I thought it might be timely to consider what my favourite songs of 2010 were. After much thought, I have compiled my list of my top 10 favourite songs of the past year.

Musically, things have been changing for me for some time. Where once I spent almost all my radio hours listening to Triple J, I now spend much more time listening to talk-back, so my musical exposure is somewhat reduced.

My tastes have also been slowly changing. Whilst I used to enjoy rock as much as dance/electronic, I now hear fewer and fewer rock songs that impress. I was surprised to note that two hip-hop songs have made it into my list because hip-hop is a genre that I have traditionally disliked.

In choosing these ten songs, I know that I have my own biases towards upbeat tunes and I tend to favour female voices. I also prefer musical richness and complexity over simplicity. Of course, this is a list of songs I like, rather than any attempt to provide an objective assessment of musical quality.

Number 1: Georgia Fields “Something Borrowed, Something Blue” (Australia)

Georgia Fields is a new artist discovered on Triple J’s Unearthed. To my knowledge, this song has had no commercial airplay, but Fields has the most beautiful voice and I am sure her musical career will blossom in the future.

Number 2: Art versus Science “Magic Fountain“ (Australia)

This song is distinctive, memorable and has an epic storytelling quality. The video clip is great fun, too!

Number 3: Danny Byrd feat. I-Kay “Ill Behaviour” (England)

This high-energy drum-and-bass tune is absolutely bursting with energy! I love the club vibes in this song….

Number 4: Mark Ronson & The Business International “The Bicycle Song” (England)

Mark Ronson’s Bicycle Song is just good fun, and whilst I am not overly keen on the rap in the middle, it suits the rest of the tune.

Number 5: Sia Furler “Bring Night” (Australia)

Sia’s voice is as distinctive as her music. This feelgood pop-rock song always brings a smile to my face upon listening to it.

Number 6: Illy feat. Owl Eyes “It Can Wait” (Australia)

I am not a fan of hip-hop, but sometimes a hip-hop song stands out and this is one of those. The inner-urban rhymes of Illy, who hails from Melbourne, are beautifully complimented by the rich vocals of Owl Eyes. Australian hip-hop has now fully matured, and Illy and Owl Eyes bring a valued local voice to this American genre.

Number 7: Martin Solevig feat. Dragonette “Hello” (France)

I just love listening to this up-beat song from France and I am not even sure why!

Number 8: The Jezabels “Hurt Me” (Australia)

This is a gentle and soulful song, distinguished by the strong vocals of 24-year-old singer Hayley Mary.

Number 9: Ganga Giri “Bayami” (Australia)

Ganga Giri features several indigenous band members, and their contemporary music is highly influenced by Australian aboriginal sounds. I only heard this song played once on Triple J and it became an instant favourite.

Unfortunately there is no YouTube clip, but you can listen to the song via http://gangagiri.bandcamp.com/track/bayami-radio-edit

Number 10: Crystal Castles “Baptism” (Canada)

This energetic but angry dance track is full of passion, and had a distinctive sound. The video clip is awful but the music is good.

After much consideration, those above constitute my favourite songs of 2010. But there are two more ‘awards’ I’d like to issue.

The first is for “Best Video Clip”, and I have split the award between Art vs Science for “Magic Fountain” and Sydney rapper Dialectrix for his song “Pieces of a Puzzle”.

The second award is for “Worst Song of 2010”.

I hear many songs that I dislike, but few generate such strong feelings of detest as the Black-Eyed Peas’ song “The Time“, a cover of “Time of Your Life” from the film Dirty Dancing. This abysmal cacophony can only be described as ‘musical vandalism’. It astounds me that this song even gets commercial airplay, but there you go. I am yet to find a person who likes this horrid tune thing.

Happy new year!

When I was a teenager back in 1990′s Melbourne, Triple J was unquestionably the station to listen to if one didn’t want to listen to teen pop or classic rock.

The nineties was the era of grunge and electronic dance music and Triple J was leading the pack in broadcasting new music from these genres. I recall the delight in finally discovering this amazing station and its unique blend of music. Its announcers were amusing and knowledgeable and the station had a significant cultural and social relevance to me. It rocked!

But something has gone terribly wrong at Triple J since those glory days.

The station seems to be having trouble connecting with its audience. Rather than face up to the challenge, the station has chosen to blame Nova, blame the audience and even blame the former Howard government!

In essence, I believe that:

1. Triple J is arrogant and doesn’t understand its audience.
2. The music Triple plays is not what the audience wants to hear anymore.
3. Triple J’s announcers are mostly dull and boring, or just strange.
4. The on-air presentation is mediocre, if not plain bad.

I have always really enjoyed listening to Triple J, but I am fast wearing tired of the ABC’s youth station. So let’s explore these issues in some more detail to see why “the j’s” have ended up like this.

