Where Are All The Australian Artists On The ARIA Charts?

Looking at the top ten albums of the ARIA Top 50 Albums, it’s easy to find cause to celebrate: Troye Sivan’s Something To Give Each Other is #8 on the chart.

While the album has fallen seven places from its #1 debut, new releases from The Rolling Stones (#1), Blink-182 (#2), and the impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour film and yesterday’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) release have seen her climb up the chart (Midnights, #5, Lover, #7).

The next Australian album appears at #36, and it’s punk rockers Clowns with their excellent new LP, Endless. And the third and final Australian album appears at #49, and it’s a soundtrack (Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story - Music From The Feature Documentary).

The Top 50 Singles Chart tells a similar story, with only five Australian songs snapping up places, three of them being Troye Sivan tracks – One Of Your Girls at #24, Got Me Started at #31, and Rush at #41, and one of them ten-years-old (Vance Joy’s Riptide, #22).

However, there is cause for optimism. The Kid LAROI might change things with his collaborative track with Jungkook and Central Cee, Too Much, which debuted at #10. And with his album The First Time coming next month (10 November) and a new single, What Just Happened, which dropped yesterday, he could soon be dominating charts all over again.

Meanwhile, of the Top 20 ARIA Australian Artists Singles, only six of them were released this year, and three of them belong to Troye Sivan. The other tracks are Too Much at #1, Atmosphere by Fisher and Kita Alexander (#9), and Give You Love by Jessica Mauboy and Jason Derulo (#13).

Most baffling of all the statistics here is Vance Joy’s Riptide holding spots on the ARIA Charts – it’s also #2 on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Singles Chart.

As of 24 October, Riptide was one of 14 Australian tracks to chart this year, per a recent The Age report.

In May, The Music’s Jeff Jenkins explored the issues we still see on the ARIA Charts as Peach PRC debuted at #1 with her debut EP, Manic Dream Pixie. Her record was the only local entry in that week’s Top 40.

As well as the single Australian entry, the early May Top 40 featured 26 albums by American artists, nine by UK acts, three by Canada’s The Weeknd and one by Dutch DJ Tiësto.

And for the third week in a row, there wasn’t a single Australian song in ARIA’s Top 40.

Is Alex Cameron, founder of record label Endless Recordings and guitarist of Bad//Dreems, correct when suggesting that the ARIA Charts are “a reflection of what the majority of the population is being exposed to”, “very safe, very non-challenging” music? If so, what can we do to shift the dial in favour of Australian artists and their new music?