Triple J - Hottest 100 of All Time - best artists by decade?

Welcome to the third post - where we look at the best artists for each decade. I'm just listing the top five for each decade.

1960s

The Beatles

The Rolling Stones

Jimi Hendrix

The Beach Boys

Bob Dylan

No real surprises there.

1970s

Pink Floyd

Led Zeppelin

Queen

John Lennon

Elton John

Ok - but I would have given the nod to The Clash (#6) or Bowie (#7) over the Johns.

1980s

Michael Jackson

AC/DC

Joy Division

Metallica

Hunters & Collectors

With the Pixies (#6), New Order (#7), G'n'R (#8) and Crowded House (#9) this constitutes a pretty diverse group - and the first appearance of Aussie / Kiwi artists.

1990s

Radiohead

Jeff Buckley

Nirvana

Smashing Pumpkins

Pearl Jam

Add RATM (#6), Tool (#7), Massive Attack (#8), RHCP (#9) and Foo Fighters (#10) for a pretty awesome bunch of artists. Possibly less diverse than the 80s - but certainly "weightier".

2000s

Powderfinger

Daft Punk

Hilltop Hoods

Muse

White Stripes

Killers (#6), Bloc Party (#7), QoTSA (#8)? I think think the pickings are much slimmer than any of the previous decades.

Are we treading water until the next explosian of creativity? Will we look back on the 2000s as a bit of a musical desert? Or will other great songs / artists from the 2000s be discovered / remembered with more time to reflect? Or is the Age of Rock passing, like the Elves from Middle Earth?

Triple J - Hottest 100 of All Time - best decade?

Welcome to the second post, in which we look at release dates of songs in the Hottest 100. Given the youth demographic targeted by JJJ, I was expecting a high proportion of songs in the 00s (especially as we are nearly at the end of the decade), with less and less songs for each preceding decade.

Here's the results by number of songs:

1960-9: 8

1970-9: 11

1980-9: 15

1990-9: 44

2000-9: 22

Here's the weighted results:

1960-9: 7%

1970-9: 10%

1980-9: 16%

1990-9: 50%

2000-9: 17%

Nothing before the 60s - probably not that surprising as material by the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix etc resonates to contemporary listeners in a way that earlier music doesn't.

But the overwhelming dominance of the 90s is surprising - especially as the 00s are only approximately as popular as the 80s. From the 90s back popularity tails off as expected.

Here are a few possible explanations:

1. Better music

Was the music released in the 90s just better than more recent music? The 90s gave us Nirvana, RATM, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, RHCP. (Not to mention Massive Attack, Pearl Jam, Tool.) That's an amazing roster. While some of those artists are still creatively active, their breakthroughs were in the 90s.

Will Bloc Party, Muse, White Stripes, Powderfinger, The Killers (or QoTSA and John Butler) be more or less relevant in ten years time? Without detracting at all from these artists, in my view, with the exception of Muse, the 90s list is far more impressive.

In my next post I'll develop this theme more and look at best artists by decade.

2. JJJ Demographic

Maybe the Triple J demographic is older than I thought. Radio is decidedly old school after all. The youth demographic has media choices that didn't exist 15 years ago.

3. Activism

Maybe listeners who were in their teens and early 20s during the 90s are more active (i.e. more likely to vote) than those currently in that age group.

There are various other permutations. What are your views?

Triple J - Hottest 100 of All Time - best artist?

Welcome to my first post.

I love quantitative analysis and music. So lists of musical "best ofs" are heaven for me.

In the next few posts I will be looking at the recently published Triple J - Hottest 100 of All Time.

So, who was the best artist?

Here are the results. (See below for the methodology.)

1. Radiohead

2. Jeff Buckley

3. Nirvana

4. The Beatles

5. Smashing Pumpkins

6. Powderfinger

7. Metallica

8. Pearl Jam

9. Michael Jackson

10. Pink Floyd

Looks fairly promising as a top ten. I could live with that as a desert island selection.

11. Rage Against the Machine

12. Tool

13. Led Zeppelin

14. Massive Attack

15. AC/DC

16. Daft Punk

17. The Rolling Stones

18. Joy Division

19. Queen

20. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Well that pretty well ticks all the boxes for me. As an overview of rock music I think that's as good a twenty artists as you could get.

There is, however, a decided lack of funk - the late King of Pop being the closest thing. Although the influence permeates many of the other artists - particularly the Chilis.

21. Foo Fighters

22. John Lennon

23. Oasis

24. The Verve

25. Hilltop Hoods

26. Muse

27. White Stripes

28. Hunters & Collectors

29. Pixies

30. Jimi Hendrix

Fair enough - although I think Hendrix really deserves to be in the top 20. And I'd probably swap Muse for Tool for cerebral contemporary heavy rock.

31. New Order

32. Silverchair

33. The Living End

34. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

35. The Killers

36. Bloc Party

37. The Beach Boys

38. Queens of the Stone Age

39. Faith No More

40. John Butler Trio

41. Beastie Boys

42. Guns'n'Roses

43. Crowded House

44. You Am I

45. The Cure

46. Bob Dylan

47. Augie March

48. Johnny Cash

49. Blur

50. Nine Inch Nails

Oops - how could I forget about Bob Dylan - thought he should have placed higher.

51. Violent Femmes

52. Underworld

53. Elton John

54. Ben Folds Five

55. Blink 182

56. The Prodigy

57. The Smiths

58. The Shins

59. The Clash

60. Green Day

61. The Stone Roses

62. Gotye

63. David Bowie

64. Pulp

65. System of a Down

66. Placebo

67. Bob Marley & The Wailers

68. The Dandy Warhols

69. Coldplay

70. Kings of Leon

71. Bon Iver

72. Modest Mouse

73. Stevie Wonder

74. Midnight Oil

75. TV on the Radio

76. Franz Ferdinand

That's it. What do you think were the major omissions? For me its the low representation of funk/soul/R&B/hip hop artists. But if we accept it as the Hottest 100 ROCK Songs of All Time, its pretty good.

Thanks JJJ for running the survey and providing us music geeks with plenty to play with.

Peace.