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Ben Lee is no stranger to the transformative power of Triple J’s Hottest 100, having twice finished in the top two of the annual countdown.
First, in 1998, his track Cigarettes Will Kill You came second to The Offspring’s Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), while Catch My Disease finished behind Bernard Fanning’s Wish You Well in the 2005 poll.
Should Triple J’s Hottest 100 be limited to Australian artists only? Ben Lee thinks so.Credit: James Brickwood
But on the eve of Triple J’s voting deadline for the Hottest 100 of Australian songs, with audiences encouraged to vote for their favourite ever homegrown tracks, the musician believes the public broadcaster could be doing more to support local talent.
Posting to Instagram earlier this week, Lee outlined his vision for a new and improved Hottest 100.
“I reckon the Hottest 100 every year should only be eligible to vote for Australian songs,” Lee said. “There’s enough platforms around the world for international music.”
Lee’s idea comes after last year’s Hottest 100, won by American artist Chappell Roan with Good Luck, Babe. The 2024 poll is the third-lowest-ever showing for local talent, behind the first two in 1993 and 1994 (and equal to 1996).
“It’s easy to get complacent and be like, ‘Triple J does so much more for Australian music than other commercial stations.’ And that’s true, but it shouldn’t really be judged by the same standards as a commercial enterprise,” Lee said. “It’s like going, ‘Medicare does so much for Australian healthcare.’ Well, yeah, that’s the point.”
Social media has been inundated with users sharing their top Australian songs (even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese got in on the act). While Lee maintains seeing people voting for his songs is “incredibly moving,” a one-off celebration of Australian music falls short.
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“It’s a bit of a snooze-fest, if I’m honest,” he says. “It’s not me, Missy Higgins and Powderfinger that need a leg-up at the moment. So it feels like an attempt to relive the glory days without addressing the issue.”
Lee adds: “Triple J should give the Hottest 100 to Kyle and Jackie O, let commercial radio run it nationally as a pop mainstream phenomenon and Triple J’s business should be the Australian Hottest 100.”
Triple J has a mandate to play 40 per cent Australian music, a target that music director Nick Findlay claims it exceeds.
“We consistently play well over 50 per cent of Australian music weekly,” Findlay said.
The station is tailored towards young people, for whom streaming is the primary method of consuming music. Eight in 10 Gen Z Australians hold a music subscription service, while seven in 10 Millennials do.
The numbers speak to Triple J’s existential problem: young people don’t listen to radio and streaming is dominated by algorithms that boost overseas acts.
According to Nick Kelly, co-host of The Hot Hits with Nic & Loren on 2DAYFM, changing the format of The Hottest 100 would damage the station’s relationship with younger demographics.
“The direction Triple J has gone in the last five years playing more pop music, engaging with the zeitgeist, leveraging their massive social following online is all with the view to meet that demographic where they are,” he says. “So to abandon that now would be a backwards step.”
“My suggestion would be to start something new, maybe the top 20 countdown of the best Australian songs of the year, and that would sit alongside the current Hottest 100, rather than replacing it,” he says.
Glenn Richards, frontman of Augie March, whose hit One Crowded Hour ranked top of the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2006, agrees. “It’s not what the Hottest 100 was about when it started, and I don’t believe changing it will suddenly open up people’s ears to Australian music.”
Augie March’s One Crowded Hour topped the 2006 Hottest 100 countdown.
“When we won it, we were tiny, and we’re still tiny, whereas the Australian bands that make the Hottest 100 are generally pretty massive acts now.”
According to Kelly, delivering audiences more opportunities to discover new music will provide a path forward. “Triple J is so good at fostering community with the countdown model, people get excited by it, they engage on social media,” he says.
In response to questions about whether the station would consider altering the format of the Hottest 100, head of Triple J Lachlan Macara said: “Seeing local artists hold their own next to huge international names is part of what makes the Hottest 100 so special. It’s a reflection of what Australians love and connect with but backing in homegrown artists is ultimately a team sport, and we would love to see even more platforms supporting and prioritising Australian artists.”
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.
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