Could Amy Shark or Flume reach No. 1 on this year’s Hottest 100?
FLUME and Amy Shark the big favourites to be No 1, but there’s a lot of talk about Beyonce, Guy Sebastian and whether the count should be moved.
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COULD this be the last year Triple J’s Hottest 100 falls on January 26?
The radio network is increasingly sensitive to the fact the biggest music poll in the world takes place on what some Australians call “invasion day”.
Triple J content director Ollie Wards said the station was still reviewing the option of moving the date of the poll to make the musical celebration more inclusive to all Australians.
“It’s an ongoing discussion,” Wards said. “We are reviewing the day the Hottest 100 falls on. We’re doing some things on the 26th we’re really proud of, we’re keen to create a spirit of inclusivity as much as we can.”
The station’s news program Hack will air a special program on Thursday morning that will explore the different perspectives around Australia Day.
Their relationship with AIME (the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience) continues and the poll will start at midday with a ‘Welcome to country’ greeting, as usual.
“There’s a few other sounds in the countdown including people speaking in indigenous language,” Wards said.
The 2017 poll could also feature one of the most politically-charged songs released in Australia last year — January 26 by rappers A.B Original (Briggs and Trials) featuring Dan Sultan.
The song, from their Top 10 album Reclaim Australia, features the lyric “You can come and wave your flag, but it don’t mean a thing to me” and “F*** celebrating days made of misery while Oz still got the black history.”
January 26 is tracking to lob in the Top 30 of the Hottest 100 according to statistics by a Sydney computer science graduate.
“I’m personally voting for that song,” Wards says. “It’s a dope track, it’d be cool to see it in there. That was a really popular song this year.”
That graduate, Nick Whyte has compiled a ‘predictor’ website (100 Warm Tunas) which tracks votes — which voters post on Instagram — to keep a real time list full of spoilers.
He has tracked just under 60,000 votes, providing a good barometer of the most popular songs — at least by those who like to share their votes with social media.
Using his data Whyte predicted last year’s Top 3 in order (and the rest of the Top 10 out of order) but is expecting a photo-finish this year — votes closed on Monday morning and are now being tallied.
Brisbane singer Amy Shark, with Adore, and Sydney’s global dance export Flume with Never Be Like You have dominated his polling data.
“Amy Shark and Flume have been neck and neck up until this week, but even still, they’re only separated by a few votes,” Whyte said. “It could swing either way, especially considering my sample size is approximately three per-cent.”
Winning the Hottest 100 is not only a representation of popularity, it’s a massive boost of money-can’t-buy credibility.
Music industry veteran Michael Gudinski hailed the Hottest 100 and its showcasing of Australian talent.
“It’s the biggest and most unique radio poll and it’s acknowledged around the world. It’s so well respected. It can really make a difference to an artist’s career.”
Two acts Gudinski works with, Vance Joy and The Rubens, have won the Hottest 100 in the past three years, he hopes his acts DMAs (with a cover of Cher’s Believe) and Violent Soho poll well this year.
Vance Joy’s Riptide was already a massive international hit when it topped the poll, however when Hoops by The Rubens reached No 1 the song went into the Top 10 for the first time, suddenly crossing over to commercial radio playlists. It also reignited sales of their second album Hoops and was a valuable tool to increase their drawing card as a live act.
“Every artist who is lucky enough to reach No 1 is different, but for The Rubens they are a band who hadn’t been that critically acclaimed,” Gudinski said. “It meant so much to them.”
Gudinski said the poll is now one of the most influential events on the Australian music scene.
“A lot of people are very influenced by Triple J, a No 1 on the Hottest 100 is very significant,” Gudinski said.
“It’s a countdown with only one winner and it’s very well promoted and there’s such excitement around it. And it really means a lot to artists as well as record labels and managers and promoters.”
While Flume’s Never Be Like You is an ARIA No 1 (and this reached five times platinum for more than 350,000 sales) the poll will be a major boost for Amy Shark, whose Adore debuted at No 40 last week and dropped to No 42 with commercial radio yet to fully embrace her song.
