While some readers will remember last year’s triple j Hottest 100 for Chet Faker’s absolute domination of the countdown, for others it likely went down as the year that whole Taylor Swift thing happened.
For those playing catch-up, last year’s countdown was somewhat overshadowed by a viral campaign launched by BuzzFeed to see pop superstar Taylor Swift’s hit ‘Shake It Off’ into the world’s biggest music poll.
The #tay4hottest100 campaign was a major point of controversy, with debate raging about whether or not Swift, an artist that has never been played on triple j, deserves a spot in the countdown if people vote for her.
Eventually, triple j simply disqualified ‘Shake It Off’ from the countdown, stating that since the song was the subject of a campaign by a large media company and a KFC competition, votes cast for the track weren’t legitimate.
Australia’s national youth broadcaster argued that they have a “right to remove artists from the list who have benefited from competitions or commercial campaigns that incentivise fans to vote for them”.
Now they’ve effectively enacted a ‘Taylor Swift clause’ that will ensure there won’t be any repeats of #tay4hottest100 or annoying imitators. As part of their 2015 voting rules, they’ve added some stipulations preventing voters from trolling the poll.
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“Don’t troll the poll,” the first of the new rules states. “Votes made as part of a competition that promotes a song or artist, or a campaign that undermines the Hottest 100 may be disqualified or ignored.”
triple j stress they want the poll to be legit, adding, “We want genuine votes, from genuine listeners. If we feel something’s preventing that from happening, we’ll look into it for you and take appropriate action.”
Voting for the Hottest 100 opened this morning so head on over to triple j’s official Hottest 100 portal to cast your votes now and don’t forget to leave a cold coin or two for this year’s official partner, AIME.
