This Year’s Hottest 100 Is The Worst Result For Aussies In Almost Three Decades, So What Can We Do?

This year’s edition of triple j’s Hottest 100 is all wrapped up for another year, with Chappell Roan taking out the top spot with her sleeper hit, Good Luck, Babe!. But there’s one question that might be on everyone’s lips after the fact: Where are all the Aussies?

While that might seem a little foolish on face value given that the #2 spot belongs to Sydney’s Royel Otis and their globetrotting cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 hit Murder On The Dancefloor, it’s the rest of the poll that we’re specifically casting our eyes towards.

Looking at the entirety of the 2024 countdown, we’re greeted with the startling realisation that only 29 songs in the poll feature Australian acts – the worst showing for local talent since the 1996 poll. In fact, only the first two annual countdowns – 1993 and 1994 – are worse.

But let’s cast our minds back to 1993 for a moment. That was the year that Denis Leary’s funny-at-the-time-but-less-so-in-hindsight Asshole took out top honours, prevailing ahead of Radiohead’s Creep and The Cranberries’ Linger. In a top ten that also featured Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Blind Melon, The Breeders, U2, and the criminally-overlooked Atomic Swing, only one Australian track made it in – The Cruel Sea’s The Honeymoon Is Over, at #9.

That whole year only featured 24 Aussie tracks, with its closest local neighbour – The Cruel Sea’s Black Stick – all the way down at #21. But that’s okay, after all, the Hottest 100 was only new as an annual occurrence by this point, and with Leary in pole position, is such a poll really worth taking seriously?

The following year, things looked a little different. While The Cranberries moved up the podium to took it out thanks to their cut Zombie, they were closely pursued by Nine Inch Nails’ expletive-laden Closer and two consecutive showings from The Offspring – Self Esteem and Come Out And Play. But there in the top five was a local act; a nascent Silverchair with the groundbreaking Tomorrow.

This was more like it. Plus, the top ten got a bit of an expansion too. Alongside tracks from Nirvana, Veruca Salt, and Tom Jones (a worthy – if unexpected – addition, mind you), we also saw Max Sharam’s Coma at #8 and Severed Heads’ ‘94 remix of Dead Eyes Opened at #10. 

But even with more Aussies at the pointy end, the total amount was still only a paltry 26 for the entirety of the country. By this point, the countdown was beginning to grow in both size and legitimacy, and though still an underground sensation, the Aussie support was getting greater.

While the local representation grew to 30 in 1995 (thanks to Custard, Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue, and a back-to-back from TISM in the top ten), it was 1996 when Australians began to celebrate their own. 

After all, that was the year that Spiderbait gave us the first local track to top the poll with their cynical anthem Buy Me A Pony. Still, with only 29 locals in the mix, it was good, but not great. Local talent would again prevail when The Whitlams took No Aphrodisiac to the top in 1997, and in 1999, when Powderfinger’s These Days came in at #1, it coincided with a then-record showing of 52 Aussie acts in the poll.

This is a bit of a watershed moment for the countdown. This was when Aussies finally made up the majority, when the top three tracks were all Australian, and when listeners stood up and took control of the poll that was (ostensibly, to some) a chance to celebrate the local artists we love on Australian youth radio.

For a while though, that 52 number was the ceiling. It fluctuated quite a bit as the years went on, and though that record was matched in 2007, it wasn’t beaten until 2014 – the year that Chet Faker’s Talk Is Cheap topped the chart (and Taylor Swift was unceremoniously booted from the poll).

It was this countdown that kicked off a massive groundswell of support for Aussie acts. In fact, after 2014, it felt like the sky was the limit. No longer was 52 the unattainable goal, it was the minimum. 

In 2015, that number of locals fell to 54, but rose to 66 the next year. From 2017 until 2020, it was 65 Aussies on deck, before we hit 55, 57, and 52 across 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively.

Now, however, we come to 2024, where it’s fallen to its lowest in almost three decades. Of the 29 Australian tracks, only 18 artists make up that list: Amyl And The Sniffers, Ball Park Music, Dom Dolla, FISHER, G Flip, The Kid LAROI, Lime Cordiale, Mall Grab, Missy Higgins, Ocean Alley, Old Mervs, Pacific Avenue, The Rions, Royel Otis, The Rubens, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Spacey Jane, and Troye Sivan.

So what’s going on? Is it an issue with triple j itself? After all, 2024 is the first year to not feature Richard Kingsmill at the station since 1988. Has his absence and impact led to a drop in Australian acts?

Well, maybe not. After all, triple j’s music director Nick Findlay told The Guardian last week that the station does “consistently play well over 50% of Australian music every week” – more than its mandated quota of 40%. Findlay added that “8 out of the 10 most played artists on triple j were all local acts”, meaning that the station are certainly doing their part in promoting local music.