That excitement around the Hottest 100 is something commercial radio stations have tried to replicate, without success.
It’s also something betting agencies have tried to monetarise. For the past few years many online betting agencies are running odds on the Hottest 100, bombarding the media hoping that they’ll get mentioned in any Hottest 100 coverage.
“We are aware sometimes there’s stories written about gambling odds on the Hottest 100 and we know young people are particularly vulnerable to gambling,” Wards says.
“When it’s advertised to them through something they love like the Hottest 100 and music we get a bit concerned that young people will be adversely affected by that. We’d prefer people got involved by voting rather than losing money to a corporate company.”
The passion Hottest 100 fans share for the countdown is unparalleled. Tyler Jenke runs hottest100.org; an unofficial website with pretty much everything you’d want to know about the countdown’s history.
Jenke tracks how many covers have been in each poll, which country each act is from and stats from which songs were sung in a foreign language to which had no words at all.
He also points out the Hottest 100 only started being broadcast on Australia Day when it moved from listener’s favourite songs of all time (which began in 1989) to the annual poll which started in 1993.
“I’d like to say there would be no impact if they changed the day, however January 26 and the Hottest 100 are so intrinsically linked these days. It’s served as the soundtrack to a get together with friends or a summer barbecue or a lazy day indoors, so some people almost view a potential change as a personal attack. If they change the date I’m confident people will have a negative stance at first, but in time they would accept it and adapt. It’s just a poll of listener-voted music, essentially, which could theoretically be held any day.”
Jenke sums up the thoughts of many fans of local music who bond with the Hottest 100.
“I see the Hottest 100 as an opportunity for Aussie music to go up against international heavyweights, and in many cases, come out on top. Like many other Australians, I have always felt a huge level of pride for our local music and artists and I feel that the Hottest 100 serves as a great way to not only celebrate our local music scene, but it also serves as a great snapshot of what music was like for a particular year.
“As the Hottest 100 becomes more of an Aussie institution there is a sense of almost reverence about it as it becomes a tradition whose history needs to be kept and documented.”
Wards, who is part of the team putting together all the interviews and special features heard on the countdown, understands the connection the poll has with its participants.
“It’s a real thing that people get together for. Because people feel so involved by voting they become ambassadors for the ten artists they voted for, they wait for them to get in the countdown and back them when they do land.”
The 2016 list may throw up one surprise artist — Beyonce.
The station refused to include votes for Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off two years ago, as the song hadn’t been played on Triple J.
However Beyonce’s Lemonade saw the US superstar work with very Triple J-friendly artists including Jack White and James Blake.
Several Lemonade songs got aired on Triple J (angering some particularly sensitive listeners) which means she has a handful of eligible songs.
“It was a super popular album with music fans around the globe,” Wards says. “I’m sure heaps of people will vote for Beyonce songs, but who knows if they’ll get in the list or not.”
Commercial hits by The Weeknd (Starboy and I Feel It Comin’, both with Daft Punk) and Drake (One Love) are polling on Whyte’s chart. Kanye West, Childish Gambino and Frank Ocean should also help add some R & B to the poll.
The biggest surprise could be Guy Sebastian, whose Like a Version performance of Keeping Score with ‘cool’ Triple J favourite Paces is in the Top 60 of Whyte’s poll.
He wouldn’t be the first Australian Idol contestant to poll in the Hottest 100 (Lisa Mitchell and Matt Corby have been there) but prepare for a Twit-storm on Thursday from those triggered that our most successful pop star of the last decade may infiltrate our most popular radio poll due to his undeniable talent.
NICK WHYTE’S HOTTEST 100 TOP 10 PREDICTIONS
1. Adore — Amy Shark
2. Never Be Like You — Flume ft. Kai
3. Jungle — Tash Sultana
4. Redbone — Childish Gambino
5. Believe (Like a Version) — DMAs
6. 1955 — Hilltop Hoods ft. Montaigne, Tom Thum
7. Viceroy — Violent Soho
8. Papercuts — Illy ft. Vera Blue
9. Stranger — Peking Duk ft. Elliphant
10. Chameleon — Pnau