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Music

Is the Triple J Hottest 100 Really The World's Biggest Musical Democracy?

I’ve got a bone to pick.

For the first time in it’s 23-year history, it looked like an African-American artist was going to win the annual Triple J Hottest 100. Kendrick Lamar’s single “King Kunta”, from his stunning sophomore release To Pimp a Butterfly, was predicted by bookies and statisticians to take out this years top spot.

A band of white guys from Menagle, New South Wales won instead.

The Australian public voted The Rubens jam “Hoop” as the greatest song of 2015. A soft-indie jam about love it consists of the usual line-up of guitar, bass, synth, drums and vocals. There’s nothing revolutionary or unique about it at all and what’s worse the film clip is one of the whitest things ever.

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“Hoops” lacks the musical dexterity and potent lyricism of “King Kunta.” Kendrick Lamar’s funky anthem about empowerment and the contrast between the highest and lowest levels of society features vast instrumentation and a strong female vocal presence.

It was hard to ignore Lamar’s acclaim throughout 2015. According to Metacritic, a website that aggregates music publications’ reviews and end-of-year rankings; To Pimp a Butterfly was the most critically celebrated release of 2015. The album topped 51 of the 145 end-of-year lists curated by the site. That means that a third of all published “Best Albums of 2015” lists placed Kendrick Lamar at first place. The second highest-ranking was Australian Courtney Barnett, with her spectacular Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit topping seven music publications polls.

Out of the Top 25 on the Metacritic aggregated list, ten of the rankings were solo female artists, or bands fronted by a woman, and seven were African-American singers. According to Metacritic, in 2015 black and female artists dominated.

But really, if we chart the true course of music history, it has been proven that African-American and female musicians are always at the forefront of popular music. First it was jazz, then blues, and then funk. Next came disco, house, and finally hip-hop. All of these genres stemmed from African-American musicians; it’s about time we started paying credit where it’s due.

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However, throughout the entire history of the Triple J Hottest 100, only one female vocalist or songwriter has topped the list and not a single artist of colour has ever won “The Worlds Biggest Musical Democracy”. In 1994, The Cranberries hit single “Zombie” was the first and last time that the countdown was not topped by a song written and sung by a white male (excluding features).

Don’t even get me started on the lack of Indigenous representation in the annual countdown. As noted by Wiradjuri writer Hannah Donnelly in her spectacular article for Lifted Brow only ten songs written or fronted by Indigenous artists were available to be voted for in the 2015 countdown. Of those, only Ngaiire made it to the final poll at #73.

I understand that Triple J is an Australian, Government-run website, and that 40% of its total playlist must be Australian. I guess that this factor alone makes it hard to diversify playlists to include music from other countries. But why call yourself “The Worlds Most Democratic Music Poll” if your station prejudices white Australian music over music from the rest of the world?

The problem appears that, in order to stay afloat in the dying days of radio, Triple J have adjusted their brand to suit their listeners. Rather than acting as tastemakers - a musical guide for the youth of Australia - Triple J pander to what they believe their demographic of 18-24 year-olds wants to hear.

Triple J must help sway their impressionable demographic by playing a considerably more diverse range of music. According to Jplay, white, male artists fronted nine of the ten most played bands played on Triple J in the last ten years. Something seems to be amiss here.

I don’t know if Triple J is the problem or if it is the Australian public, but to me, the unevenness of the countdown needs to end soon and a more diverse range of artists need to be featured on regular rotation.

Ash Beks is a Melbourne writer. Follow him @ashbeks