In case you’ve been living in a rock, in a coma, or otherwise incapacitated in some way over the past week, you’re probably aware that voting for the annual triple j Hottest 100, purportedly the world’s biggest fan-voted music poll, has opened.
If you’re anything like the vast majority of Australians (the ones we know, anyway), you’ve probably already handed in your votes. Those of us proud and lucky to be working at the Tone Deaf offices certainly have and it’s been the cause of much debate amongst staff.
In fact, it’s probably been the cause of a debate or two at your workplace or amongst your friends and family too. It’s more or less a foregone conclusion at this point that Flume, who’s having the biggest year of his career, is going to take out the top spot this year.
However, if we know anything about the Hottest 100 it’s that it doesn’t deal in foregone conclusions. Sure, the top spot is more or less a lock each year, but there’s always a viral campaign or something to do with Taylor Swift to throw a spanner in the works.
Whilst it’s still early days yet and the boffins who calculate the Warmest 100 or the Lukewarm 100 or whatever predictive chart with a clever name is going to be turning over the game board this year are still collating data or whatever it is they do, we’ve gone and put the feelers out.
See, all of this debate got us wondering about just how people are voting in the Hottest 100 this year, so we did a little snooping around the interwebs and the social media sphere to get a feel for how people are casting their votes and certain patterns are emerging.
Keep in mind that this is all totally anecdotal and unscientific and is based on a random sample of social media posts that we had the time to look at between our daily newsletter and the end of our lunch break, but we’re going on record now saying Flume is probably going to win the Hottest 100 this year or at least do very well.
The two big singles to be taken from his lauded Skin album — ‘Never Be Like You’ and ‘Say It’ — are pasted all over Instagram’s #Hottest100 hashtag, with ‘Never Be Like You’ just edging out ‘Say It’ by a hair.
This is hardly surprising seeing as ‘Never Be Like You’ is easily one of the biggest singles of the year, the biggest by an Australian artist, and is being smashed all over commercial radio, which like it or not, has a big impact on the Hottest 100.
We actually ran through a list of potential winners back in November and to our surprise, only a few of the tracks we thought were a shoo-in for the top 10 are nabbing a lot of votes, at least as var as our totally un-empirical study is concerned.
In terms of the pop world, The Weeknd’s collaboration with Daft Punk, ‘Starboy’, which we’ll say now is definitely one of the tracks that grew on us in 2016, is also copping a lot of votes, as is the latest offering from Peking Duk, ‘Stranger’ and Illy’s ‘Catch 22’.
Speaking of hip-hop, it looks like Allday may go from local favourite to breakout star in the new year. He’s been busying himself in the States these past few months, cooking up something in the lab, and his track ‘Sides’ is popular with Hottest 100 voters.
Like A Version covers normally make an appearance or two in the Hottest 100 and this year it looks as though voters have a special place in their hearts for DMA’s’s (DMA’s’? DMAs’s?) tender and heartfelt cover of Cher’s ‘Believe’.
Speaking of heartfelt and tender, the latest number from Childish Gambino, who’s rebranded himself a crooning soul singer a la Teddy Pendergrass, ‘Redbone’ will also be making an appearance, probably somewhere in the top 30.
In case you hadn’t heard, Tash Sultana is basically redefining what it means to have a breakout year and you can expect to see her track ‘Jungle’ make an appearance along with SAFIA’s ‘Make Them Wheels Roll’, Courtney Barnett’s ‘Three Packs a Day’, and Sticky FIngers’s ‘Sad Songs’, all of which are popular among voters.
And for the rock pigs out there lamenting the fact that triple j has (allegedly) turned its back on rock and roll and the Hottest 100 is overfilled with pop acts and hip-hop, the latest from The Smith Street Band, ‘Death to the Lads’, and Violent Soho’s massive ‘Viceroy’ will definitely make an appearance in the top 50.
Of course, all of this could be completely upturned by you, the voter, so get out there and cast your vote via the triple j website now. Oh, and whilst you’re there, chuck a few shekels in the direction of AIME, with whom triple j have partnered once again this year to help them reach 10,000 Indigenous students annually by 2018 and see them finishing school at the same rate as every Australian child.
