Is just the same boring discourse every year. Turn a chart of popular music into a negative story. Everything is either too mainstream or doesn’t have enough influence on the mainstream.
News.com.au with the template of people complaining on Twitter that a music poll didn’t reflect their personal taste of obscure grunge. But 10 years ago the same news websites were complaining about a lack of Taylor Swift. The Daily Mail will be quoting MediaSpy insiders soon.
Ignore the complete lack of Australian music on commercial stations (outside of graveyard shifts) and the general globalisation happening via social media and streaming. Or the fact that commercial radio is targeting an older demographic than ever before and only playing Australian music when it’s a cover of Linger or Murder On The Dancefloor.
It’s all triple j’s fault that Nova is going to keep playing Capitol FM EDM, Ed Sheeran and Pink. And 2DayFM is going to play the hits of the 60’s, 90’s and 00’s.
And Tate McRae, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX… more recently Gracie Abrams and Royel Otis. It’s not about the song that came #1 - goodness knows that commercial radio has played Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) to death - but at the same time it’s no wonder people are finding it harder to discern between triple j and commercial CHR.
That, and 2024 was a nothing year for music. Artemas’ garbage TikTok song in the top 30? Shaboozey’s hideous attempt at recreating a song about teenage drinking at #19??
The countdown has always sounded rather mainstream, especially as you get closer to #1, but there was always that element of finding random gigs and discovering what could be the next big Indie band. And it’s not the usual rhetoric of “It’s you, you’re getting older”, I don’t think the newer generation is as interested in finding local bands. Blame inflation, Covid, whatever, it is what it is. If/when they do spend money, it’s usually on some big well known pop artist/group. Triple M listeners are probably more likely to head to venues and discover new talent.
Going by what I’ve read - as I’m not heavily into the Alternative music scene by any means - so many good Alternative/Indie bands that didn’t make it into the countdown, and I’d say that’s because it’s now become the TikTok algorithm hottest 100 instead.
I think the issue is triple j cannot be the only champion of Australian music. Hottest 100 voters aren’t necessarily triple j listeners. Maybe there has been a decline in triple j playing Australian music, I’m not sure of the statistics.
In general there is a decline in all media of Australian artists. ABC Local Radio has been playing less, the ARIA Awards are less relevant than ever, and every social media and streaming platform is foreign owned. Our local media would rather see the “ABC defunded”, as that Daily Mail story says, than actually provide an alternative. The solution is definitely not taking away triple j.
Globalisation, streaming and social media have pretty much killed off any difference in accessibility between local and international acts.
It came for the mainstream a while ago - now whatever is big in America tends to be big worldwide, whereas 20-25 years ago you’d have differences in what was big and charted across US/UK/Aus/NZ (i.e. the Robbie Williams movie and the US reaction to it is notable) and it’s harder to get noticed - less music journalism etc.
Now it seems that has trickled down to Triple J, which also hasn’t been helped by the cratering in the amount of rock bands/artists worldwide - which flows down to Australian artists.
I don’t even think it’s that, “popular” music is now heavily impacted by it trending on other platforms (as part of TikToks for instance). I don’t think a significant number of listeners particularly care where the artist comes from either.
This will be somewhat controversial, but I think we have a tendency to overvalue local music in order to keep the industry afloat at an artificially higher level than it possibly should rather than letting it find its own level and allowing it to stand on its own two feet. The drop in the number of Australian artists in the countdown should send a message that perhaps the tide is turning and the music isn’t resonating with listeners.
Totally. Australian exceptionalism is on the wane.
Australia’s changing. Spending the day with your mates listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 is no longer the cultural event it once was. And Triple J certainly doesn’t hold the same place on the cultural landscape that it once did. But having a significant reduction in the number of Australian artists in the 100 is a great way to grab some publicity.
I wonder how loaded with Australian acts the 101-200 will be tomorrow? That’ll be the real test.
I will admit I don’t really follow up and coming artist that much at the moment but. One question I would have about all this is, is there just not that much new music coming out with in the 12-month period from Australian artists compared to what comes from overseas?
I know it was mentioned to G-Flip during the countdown about her not having any new music last year. Ironic that it was a Tay Tay cover that plonked her in the countdown. But if G Flip had’ve had a new album that would have boosted the Aussie count by another 5-6 songs.
I’m not of the groupthink of going the NZ route of killing off the creative industry is a good idea. I want local jobs and industry, and identity. It should be supported wherever possible.
NZ music has been in a relatively good spot for 20 or so years now - different genres than what are popular in Australia and elsewhere but also artists that sound uniquely NZ.
Having the commercial radio target of 20% NZ airplay has helped, but other factors too. It’s not perfect but compared to TV, music is in a good space.
Where is all this NZ-made television (the moving image) then? The jobs? It’s dead due to deregulation and a lack of care for local content and jobs. I don’t want that same rational that is killing the UK industry as we speak.
Local content quotas are extremely important. For radio, television, and streaming.
Supporting local creative industries is important but we also need it to deliver quality local content, not simply filler to meet the quota.
TV quotas in Australia have spawned some bloody awful programming to allow networks to meet their quota requirements. Meanwhile, quality programming has lost out because we have some fairly archaic funding rules.
They aren’t perfect sure, but the alternative - no local media is fucking dreadful. I know box tick shows keep getting made and they suck, but a system with flaws that can be addressed is better than the alternative. I work in the industry and I have friends trying to get stuff made but unless it ticks a bunch of boxes for representation and inclusion it won’t get made unless you already have a huge profile. But that’s really beside the point.
I just honestly favour a local industry for stories and jobs. I don’t care how we get there, but for a country like Australia, quotas are the only realistic option.
No disagreement there - quotas are often the least worst option, we should be finding ways to ensure that it also generates quality. We’ve seen with Children’s Television that removing the quota requirement kills the sector almost instantly.
Better to have a few duds amongst some good work than to have no product at all. Let’s face it, every country makes good and bad programs. People look at all the good British and American programs we get and forget or are unaware of all the dregs we also may see or maybe never see.