2015 Hottest 100 Predictions

Yet another chance to display my lack of prognostication skills...

A History of my Triple J Hottest 100 votes

In hindsight, I've made some bad decisions....

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #94

Some of the most prolific Hottest 100 artists have placed at #94. Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Spiderbait, U2, The White Stripes, You Am I all have 10 or more Hottest 100 entries (and The Wombats have a good chance to join this group after the 2015 countdown).

Triple J's Hottest 100 - votes 2015

My final votes for the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2015...

How does the Hottest 100 stack up with the Triple J album polls

The dust has settled on Triple J's listener's album poll for 2015, with Tame Impala's Lonerism placing ahead of the J Award winning Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit from Courtney Barnett.

So to what extent does this give us an indication of how the pointy end of the Hottest 100 will pan out?

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #95

Looking at the Hottest 100 position by position, sees a few noteworthy occurrences at #95:

• The second instance of an artist having two songs place at a position (Placebo in 2003 and 2004) (joining the The Cat Empire with two at #100)
• The second instance of a cover of a song to have made the Hottest 100 to also place in the Hottest 100 (Frank Bennett's lounge music cover of Radiohead's "Creep" joining Mr Little Jeans' cover of "The Suburbs")
• The second instance of a song that would feature across multiple Hottest 100s

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #96

Looking at the songs to have placed at #96, I finally rank a song from the '90s first...

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #97

Going through the Hottest 100 position by position sees the strongest group of tracks thus far at #97, having voted for more than a third of these artists previously (yet none of the songs listed here). It also sees some example of artists that have a sizable fanbase, but for which I am much more hit and miss.

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #98

#98 sees a couple of examples of songs growing on me (from genres that aren't my normal taste), along with songs that I would expect to miss out in a hindsight vote, or at least be overshadowed by others within the artist's discography.

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #99

The #99 position sees one of my least favourite songs to make the Hottest 100, along with three tracks that made my voting list at the time. This has resulted in different reactions each time, from the "why is it only at #99, it should be much higher!" during the early 00s, to "at least one of the songs that I voted for has made it" reaction of more recent years.

Ranking the Hottest 100s - #100

I have previously touched on the best of the songs to have placed at #100 in the Hottest 100, and my opinion hasn't changed too much since then.

Looking at the list there's some clear themes going on amongst these songs/artists:

• Popular artists with songs on compilations (Muse; Foo Fighters)
• Artists with thrid or forth songs that year sneaking in to the list (The Cat Empire x 2; Powderfinger; Coldplay)
• Covers/reimaging (yep, I'm linking Van Morisson and Mr Little Jeans)
• Generally, expect male vocals to start off the countdown (17/22 - how well this compares will become more apparent as I develop the project

Ranking the Hottest 100s

Hottest 100 Day is one of my favourite days of the year. The radio up loud, drink in hand, and often complaining bitterly about how the awesome songs that I voted for never made the list. The other complaint that goes hand in hand with the Hottest 100 is about how "it used to be so much better", followed by the inevitable counter-argument that "East17 or Madonna or Adam Sandler or whoever else have featured so it's always been like that".

I've decided to put this to the test. Rather than focusing just on the pointy end of the list, or by looking at my favourites from the countdown, I'll compare each song within its placing.  That is, for example, ranking all of the songs that placed at #100, all of the songs that places at #99. By looking at every song that has featured in the Hottest 100, I'll get a feel for how much (if at all) the quality has changed over time, using a few different models to compare the lists.

J Awards

2015 marks the 10th anniversary (11th edition) of Triple J's annual J Award. Instituted ostensibly to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Triple J, the award forms part of Triple J's recognition of Australian music.

With the benefit of hindsight, how well have winners fared? And (more egotistically), how do they compare to my favourites?