level. Outsourcing that to unearthed isn’t really cutting it…its needs curation and play time on core frequencies (non dig).
Basically they are turning into a less-crap less-annoying Nova which is a long way from what the could and used to be. Getting a decent breakfast team who actually know/love music would be a good start (in the absence of any actual humour!).
If you think thousands of people are going to tune into the countdown just to see if TS is ranked I think you’re in dreamland. They’ve heard the song already, they can just find out on the blogs, Facebook, Twitter (virtually instantly) the moment it happens.
Why would they tune into 8hrs of music the average Nova listener doesn’t like or care about when the alternative is so much more efficient?
An interesting article from a while back on whether Triple J is actually good for emerging independent Australian artists:
http://polaroidsofandroids.com...../6224.html
That is a lot of words to state the obvious that Taylor Swift is good PR for Triple J
@Fraser, true, but they’re well written words. I for one enjoyed reading them even if the take away message was obvious.
@Fraser
Spot on. Thanks for summarising what’s essentially a fluff piece in one sentence.
Ha!
I’m loving how pissed off the music snobs are.
“Oh no, our precious Hottest 100”
Not all PR is good PR – Taylor Swift muddies the water for JJJ (don’t want to see The Hottest 100 become the Logies of radio land)
Nice work Paddo. Perfectly put.
Triple J doesn’t need the PR. Being a government funded broadcaster means they don’t have to play the popularity game. Voting for Taylor Swift just to piss people off is pretty rough. The only good thing that could possibly come of her being in the Hottest 100 would be that maybe some listeners from other stations might actually appreciate higher quality music and make the jump
Completely agree with you Matt!
Such an entertaining and awesome article. Currently sharing it around the office 🙂
There’s an undercurrent of options to unearth new artists, for example – hype machine, pitchfork, forums, the good old pub – you name it. If you want to find new artists, go and look for yourself. If you want background music and the choice taken out of your hands, fiddle with the FM dial. Triple J will carry on with their background music, the hottest 100 will play in the background for your Australia Day party, Taylor Swift will get played and no new artists are going to be unearthed in the process. No harm done
People still listen to radio? Who knew? Don’t those awful ads drive them nuts?
Totally disagree.
Thank fuck for Triple J is right!
I’m an ol’rocker, you probably don’t know us – we’re the ones that are STILL going to all the music festivals, most of us aged between 45 and 55years old, a couple tip the top of the scale at 66 … and we head to the festivals with our group’ s offspring who range from 18 to 42yrs. The love of Triple J is our unifying thread, our commonality.
We can trust Triple J to do the right thing by us… I hope they don’t give Taylor a second of airtime – she doesn’t need it and Triple J doesn’t need the PR. If people aren’t tuned to the J’s then they’re not into most Aussie music. #Paddo, sometimes the J’s can get a bit too lefty, but they generally find they’re way back. But commercialism rarely finds its way to the sound waves.
If they choose to do any of the humorous things listed above, I hope they do outside of the countdown, during the week or within a funny segment within the show. Triple J is the only bastion of intelligent radio as the ABC and SBS are on TV. There’s a reason why not everyone listens, and I think we like it like that 🙂
Seriously? The great thing about music is that it is all embracing. The reason you listen to TripleJ is because there are no ads, music is found that is before the curve, and some holistic view of musical taste. If a song for that year is a great song, let it be voted in! Kylie was voted in, Oasis were voted in, even that painful Angus and Julia Stone was voted in. It’s an open forum. Not a secret society.
Triple J is so overrated – I don’t understand why people enjoy listening to the same song being repeated every hour.
You used the word “amazing” twice in this article. You are easily amazed my friend.
“Triple J why are you attempting to reign over us as the singular and somewhat tyrannical champions of music in this country instead of simply fulfilling your role as a government funded broadcaster of unique, original and quality Australian music as per the initial Double J ethos.”
Wow. Not sure what station they are listening to! They are always uncovering and playing new artists. They have whole segments dedicated to this every week! I listen to the J’s. Because I DON’T want to hear the same bubblegum pop played every hour. Or the ads for that matter (oh the irony) Each to their own! That’s just my preference.
That said, they themselves promoted the countdown as a musical democracy. As “the hottest 100 songs voted by you ” for the year. Not the hottest 100 songs played on triple J. There have been many number of instances where songs not played on the J’s have been in the top 100.
I don’t listen to other stations but if the Swizz ends up the 100 that’s fine! It’s about celebrating music as a whole, and that’s pretty cool.
Nice article, and I think fairly looked at from all sides. This is totally good PR for JJJ – I said it on Facebook about two weeks back also. The radio station is being talked about around the world! Anyway, good stuff; meanwhile who is the “amazing” smart A who has commented at no. 18? Where’s your articles so we can criticise them?
I hope Tay wins, I also put a lobster on it at $9 so I am somewhat biased.
For the record I had already voted – (New Dorp, New York) Peking duck are probably going to win.
It doesn’t change JJJ as station, Alanis Morrisette had 3 tracks in Hottest 100 (1995) despite only one of them being played on the J’s
It will sound the death bell if it does….. JJJ has enough issues at present so adding this no talent singer into the mix will not help their cause…publicity does not always translate to good publicity
Surely the easy way to avoid anyone gaming the Hottest 100 in any year is to make only songs that are actually played by JJJ eligible? And it’s v strange that on a marketing website no one has mentioned the brands of JJJ and the Hottest 100 and the need to maintain their integrity and what makes them the great brands that they are. Personally I’d be sad if Taylor made it to the top tho I love the album. But on a lighter note, this is fun: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennag......duze4aJqJ
I’ve always been a bit confused about the hottest 100. It’s not the top played songs on the station like community stations do, or the most popular in voting terms. It’s like the phone in they have at night, they pick out the songs they don’t like.