heute-und:
p-perez:
“Coming back to those artists that are being played on commercial stations elsewhere: Kanye West, Lily Allen, Ladyhawke, Cut Copy, the Presets…all of those acts were started by Triple J. All of those acts got their first airplay on Triple J. All of those acts have had absolute consistent airplay on Triple J – every one of their songs have hit the mark, and we’ve played every single album they’ve put out, or tracks thereof. Now, with the Sneaky Sound System stuff, we didn’t support them in the beginning. We felt like that band was going to go somewhere else. That band was designed for commercial radio. There was no need for us to go there.
So anyone that criticises us for not playing them – just because they’re Australian, just because they’re independent: fuck you.
They’re not right for us. We made the call, and we were right. Move on thanks, they’re popular, they’re getting played by everyone else. Did we need to go there? I am glad we never added them. We never playlisted them, because we gave all that attention to bands like Faker – and we saw what happened to them, five years after we supported them…and all of these other bands that were eventually groomed into being something else, and became popular.”
- Richard Kingsmall on why they don’t play Sneaky Sound System
I really recommend people go and read the full interview, despit it being a few weeks old, it does provide for some very insightful as to the mechanisms over Australia’s Youth station and what determines it’s music content. The indepth article also respondsto the many criticism that have been abounds since their “Golden Era” (for me it was the Paul Mac / Mikey Robbins to Adam Spencer era). I think those criticisms have become a little tiring and the station has gotton on it’s feet a bit more since then.
When people also bag the station out, I also sometimes like to rewmind them about the plight of the many regional centres in Australia who get serviced by horrible station playing Golden Oldies or the latest “Non-Stop-Block-Of Whatevers-On The Charts”.
Recommended read as well, if you haven’t. Particularly liked this…
“You know, we’ll admit when we’re wrong and when we’ve made the wrong judgments on them, but if anyone keeps on yabbering on to me about how we should’ve played Sneaky Sound System – and I’ve had this argument with Angus [McDonald – Sneaky’s songwriter/producer], I’ve emailed him and I’ve just said, “Pull your head in”. It’s just like, fuck, you’ve sold millions of records, and you’re popular – why are you whinging about us not playing you? They’re getting played everywhere. So fine – everywhere else can have them. They never felt right for us, so we never added them.
I think we were vindicated – they didn’t turn into Radiohead, as far as I know…”
I really can’t stand it when people give Triple J shit. Oh you are SO fucking cool. Sure, your listening needs may not be entirely met by the station, but know your history. Think about the station’s role in changing Australia’s appetite for indie music and think about how that has affected who bothers to tour Australia and then think about how both of those two consequences have the knock-on effect of opening up your ears/the ears of those in your peer group in a way that made you all seek out other more genre specific music that you now love. Then, take a moment to be grateful and THEN just STFU!
As a kid growing up BEFORE THE INTERNET (*gasp!*) in a small regional town of Australia where the record stores wouldn’t risk buying anything interesting enough for me to bother flicking through, Triple J radio and clips on late night Rage were almost entirely responsible for initially triggering my interests in good music and then seeking out more on my own via music publications like the NME.
Sure, I think it is fair to say that the Triple J of today is not entirely the same station of my youth, but I expect there is some considerable pressure to maintain a reasonable audience share so as to justify their continued funding and as a result I think the innovativeness of their playlists have been diluted somewhat over time by over-playing certain bands and tracks well after they have gained considerable airplay on commercial radio.
But all things considered, I don’t think we should lose sight of how fortunate Australians are to have a national youth radio station without commercial ties that is generally adventurous in its programming, both of the music and non-music variety (like Hack for example). I mean really. Think about how cool it was to have Australians across the nation and abroad all simultaneously glued to their radio/laptop during the recent Hottest 100 of All Time and tumblring/tweeting their thoughts in real time. It was fucking magical.