I recently read an interesting article on Crikey by Michael Tunn, an ex-Triple J announcer. Back in July, Tunn noted that in his city of Adelaide, Mix 102.3 (Radio 5ADD) regularly out-performs 5JJJ in what is supposed to be Triple J’s target market - 18 to 24 year olds. This is despite Mix’s target demographic being women aged over 35! Indeed, a scan at the Melbourne radio ratings for December 2007 shows that 3JJJ recorded just 5.3% of the 18-24 market, compared to rival Nova 100 (3MEL) which captured 31.1% of that audience and 3FOX with 26.9%. You may ask what Nova and Fox have that Triple J doesn’t? Relevance is the answer.

If you tune into Nova (Triple J’s major competitor) or other commercial FM music stations, they’re polished. Their announcers are fast-paced and witty, the music is constant and there is a general feel that something interesting is happening or about to happen. The news is local and the personalities (for the most part) are engaging. In contrast, Triple J sounds like crappy community radio a lot of the time.

Long gone are the glory days of Helen Razor and Judith Lucy with The Ladies Lounge or Chris and Craig with Today Today. These days we get the occasionally engaging and rarely amusing Top Shelf with Robbie Buck at drive time. No wonder people prefer to listen to Hamish and Andy on the commercial stations. People like to laugh on the way home from work, not be bored with long interviews.

Back in 2003, when Richard Kingsmill took over at Triple J, he told The Age “I think Triple J has the potential to be the best radio station in Australia, if not one of the best in the world. But we let ourselves down too often. We can be great one moment and pretty average the next. At times we sound like the worst community radio station around. We need to realise that our competition is on the ball, so we need to be on the ball, too.”

A lot of this “community station sound” has to do with dead air because Triple J is full of it. From stuttering young announcers waffling about who-knows-what to fill gaps between songs to “technical problems” with CD players, its so often sounds amateurish. Listen to Nova and the songs seamlessly glide from one to the next. Their announcers sound excited and keen. They use backing tracks behind the announcements for interest and continuity. The broadcast sounds dynamic and people enjoy it.

But lack of polish alone doesn’t account for poor ratings at Triple J. The lack of listeners has as much to do with the music as anything else.

Triple J has always had the challenge of balancing “alternative” and “popular”. In my opinion, the station needs some commercially popular music in order to expose their audience to the alternative songs. That’s what Nova does successfully and what Triple J used to do too, but hardly any more.

As an example, Triple J used to play music by Primary, a Sydney-based electro-rock band that featured the distinct vocals of Connie Mitchell. Mitchell has since moved on to Sneaky Sound System which is musically similar to Primary. And whilst Sneaky has become an ARIA charts success with its unique brand of music and Nova has been playing their songs on high-rotation, Triple J has ignored them completely. Why? I have no doubt that a Triple J audience would enjoy this music. Nova’s ratings would confirm this, since they’re credited with eroding the Triple J audience.

Perhaps the music committee at Triple J really is out of touch with what young people enjoy listening to?

I say this because Triple J announcers seem to be afflicted with a peculiar sort of musical élitism. They deride their commercial counterparts’ musical line-up as if ‘alternative’ is superior to ‘pop’ somehow without recognising that taste is involved. This holier-than-thou approach does nothing to win audience share. Commercial stations see no need to deride Triple J audiences, so why the reverse? Surely a confident station would see no need to engage in this juvenile behaviour.

It is not shameful to like Britney Spears’ music. Sure, I don’t like Briteney Spears and I wouldn’t want her played on Triple J (or my CD player) for a second, but her music’s not inferior, just different and not to my taste.

Yet staff at Triple J can’t understand this. So whilst Triple J pretends to promote variety of music and be open and tolerant, they self-indulgently focus ever more on their favoured hip-hop, reggae and garage sounds at the expense of music that their target audience will actually enjoy. Michael Tunn summed it up nicely when he said Triple J needs to “stop being scared of being mainstream”.

Triple J staff need to understand that people listen to Nova for a reason. Even if Nova plays Shakira or Britney and other sugar-sweet teen-pop artists, they also play music that Triple J would once have considered appropriate for airplay. And whilst Nova isn’t faultless, a 50% slump in Triple J ratings cannot be ignored, even by the ABC.

The problem with the Triple J staff is not just their attitude, but their presentation too. In a way it comes back to the concept of polish.

Is it really too much to expect a prime-time announcer not to “um” or stutter? Listening to Vijay Khurana is just painful, especially when he talks to a caller live-to-air. Dave Callan isn’t much better. The ums and arrs, the delayed waffle whilst changing CD’s and the painful “So, what are you up to this weekend?” talkback is sometimes too much. Okay, if the caller is doing something different or interesting, let us know. If they’re going to get pissed on the front verandah with mates over the weekend and that’s all they’ll tell us, what do I care? Just play some music!

