Triple j revealed the Hottest 100 songs of all time at the weekend with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit taking top honours in the countdown as voted by music fans across Australia. Twitter coverage of #Hottest100 was the top trend on the social networking website during the countdown, but an error meant the top ranking did not show up on the Twitter site at the time. The countdown even beat Michael Jackson as the most popular twitter topic internationally, for the duration of the countdown.
Presenter Robbie Buck has told radioinfo about his favourite songs in the list:
radioinfo: Were there any songs you expected to be in there that did not make it?
Buck: Well I did hope a few ladies might have made it, like P.J. Harvey, Bjork, Regina Spektor or Sarah Blasko. But besides that I didn’t anticipate any particular songs. Trying to second guess other peoples likes and dislikes is always fraught with danger I’ve found.
radioinfo: What are your favourite songs in this 100?
Buck: Oooh, that’s a hard one. I guess the song I did vote for, Bon Iver’s Skinny Love comes immediately to mind, but I love Jeff Buckley, Joy Division, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and David Bowie with a passion… oh and a little band called Nirvana strike me as pretty appealing too.
radioinfo: What song do you hate the most in the 100?
Buck: That’s a bit negative! I’d prefer to describe it as my least fave. So I guess if I had to choose one I’d probably have to nominate Daft Punk’s One More Time. Love the group, but I have real problems with auto tuning. But besides that I could listen to all the list until the cows come home.
This year’s music poll attracted over half a million votes, with the average voter age being 21 years old.
The rest of the Top 5 were: Rage Against The Machine Killing In The Name Of, Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Joy Division Love Will Tear Us Apart and at number 5 was Radiohead’s Paranoid Android.
Attracting the most chart positions, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead both scored four mentions and Dave Grohl appeared five times, outranking Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age. The highest polling Australian artist sits further down the chart at 17 with Adelaide Hip-hop trio Hilltop Hoods with their 2004 release Nosebleed Section.
Nirvana’s song dominated this year’s chart and in 1998.
Richard Kingsmill and Zan Rowe will be hosting a special Rage Hottest 100 Of All time countdown on Saturday August 8th, with a double CD available for purchase late in August, and a special wrap up of the event published in jmag.
7 of the top 10 tracks were released in the 1990s, two from the 1980s and one track released in the 1970s. There were no females in the top ten list.