Pop Music Is Killing the Hottest 100

Triple J’s Hottest 100 for 2010 was counted down and revealed on 26 January and once again I am left baffled as to the order of songs picked. In the last two or three years or so, Triple J seems to be being overrun by garish pop tunes and a suffocation of electronic acts.
Dully noted the trend of the moment is a more 80’s style sound, with a keyboard chucked in here and warbling lyric belted out there and a large majority of the high ranking songs on the list this year have followed this trend. Electro-garbage that is not good music but just great to dance to has invaded and is taking prisoners.
My problem is not with the trend but the fact that a well made tune like La Roux’s Bulletproof managed a tidy number 6 placing on this year’s list, but was far superior song compared with Parlez Vous Francais? by Art vs. Science which nabbed second place. Even Hip Hop gods Hilltop Hoods have not produced their best song to make it all the way to 3.
Of course the issue of fan base voting as always been present in the hottest 100 and a general poll is never going to please every one, but some of the positions of songs are on the edge of bewilderment.
Muse’s entry at 9 with Uprising, not a particularly good song by Muse standards, but given the amount of Muse fans around, its place would have been assured based solely on the fan’s voting for the song because it was made by Muse.
Lisztomania from Phoenix is a cute song, but that’s all it is, and to get in at number 4? Sheer madness, and the signs of a changing listener base amongst the Triple J faithful. The listeners are getting younger. Now, this by no means is a bad thing, but because Triple J is more and more classing itself as a new music station, these youngsters are growing up with a popular music driven mentality and are no longer sifting through boxes of old CD’s at the local record store, or raiding your older sisters record rack to form their own idea of musical taste and what they like.
Musical taste, if that is even an acceptable term, is now being seen as more of a fashion accessory by the kids of today, and musical taste is moving in packs, and individualism is dying the death.
Six of the songs in the top ten have no business being there. This not to say that they aren’t decent tracks, but they are definitely not amongst ten of the best that were released last year.
I suppose it is all empty words if I don’t put my money where my mouth is, so I’ll tell you which Six songs I think shouldn’t have been in the top ten, and the songs I think they should be replaced with.
Out: (in no particular order)
Art vs. Science - Parlez Vous Francais?
Phoenix – Lisztomania
Bluejuice - Broken Leg
Lily Allen - Not Fair
Muse – Uprising
Florence + the Machine - Dog Days Are Over
In: (in no particular order)
Metric – Help I’m Alive
Kasabian – Fire
Vampire Weekend – Cousins
Sarah Blasko – We Won’t Run
Paul Dempsy – Ramona Was a Waitress
Philadelphia Grand Jury - The Good News
Dissecting the whole list would be a waste of time, but I have come to expect that the top ten of the Hottest 100 contains the previous years best songs, and this year it clearly doesn’t. S.H.