Triple J is an institution of Australian youth culture and more broadly speaking Australia as a whole. Plenty of kids go through their teen years discovering their new favourite Aussie artists listening to the J’s. The station has had such a rich history of discovering and nurturing young local artists they are now considered one of the most important broadcasters in the world. Yet, as last week’s outlash at Courtney Barnett’s J Award win proved, some people are just haters. It seems a favourite pass time of some is to bash the national broadcaster, which in truth is a bizarre thing to do. Why would anyone picket an entity that makes a point of playing good Aussie music?
Whether it’s Barnie winning the J Award gold or the Hottest 100 not being up to scratch, the people seem to love a good triple J bashing. Here are 4 reasons it has to stop.
Proud to be Aussie
A good chunk of music on triple J’s rotation is Australian. Their minimum is 40% Australian content. Meanwhile, other stations stick to minimums of 5% to 25%. So when we see comments on Barnett’s win that read “RIP Aus music“, it’s just plain moronic. There is a plethora of Aussie music played on the J’s you don’t hear anywhere else. They literally just had a month of Australian music on rotation. Not to mention triple J Unearthed, who has given thousands of young Aussie artists a break into the music scene and the opportunity reach a new audience. If you’re a keyboard warrior set on championing Aussie music on radio, try picketing one of those other stations as well.
A diverse taste in genre
Let’s be honest, the majority of commercial radio, and in some cases community radio, play the same brand of music. Whether it be trashy, auto-tuned filth on KISS FM or dragging the bloated corpse of rock through the dust at Triple M, a lot of radio stations stick to the one trick. Which is fine if you want to listen to the one thing over and over again, go knock yourself out, it’s great that there are stations for that (or you know, Spotify). But the truth is the J’s have a diverse selection of genres on rotation that goes beyond rock and pop. Discovering Parkway Drive ten years ago on Short. Fast. Loud and Urthboy on The Hip-Hop show have been things this fan is grateful for, and to be honest wouldn’t have been able to find anywhere else.
Unwavering support for all artists
There was a lot of accusations of nepotism following Barnett’s J Award win. Many cried out that the likes of Tame Impala and Gang of Youths were robbed. We guess since she took home a wheelbarrow full of ARIAs last night means she somehow bribed the recording association as well (cough*sarcasm*cough). The reality is triple J has shown love to all of those bands nominated for awards and then some. Not just through airplay, but through promoting tours, getting behind festivals and putting on a few of their own as well. Last we checked there weren’t many other national broadcasters doing the same.
If you don’t like it, that’s fine
Don’t dig Barnie? It’s cool man. Think Taylor Swift was robbed of her spot on the Hottest 100? She probably isn’t fussed being one of the wealthiest musicians on the planet right now. The truth is triple J isn’t meant to be an iron clad representative of what Australia’s youth is into. At the end of the day they’re still people making the decisions behind the scenes, and music is an emotional thing to deal with. We know from putting together the Happy Top 50 for 2015 that selecting the ‘best’ music is an agonising process. So don’t be up in arms about it. If you’re not into it, just plug your earphones in and press play on Let It Happen until the world feels right again.
If you don’t agree with the above, then just switch to Nova.
Or you can just live under a rock.
