If you listened to Triple J’s Hottest 100 two years ago, there’s a good chance you remember the Taylor Swift ~controversy~ that preceded it.
In a nutshell, BuzzFeed Australia started the #Tay4Hottest100 campaign to get the pop star’s chart-topper ‘Shake it Off’ voted into the countdown. Eventually, after plenty of public debate, Triple J disqualified the song (…rude), and that was that.
But today, the indisputable Queen of Pop has been voted into the Hottest 100 for the first time in her career. And no, it’s not Taylor.
Top Comments
It's good that triple j has gone into regional areas, but it has changed the demographic of people who listen. It used to be people in cities who had a choice, so if you liked commercial top 50 stuff you listened to commercial radio. If you wanted to hear songs six months before they got played on commercial radio (if they ever did) you listened to JJJ.
I'm not a Beyoncé fan but the songs from lemonade were a departure from her usual style of song writing and her vocals were passionate and honest which has obviously captured her some new followers. Listeners of triple j are always looking for something different to the mainstream playlist and this fit the bill even if her previous releases do not. Ditto Kanye - sometimes his r&b/hip hop crosses boundaries too.
Best of all this year 66 songs were by Australian artists proving that triple j does a fantastic job of promoting local talent.
And for all those saying there haven't been enough women in the hottest 100 - 7 of the top 10 this year were women or featured women guest vocalists. Can't complain about that!
I think it's great she made it into the countdown! You're absolutely right. And so true about all the female artists this year - two in the top three, so exciting.
Was it played on Triple J? If it wasn't it has no place in their hottest 100, because it means that people who don't even listen are voting.