Think Untouched shouldn’t have been in the Hottest 100? You may just be out of touch

It’s December 2014, somewhere in the days after Christmas. I’m 21 and in the passenger seat of a friend’s old Daewoo, taking turns to drive it up to Byron for that year’s Falls Festival.

It’s a stinking hot afternoon. The windows are down. We are approaching turn-offs for Forster and holding mild concerns about how our Korean chariot will handle the rest of the long trip. Its tiny back seat is packed to the brim – bags, tents, and another friend stuffed in among them. We should have left earlier, we say. Tired and sweaty, morale is sliding.

Then, we hear the violins.

Pop duo The Veronicas’ ranked third in yesterday’s Hottest 100 Australian Songs countdown.

When Untouched by The Veronicas ranked third in the Hottest 100 Australian Songs Countdown, ahead of more obviously “Aussie” classics like Beds are Burning, You’re the Voice or Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, it took some by surprise.

But, as someone who has scream-sung every word – including the harmonies – to the 2007 song while driving up the highway to a music festival, the placing could not have made more sense.

After reaching number two on the ARIA chart as the first single off their second album, Untouched has emerged as Brisbane-raised duo Jess and Lisa Origliasso’s most enduring track.

The song is loved by the LGBTQ community, particularly as Jess identifies as queer. As Triple J has reported, the sisters introduced Untouched as “the national gay anthem” to a crowd of expats at Los Angeles Pride in 2019.

And, on any weekend across the country, Untouched will bring the girls to a wedding dance floor. Making it through the song’s four minutes and 14 seconds is an endurance event: memory, stamina and diction are all required to keep singing the right – “or wrong, or wrong or right” – repetitious words at 177 beats per minute.

I am not here to argue Untouched is lyrically sophisticated or musically complex, but I can only lift a tiny bow to an even tinier violin for those upset by its inclusion in the countdown. (And use it to play the song’s iconic opening, of course.)

So much of the confusion and outrage about the high ranking of Untouched – a “national shame” and “the first time I’ve heard of this song” were among the negative comments on Triple J’s social media channels – has focused on the idea that young folk can’t possibly understand what is good or, rather, what is “Australian”.

But the largest voting demographic for the countdown was people aged 18 to 29, and there were still two Cold Chisel songs in the top 10. The kids get it.

What they also get is that pub rock is not the only Australian music worth celebrating.

And even with the sprinklings of pop and electronica, this was still a countdown full of white dudes on guitars. Only 12 of the 100 songs in the countdown were performed by or featured women. Tina Arena, Courtney Barnett, Kasey Chambers and Sia all did not feature. Hip-hop fans got three Hilltop Hoods tracks.

To quote Jess and Lisa, I am “not going to be around to answer all the questions left behind” by this piece. So, I will finish on this: If Untouched being named one the greatest Australian songs upsets you, you may just be out of touch.

Mary Ward is a staff reporter.

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