Earlier today news broke that there was a concerted campaign underway to see Justin Bieber top Triple J’s annual Hottest 100 poll.
Currently the hashtag #bieber4hottest100 is gaining traction online, helped along through a promoted tweet by a betting agency and a tweet from Bieber himself which has received more than 15k retweets and 22k likes alone.
Tone Deaf reached out to Triple J this morning, and have now spoken exclusively with Meagan Loader, acting Triple Manager about the Bieber campaign.
“We want genuine votes from genuine listeners,” Loader told Tone Deaf. “It isn’t fair to triple j listeners or artists whose songs could be undermined when campaigns try to incentivise votes or troll the poll.”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” she continued. “If we feel the outcome of the Hottest 100 has been manipulated votes may be disqualified or ignored. You can check out our voting guidelines here.”
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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 Taylor Swift’s ‘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.
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For this year, Triple J have effectively enacted a ‘Taylor Swift clause’ for the forthcoming Hottest 100 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.
“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.”
Voting for the Hottest 100 is now open, 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.