That really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise though. After all, it’s likely no coincidence that the number of Australian acts in the countdown began to rise following the launch of triple j’s Unearthed program in 1995. That year, its first artist – Grinspoon – debuted with Sickfest. In 1999, fellow Unearthed act Killing Heidi joined them on the charts, rocketing up to #2 with Weir, and being joined by The Tenants with You Shit Me To Tears to make up the first all-Aussie top three.

Numerous Unearthed acts have charted or even topped the countdown over the years, with the vast majority of locals in this year’s list having made their start on the now-online platform. However, out of all the Aussies on 2024’s poll, only The Rions were among the 50 most-played artists on triple j’s Unearthed radio.

So, if triple j’s Unearthed program is still going strong, still uncovering new artists, and pushing them to new heights on a daily basis, and if triple j are playing more local music than they’re even required to, then it must be a wider problem, right?

Well, we could be onto something there. Notably, ARIA released their year-end charts for 2024 this month, and it wasn’t a pretty sight for local names.

On the singles chart, only five tracks were locals. The highest of these was Vance Joy’s Riptide at #24, which ironically topped the Hottest 100 back in 2013 – becoming the first Unearthed artist to do so. Elsewhere, Cyril's remake of Stumblin' In is at #29; Dom Dolla's Saving Up is #50, and The Kid LAROI reaches #84 with Nights Like This and his Justin Bieber collab Stay at #96.

The albums charts weren’t much chop either. Only three Aussies were present, with Cold Chisel’s 50 Years at #44, The Kid LAROI’s The First Time at #67, and INXS’ The Very Best at #81.

Notably, these charts are front-stacked with plenty of international names. While Taylor Swift topped the year-end albums chart, Benson Boone leads the singles – with nine of the top ten being by American artists.

“A lack of Australian artists reflected in the end of year charts is unfortunately not new news,” ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd told The Music Network recently. “Given the long discourse between ARIA, the industry and media around this and what can be done to shift it, the annual chart result should come as no surprise.”

If local music isn’t impacting the ARIA charts, and not making as much of a splash on the Hottest 100, could the controversial argument therefore be raised that maybe Aussies are having a bit of a dry spell in terms of quality? Could it be that the music just isn’t translating to success?

Well, even then, that’s not the case. Notably, Royal Otis’ Like A Version cover of Murder On The Dancefloor has managed to make a splash on a global scale. Not only did it crack the Aussie top 40, but it charted in Canada, New Zealand, and even topped the US Alternative Airplay chart – the first Like A Version cover to do so.

Following the list further, Dom Dolla has recently been announced as a headliner for US festival Bonnaroo, G Flip has been selling out shows around the world, Amyl And The Sniffers are making waves in every country that hears their name, and The Kid LAROI and Troye Sivan are arguably some of Australia’s biggest pop exports in recent years.

So if Australian music is plentiful, in fine form, and also making waves elsewhere, perhaps the problem lies with… us?

In October, it was reported that when it comes to Australian music consumers, local music ranks #3 – making up only 9.2% of the music that is being streamed. Meanwhile, US artists make up 61.2% and UK artists are 16.6%, indicating that the problem lies within the music that we’re consuming independently.

This isn’t to say the issue lies at the feet of each and every consumer – after all, if you’re reading this then the chances are good you’re a fervent supporter of local music. But it’s the royal ‘we’ that is concerning.

So what do we do? How do we fix this issue? Obviously there’s a strong groundswell to support local music, to go to shows, and to buy merch from your favourite Australian artists, but maybe the answer could simply be to ensure you’re simply listening to as much local music as you can.

While royalties generated from streaming is another argument entirely, in the streaming age, it’s clear we need to be simply listening to as much local music as possible to give local music a platform to be heard.

Maybe instead of listening to new cuts from Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter (no matter how good they are), we need to hack our algorithm and switch to local acts all the time, thereby ensuring our annual Spotify Wrapped results are coloured with green and gold?

As ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd added, the discoverability and accessibility of local music appears to be the key.

“We absolutely want to see more Aussies on the charts and in addition to all that we are doing to help with discoverability, we are also looking at whether there are barriers in the chart methodology that may be holding Ausmusic back,” she told The Music Network. “It’s also important to acknowledge there will be a lag between all the initiatives that have been launched in 2024 with the support of federal and state governments to address the major structural issues and the rebuild for local music popularity.

“It will take time to see that investment impact deliver more streaming and discovery of local recordings.”

So while we might be questioning where the blame lies when it comes to triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown featuring its lowest number of artists in almost three decades, maybe it’s not a matter of specific blame? Maybe it’s about us fighting against the hurdles that are actively trying keep Australian music from being heard?

Despite claims from naysayers, triple j are doing their part to support local music; the artists are better than ever; and their impact is being felt. But it’s not translating to the charts, be it ARIA or Hottest 100. So maybe it’s up to us to force that change? And maybe it starts with switching off the big internationals in favour of the local underdogs?

Whatever the case, here’s hoping we won’t be having the same discussion after triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2025.