Why Triple J was dumb not to play Taylor Swift

I’VE been a loyal listener of Triple J for the best part of 15 years. As a teenager growing up in country NSW, it was the only place you could turn to for new, quality music. And as a loyal listener, the Hottest 100 countdown is always a big day.

As a teen, I’d listen along to the broadcast every Australia Day while locked in an intense table tennis battle with my brother. Today, my mates and I always get together for a barbie, some drinks and to try and pick the No.1 song.

So, as a big fan of the Hottest 100, I think Triple J made a big mistake in the way it handled the #Tay4Hottest100 campaign when it excluded Shake It Off from the countdown yesterday.

Website Buzzfeed kicked off a campaign a few weeks ago in an attempt to land the uber-popular track in the chart, which is usually reserved for more alternative tracks.

RELATED: Taylor Swift disqualified from Hottest 100

There was a blank space on the Hottest 100 countdown where Triple J scrubbed out Tay Tay’s name. Source: Supplied

Triple J took exception to a multinational site fiddling with the voting as part of what it saw as a cynical “clickbait-fest”.

But it’s fair to say that the push to include Shake It Off in the countdown went way beyond Buzzfeed.

The discussion around the Taylor Swift campaign made yesterday’s Hottest 100, the 22nd, one of the most highly anticipated in its history.

Triple J was silent on the topic as the campaign gathered steam. There were reports that an internal memo forbade the on-air talent from saying anything on the topic.

Finally, when the countdown went to air at noon yesterday, DJ Lewis McKirdy announced that the song would not be appearing in the Hottest 100 — before the first song in the countdown had even been played.

The station set up a website, a spot-on takeoff of a GIF-laden Buzzfeed listicle, to explain its decision. The station’s reasons included that it wasn’t keen to feed trolls who were out to “teach those music snobs a lesson” and “prod some ‘hipsters’ for the lulz”.

Triple J's Buzzfeed-style list of why Taylor Swift didn’t make the list. Source: Supplied

I can totally see where Triple J is coming from but, for me, their decision to bar Tay Tay from the list was a monumental missed opportunity.

Rightly or wrongly, it’s likely a large chunk of the people who voted for Shake It Off were not regular Triple J listeners. But while some commentators saw that as a good reason to exclude the song, I think these Triple J newbies would have tuned in to see how the song fared.

Triple J’s mock site said the song would have come in at number 12. Had they tuned in at the kick-off of the countdown, the army of Swifties would have been listening for at least seven hours before hearing their beloved track.

That’s seven hours that the fans could have spent being introduced to the cream of Aussie independent music. Who knows, the station may have even picked up some new listeners.

But in nixing the chances of the song in minute one of the countdown, the station missed that chance.

A legion of loyal listeners thanked the station for their decision, but it missed the chance to welcome anyone new.

T-Swizzle’s Twitter shout-out to her Aussie fans. Source: Twitter

One of the reasons that Triple J cited for disqualifying the track was that the campaign was kicked off by a multinational website with the aim of shaming “hipsters”.

Fair point I guess, but excluding the track only serves to confirm the elitism and musical snobbery the station is accused of.

Why not simply play the track to have a laugh at themselves? Why not show that you have a sense of humour about yourself?

The station was evidently keen to protect the integrity of the countdown and of the voting system.

But let’s face it. The Hottest 100 isn’t the federal election. It’s a music poll. That Pretty Fly For A White Guy once won.

Shake It Off may not be a traditional “Triple J” song (what is?), but it’s certainly super catchy and transcended its pop roots to be The Song Of 2014. And, if you really drill down on it, Shake It Off is about kicking against the pricks and having a laugh about yourself at the same time.

Triple J could have done that if it chose to play the song yesterday.

Ultimately, Triple J, while you’ve been getting down and out about the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world, you could’ve been getting down to this sick beat.

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

Feel free to agree or disagree (or, let’s face it, troll) in the comments below or tweet @newscomauHQ.

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