Hottest 100: Pirates and Public Radio

01 February 2010

by Andrew Reid

In 2010, the “world’s biggest music democracy”, Triple J’s Hottest 100, smashed all previous year’s efforts with an incredible level of listener engagement. More than 131,000 individuals cast 1.1 million votes for what its audience considered to be 2009’s hottest 100 tracks. Both the number of voters, and hence votes, were up 30 percent and 46 percent respectively.

Passive listening is one thing, but to vote and use the whole program as the basis for celebration on Australia Day – 4,100 Hottest 100 parties is not an apparition – is a testament to the public broadcaster and the eclectic tastes (and passions) of Triple J listeners.

Celebration and criticism of the final rankings aside, is the Hottest 100 more than just a gang- up of Muse and Art vs Science fans to game the results? Is the list a potential reflection of illegal music consumption and the popularity of those tracks? What would a Darkest 100 look like?

Tracks in this year’s Triple J Hottest 100 accounted for more than 17 million illegal downloads in the past four weeks; that’s out of a total of more than 35 million in a ‘usual’ four week period. An impressive ‘market share’ for a public broadcaster!

While Mumford & Sons' Little Lion Man topped the Hottest 100, the track was ranked fourth in the illegal chart, with 698,528 downloads. The top spot in our Darkest 100 was taken by La Roux’s Bulletproof with 1.3m illegal downloads, up five places from its Hottest 100 ranking.

By comparison, Hilltop Hoods’ Chase That Feeling came in third on both charts (760,312 downloads).

The tracks swinging wildly between their Hottest 100 spot and the illegal chart included Calvin Harris’ I’m Not Alone, ranked fifth in the illegal download chart (626,142 downloads) - a massive 54 places up on its popular vote (ranked 59 in the Hottest 100) - while Foo Fighter’s Wheels, ranked 100th by the Triple J audience, came in at number 12 in the Darkest 100 chart (452,583 downloads). Jet’s She’s A Genius jumped 62 spots, from 77 in the Hottest 100 to 15 in the illegal ranks (412,332 downloads).

The high profile results of Unearthed bands in the Hottest 100, however, weren’t exactly replicated on the Darkest 100. Art vs Science, coming in at number two on the Hottest 100, dropped 53 places on the illegal chart, accounting for just 75,048 downloads. Despite the drop, the band is still number one out of all the Unearthed bands when it came to downloads.

Seth Sentry accounted for 66,880 downloads, a big drop of 29 places on the Darkest 100, Philadelphia Grand Jury accounted for 37,882 downloads (down 83 spots) while The Middle East had 24,737 downloads (down just 6 spots). Interestingly, Art vs Science’s Friend in the Field ranked 73 on both charts.

In terms of music type, the Darkest 100 is better suited to dance, rock and hip hop, while the indies were, to put it bluntly, murdered by the alternative chart. On average, indie tracks dropped 25 places on the illegal chart, while bands with more commercial radio play, tended to score higher positions on the Darkest 100.

The Hottest 100 is a testament to popular culture, a love of great music and a countdown - in more ways than one - of how modern Australia chooses to consume music.