ANOTHER Australia Day passes and another triple's j Hottest 100 list is added to this the annals of music history. Except that this year was a big one in so many ways - a record number of votes, a record number of Aussie acts, and the whole Taylor Swift thing. MATT NEAL dissects the results to see what we've learnt from the 2014 countdown.
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No Taylor Swift
As predicted, Swift's Shake It Off didn't make the poll, with triple j citing precedent, KFC's intervention and the general "let's troll triple j!" vibe of the campaign. The station also mentioned the fact that by not including an albeit great pop song they had never ever played it meant 18-year-old Adelaide rapper Tkay Maidza made her debut in the poll at #100. triple j created a faux-Buzzfeed site to respond to the whole thing, writing "imagine if (Maidza didn't get in) because a joke Buzzfeed campaign got a song that triple j never played onto the list instead. You know what that would be? It'd be a travesty.". And as satirical site The Shovel pointed out, Swift doesn't really need the extra accolade. But the most intriguing part of it all was that if Swift hadn't been disqualified, she would have only made it to #12.
triple j is into Chet Faker
Prior to this countdown only one act had scored three songs in the top 10. That was Powderfinger in 2003, who got #4, #7, #10. Chet Faker bettered that this year with #1, #7, and #8, and he also had his Like A Version of Sonia Dada's (Lover) You Don't Treat Me No Good at #21. Add to this that Chet Faker topped the triple j listeners best album poll, he was also in the top five of last year's Hottest 100, and this is his third consecutive year in the countdown and it's fair to say triple j is into Chet in a big way.
Hilltop Hoods own #3
One of the more bizarre achievements to come out of this year's countdown is that Hilltop Hoods have now finished third three times. Their track Cosby Sweater - the most unfortunately named song of the year - gave the band a trifecta of threes, following on from Chase That Feeling in 2009 and The Hard Road in 2006. This feat would have been even cooler if their song The Nosebleed Section had have placed one better in 2013's Hottest 100 of the past 20 years - it came in at #4 instead.
The best of Foo
Dave Grohl already holds the record for most individual appearances in the Hottest 100 since it became an annual poll in 1993, but this year his band Foo Fighters equalled Powderfinger's record for most voted for act in the history of the countdown. When the Foo Fighters track Something From Nothing made it in at #84, it was their 22nd song to make the Hottest 100. So now the race is on for a 23rd song - will Foo Fighters make the countdown again in a couple of years when they put out a new album or will Powderfinger reunite and reclaim their prize?
The '90s live on
triple j is continually a young band's game - 35 of the songs in this year's countdown were Hottest 100 virgins, according to the station's stats. So it was nice to see a handful of old-timers - ie. bands who formed in the '90s - poll well in 2014. The oldest and best performing was Hilltop Hoods, who formed in 1994 and polled at #3, #36 and #57, while Foo Fighters (1995) snuck in at #84 and Rise Against (1999) made it to #80. And let's not forget Norwegian electro duo Royksopp (1998), who teamed up with Swedish singer Robyn to reach #59 and #73.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
Local acts always do well in the Hottest 100, but never this well. According to triple j's stats, there were 59 Australian songs in the poll this year - smashing the previous records of 52 in 1999 and 2007. It was also the third time the top three have all been Aussie songs - something that happened previously in 1999 and 2006. And the 2014 poll can also claim the most consecutive Aussie songs, with eight in a row (#97-#90) equalling a record set in 1999 and 2012.
Truly international
It's not just the Aussies that did well though - artists representing 10 countries (including Australia) featured in the poll. That makes it equal second as the most international countdowns in Hottest 100 history. The most multicultural poll was in 1994, when 11 nationalities were represented, and there have been 10 countries featured in 2004, 2012, and this year.