AS if to answer the chorus of grumpy old farts who regularly proclaim that "triple j ain't what it used to be", the national youth broadcaster is about to dip into the past with their Hottest 100 of Hottest 100s.
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The Js are asking people to vote for their top 20 songs of the past 20 years, ie. since the Hottest 100 became an annual countdown of the nation's favourite songs of each year.
That means the songs have to have been released between January 1993 and December 2012, which is going to make for an interesting list.
Here are five things and theories about what could, might and/or should happen.
We already know 55 of the 100 (in theory)
JUST four years ago, triple j graced us with another Hottest 100 Of All Time countdown - the first since 1998. That 2009 poll was a pretty awesome mix of classic rock from the pre-Hottest 100 era and alternative landmarks from the '90s and beyond. But how much could such a poll change in just four years? In theory, all the post-'93 songs on that countdown should make the top 100 of this new countdown, right? That's 55 songs (which I've posted, in the order they placed, at the bottom of this article), leaving just 45 more spots. Maybe some of those 55 tracks won't return, but you would think the majority would. My bet is at least 40 of the 55 will make the cut this time around, which means the results might be only slightly less surprising than last year's Hottest 100, where the release of a mathematically calculated "warmest 100" before the countdown stole a bit of the poll's thunder.
With Smells Like Teen Spirit ineligible, it's wide open (for once)
BY having a cut-off date of January 1993, triple j have either cleverly or inadvertantly made the top spot less predictable than in their 2009 Hottest 100 Of All Time. As it had in 1991 and 1998, Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit was voted #1 song of all time in 2009, but it won't be eligible in the 20 years countdown as it was first released 22 years ago. Also out of contention is Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name, which was #2 in 2009 (and #17 in 1998). That means the heir to throne, going by the 2009 poll, would be Jeff Buckley's angelic version of Leonard Cohen's hymnal classic Hallelujah. However its ranking of #3 in 2009 may have been due to a surge in pop culture recognition for Buckley's cover at the time, which probably won't translate to a top spot in 2013. In 2006, Buckley's Hallelujah started charting in Norway and the following year in Sweden. The US came next in 2008 thanks to an American Idol performance of it, and later that year Buckley's version was #2 in the UK behind an X Factor contestant version. Now the song has become so ubiquitous on singing contest television that the shine may have been taken off it. That leaves what appears to be a three horse race for #1 in this year's poll between Radiohead's Paranoid Android, Buckley's Last Goodbye and Foo Fighters' Everlong. That's not a bad trifecta in my book.
A previous top spot is not a guarantee
AS we saw in 2009, a top spot in a previous Hottest 100 does not guarantee a place in the All Time list. Only eight #1s from previous annual countdowns made the 2009 All Time poll, with the likes of Bernard Fanning, Jet, Spiderbait and The Whitlams missing out. Since then, we've had Mumford & Sons' Little Lion Man, Angus & Julia Stone's Big Jet Plane, Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know and, of course, Ryan Lewis & Macklemore's divisive Thriftshop take the top spot. It's unlikely all four will get into the 20 Years countdown, I would be surprised if Gotye and Mumford & Sons didn't make it in. The fatigue of Somebody That I Used To Know appears to have passed, and it seems likely it could make the list purely thanks to it being the biggest song in recent memory that didn't have as many haters as lovers. As for Mumford & Sons, their star continues to rise so it seems likely they'll make the cut. But Angus & Julia Stone's low-key winner of 2010 seems to be largely forgotten these days - or is that just me? You'd think of some the #1s that missed out in the 2009 Hottest 100 Of All Time will make it back onto the list, particularly Spiderbait's Buy Me A Pony and maybe Bernard Fanning's Wish You Well or The Whitlams' No Aphrodisiac. But does anyone still hold a candle for Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl? I don't think so.
The Australians will be there but what about the women?
AUSSIE tracks comprised about one sixth of the songs in the 2009 All Time countdown (16 tunes to be exact), but it seems likely there will be a bigger representation with the 20 years poll. Australian artists have had 822 out of the 2000 songs featured over the past two decades so expect a pretty good turn-out from the Green and Gold. Less likely will be a big showing from female artists. The 2009 poll was criticised for having very few female artists (there were female lead singers on just two tracks, and they were both guest artists for Massive Attack), although who was being criticised was hard to pinpoint. After all, anyone could vote for any song they wanted, and it turns out the majority of voters didn't seem to like female artists. It's unfortunate but that's democracy. And to be fair, even Richard Kingsmill's personal All Time list only featured about a dozen female artists out of 100. Will we see a repeat of the "sexist" and "male dominated" list this year? The number of female artists seems to have been rising in recent years, with the likes of Florence & The Machine, Lily Allen, Lana Del Rey, and La Roux scoring well in the past few countdowns. But you never know - apparently all music fans are either misogynist pigs or simply prefer the sound of a man with a microphone. Maybe triple j needs to hold a Women's Only Hottest 100 to even the score... although that could be regarded as sexist too, right?
We can correct the mistakes of the past
FOR those grumpy old farts who will be turning on triple j for the first time in ages (probably switching across from some kind of talkback radio) to catch the 20 years countdown, it will be the opportunity to hear wrongs righted. You see, good people, this is our opportunity to rectify some of the terrible decisions we made in the heat of the moment while voting in previous Hottest 100s. Take for example Pretty Fly For A White Guy. Pretty much every other song released in 1998 - even Wyclef Jean's Bubblegoose - deserved the number one spot ahead of The Offspring's piece of punk-pop novelty crap. All those great songs denied by Pretty Fly - Custard's Girls Like That, Korn's Got The Life, Powderfinger's The Day You Come, You Am I's Heavy Heart, Ben Folds Five's Brick, - can now have their moment in the sun. Hell, I wouldn't even begrudge The Offspring's much better song of that year, Gone Away, from getting on the list instead of Pretty Fly (Gone Away only made it to #62 in 1998's Hottest 100). Other mistakes we can rectify - Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl beating out Outkast's Hey Ya and The White Stripes Seven Nation Army, Kings Of Leon's Sex On Fire besting MGMT's Electric Feel, and Angus & Julia Stone's Big Jet Plane winning ahead of pretty much everything else in 2010. Yes, some of these mistakes were corrected in the 2009 countdown, but we must remain vigilant.
Here's the 2009 All Time list, whittled down to only the eligible tunes for the 20 Years countdown:
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Radiohead - Paranoid Android
Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
Foo Fighters - Everlong
Oasis - Wonderwall
The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
Radiohead - Karma Police
Hilltop Hoods - The Nosebleed Section
Muse - Knights Of Cydonia
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Powderfinger - These Days
Massive Attack - Teardrop
Powderfinger - My Happiness
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
Silverchair - Tomorrow
The Living End - Prisoner Of Society
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Into My Arms
Tool - Stinkfist
The Killers - Mr Brightside
Pearl Jam - Better Man
Bloc Party - Banquet
Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows
John Butler Trio - Betterman
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
You Am I - Berlin Chair
Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should Have Come Over
Tool - Forty Six & 2
Daft Punk - Around The World
Augie March - One Crowded Hour
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Blur - Song 2
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
Underworld - Born Slippy
Ben Folds Five - Brick
Blink 182 - Dammit
Jeff Buckley - Grace
The Prodigy - Breathe
The Shins - New Slang
Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
Gotye - Hearts A Mess
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Pulp - Common People
System Of A Down - Chop Suey!
Placebo - Every You Every Me
The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You
Coldplay - Yellow
Rage Against the Machine - Bulls On Parade
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Modest Mouse - Float On
Daft Punk - One More Time
TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
