Now more than a year old, Triple J’s national youth digital radio station, Triple J Unearthed, is celebrating its 18 months of existence, and a very successful 2012, by revealing a list of the stations’ Top 50 most played artists of 2012, a combination of “feature artists, competition winners, and artists chosen by our guest programmers,” reads the website.
Topping the list is South Australian hip hop artist Purpose, which demonstrates that Triple J remains a keen supporter of the genre in all its forms in its rise and rise in popularity over the last decade. Coming in behind the Adelaide emcee is fellow South Australian rock quartet Bad Dreems, with the pair making up half of the four acts from the Southern state to make the Top 50, alongside Indigenous artist Jimblah at #31, and electro-hop act Koolta #41.
Well, four-and-a-half if you include City of Churches resident Travis Cooke, of interstate soultronica collaborators Collarbones, who claim the #5 position on the list.
Victoria’s musicians took the lion’s share of representation on the list, with 16 artists making the Top 50 cut; including familiar names like dual-drumming rockers Money For Rope (ranked at #15), soul-certified 9 piece Saskwatch (#38), and forthcoming SXSW 2013 attendees Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes (#34).
Another artist jetting to the Austin, Texas industry conference, who also makes the Top 50 as the 48th most played artist on the digital radio station for 2012, is The Trouble With Templeton. The cinematic sounding five-piece are also one of seven acts that were also named as part of Triple J’s Next Crop – a list of artists set to ‘break’ in 2013.
The list of Triple J ‘hot tips’ – that also feature in Unearthed’s Top 50 most played – includes NSW hip hop/electronic act Jackie Onassis (at #22), Western Australian indie band Stillwater Giants (#28), hip hop maestro Ta-ku (#42), Bored Nothing aka Melburnian Fergus Miller (#47); and two more names that rank in the Top 10 – QLD/NSW pairing Mr Hill & Rahjconkas ranked at #6 and at #4, Sticky Fingers, the band that Sydney’s Annandale Hotel is bribing Triple J Hottest 100 voters with a $15,000 bar tab with should the Sydney four-piece take out the annual music poll this year.
As FasterLouder points out, rock is rather under-represented on the list, with just ten bands identifying themselves under the genre, while none categorise themselves as ‘punk’ or ‘metal’ in the Top 50. The catch-all ‘indie’ slot dominates the list with 30 bands under the umbrella label, while 19 more call themselves ‘pop’, 14 ‘hip-hop’ and 12 more as ‘electronic’.
Interestingly the list shares little in common with the tastes of Tone Deaf readers, with none of the five acts making up the Best New Artist category in our annual poll – including The Murlocs, Hiatus Kaiyote, Courtney Barnett, Flume, and poll winners Kingswood – making an appearance. Though Money For Rope, the 15th most played act of 2012 on Triple J’s list, also appeared on Tone Deaf’s list, with their self-titled debut ranking at #4 on the Top 5 Australian Albums of the year category.
You can view Triple J Unearthed’s full list below:
Triple J Unearthed Top 50 Most Played Artists Of 2012
1. Purpose – SA (Hip hop)
2. Bad Dreems – SA (Indie, Rock)
3. Runforyourlife – VIC (Hip hop, Electronic)
4. Sticky Fingers – NSW (Indie, Pop)
5. The Preatures – NSW (Rock, Pop)
6. Mr Hill & Rahjconkas – NSW/QLD (Hip hop, Indie)
7. Collarbones – SA/NSW (Electronic, Indie)
8. Tinpan Orange – VIC (Indie, Roots)
9. Them Swoops – VIC (Indie, Pop)
10. Argentina – QLD (Indie, Pop)
11. Drop Frame – WA/VIC (Dance, Electronic)
12. Pigeon – QLD (Dance, Pop)
13. Winter People – NSW (Rock, Indie)
14. Remi – VIC (Hip hop, Indie)
15. Money For Rope – VIC (Rock, Pop)
16. Cub Scouts – QLD (Pop, Indie)
17. YesYou – QLD (Dance, Pop)
18. Rainy Day Women – WA (Indie, Pop)
19. Wolfwolf – QLD (Electronic, Dance)
20. Tigertown – NSW (Pop, Indie)
21. Sun City – WA (Pop, Electronic)
22. Jackie Onassis – NSW (Hip hop, Electronic)
22. Art Of Sleeping – QLD (Indie, Rock)
24. Vegas Aces – QLD (Hip hop, Indie)
24. The Fabergettes – NSW (Indie, Rock)
26. Ry – VIC (Hip hop, Indie)
27. The Griswolds – NSW (Indie, Pop)
28. Stillwater Giants – WA (Pop, Indie)
29. Taxidermy Hall – VIC (Electronic, Pop)
30. Death Starrs – QLD (Hip hop)
31. Jimblah – SA (Indigenous, Hip hop)
32. Lurch & Chief – VIC (Indie, Rock)
33. Dirt Farmer – VIC (Pop, Indie)
34. Jeremy Neale – QLD (Pop, Indie)
34. Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes – VIC (Roots, Indie)
34. Bloods – NSW (Indie, Punk)
37. Palms – NSW (Indie, Rock)
38. Saskwatch – VIC (Indie, Pop)
39. Seven – NSW (Hip hop, Electronic)
39. Axolotl – VIC (Indie, Electronic)
41. Koolta – SA (Hip hop, Electronic)
42. Ta-ku – WA (Hip hop, Electronic)
43. The Belligerents – QLD (Dance, Pop)
43. Rainman – QLD (Hip hop)
45. Allday x C1 – VIC (Hip hop)
45. Coach Bombay – VIC (Pop, Indie)
47. Bored Nothing – VIC (Indie, Rock)
48. The Trouble With Templeton – QLD (Indie, Rock)
49. Oliver Tank – NSW (Electronic)
50. Tokyo Denmark Sweden – NSW (Indie, Dance)
