Hottest 100 Voting Lists (found Australian radio station music poll; 1993-1999)
Cover of the 1993 edition of the Hottest 100 CD.
Status: Found
Date found: 2016
Found by: Unknown
The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual listener-voted music poll run by the Australian radio station Triple J. In recent years; it has grown to be the largest poll of its kind in the world. Starting in 1989, the station had no limitations to the songs being released, and as such, the first 3 years were a 'Hottest 100 of All Time'. After Joy Division had won twice in a row, then Nirvana got 3 songs in the top 3 in 1991, the station realized there wasn't much diversity involved in the countdown and changed the format.
After a break in 1992, the countdown returned in 1993, but the rules had changed so that only songs released in that year were allowed to be voted for. From 1993 until 1999, the songs that were eligible to be voted for were printed in music publications, and on large posters which were then distributed to music stores, concert venues, or other locations where the voting public could see it. The songs could then be voted for by either writing into the station or voting via phone. This practice ceased in 2000 with the advent of internet voting, leading to the voting lists being released online each year afterward.
Despite the immense popularity of the countdown, there was little to no information on the lists from the 90's until recently. Sometime in early 2016, one of the moderators for the Hottest 100 fan site launched a campaign after seeing an image from ToneDeaf that displayed the '93 list in a seemingly public location. Either the campaign was successful, or the moderators found the lists via some other means such as the Wayback Machine, as all of the lists from the 90's are available for viewing on the fan site (which can be found here).