For all the criticisms I’ve made of Triple J, I do acknowledge the good work that they continue to do and have done. Their tireless promotion of emerging Australian music is something for which the nation can be grateful. And Triple J’s preparedness to play new music long before commercial stations is a testament to their brevity. And the station does still have some excellent announcers like Gaby Brown and Mel Bampton. Yet these alone aren’t good enough.

Triple J has major deficiencies. It has no local news call and no local weather. (Scott Dooley even once complained on air “why do people need to know what the weather is anyway?”). Perhaps some regionalised broadcasting would be nice? Simply syndicating everything from 2JJJ in Sydney isn’t good enough. And finally, the employees at the station need to get of their high horse and find out why their audience are listening to the other stations, and what music they enjoy listening-to rather than condemning them for liking it.

For if they don’t do something soon, there won’t be much justification for the ABC (and the Australian taxpayer) to maintain Triple J at all. Triple J is unlikely going to be number 1 any time soon, but it should come close if it is meeting its charter obligations to young Australians.

For anyone who purchases music online, the concept of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology will likely be familiar. Combined with Windows Media Audio (WMA) music files, DRM forcedly controls the number of times a music file can be copied to a portable device or burnt to a compact disk.

I believe this adds to the piracy problem, rather than inhibiting it. Let me explain:

The Toshiba Gigabeat: A common MP3 player.

Once upon a time, music files were sold or distributed in the MP3 format. This was the original digital music format and permitted unlimited usage and distribution. Software to ‘rip’ compact disks into MP3 files was easily obtained, so when peer-to-peer file sharing developed in the late 1990’s, there was a proliferation of unlicenced, pirated music floating around the internet. In reality, it was a free-for-all and downloading whole albums gratis was a simple operation. Of all the music-sharing websites, Napster was the biggest of them all.

Napster was eventually closed in July 2001 after the Recording Industry Association of America sued for breach of copyright, but the website’s success highlighted the interest in digital music and the extent of the piracy problem that ran in parallel to that interest.

As a response, Microsoft developed WMA music files, which incorporated forced restrictions on the number of copies of the file that can be made.

Australian digital music retailers quickly took up WMA technology. Today all the major music chains such as Sanity and JB HI-FI sell WMA music online, as well as new entrants to the industry like BigPond Music, Chaos and ironically, mp3.com.au.

The problem with this is that the DRM licences attached to WMA files tend to corrupt easily, thus rendering the digital music useless. And this is not an infrequent occurrence, either.

I usually like to backup my files on CD-ROM, copy an audio CD for the car, and transfer a copy to my portable media player. However, when I do this, I use up all the ‘burn credits’ on the files and I am no longer able to copy the files to another audio CD or portable device.

Whilst this may initially seems like a reasonable number of copies, problems arise when technology fails or disks are damaged and I need to make a new copy for myself.

Recently, my Toshiba Gigabeat (which uses the ironically-named PlaysForSure technology) didn’t take well to me plugging it to my work PC and as a result all the digital music licences on the device were corrupted. Only music in the older MP3 format that I had copied from my own CD’s would still play. Because I had used up the licences on some of my WMA music files, I was unable to copy all of the songs back onto the Gigabeat MP3 player.

In the end, I had to use the tried-and-trusted method of burning the WMA files as audio tracks to CD, then ripping them back as MP3’s and uploading them to the Gigabeat. But what a hassle!

Limiting the number of times a file can be copied is futile for this very reason. Should anyone want to illegally distribute WMA music, they need only convert it to MP3 format and the licence data is erased.

However, the presence of DRM for those who legitimately purchase music is such a hindrance that it is often far preferable to source an MP3 from somewhere else and rest assured that the music will always play.

DRM’s failure to function as designed only serves to punish those who purchase music legitimately. And it is enough to push any reasonable person to source MP3 music across the internet before purchasing dodgy WMA media files with corruptable DRM attached.

I have no problem with the legal prohibition on the free distribution of music over the internet, the airwaves or via any other means. But I do have a problem with being restricted in the number of times I may make a copy of my own music for personal use.

The funniest of radio events occurred yesterday when commercial broadcasters Hamish Blake and Andy Lee performed a live simulcast with Robbie Buck and Scott Dooley from ABC youth station Triple J.

The simulcast was a challenge resulting from the discovery that Andy Lee’s brother had submitted a song to Triple J’s Unearthed contest, under the band name Zoophyte. The song featured Andy on trumpet.

Knowing that a rival station’s announcer was on one of their Unearthed entries, Buck and Dooley sought to have their own song played on commercial radio in exchange for Triple J airplay of Zoophyte. Hamish and Andy agreed to the challenge, and as a result they played Scott Dooley’s ultra-dodgy track by Angry Panda.

The live simulcast was between commerical station 2DAY and the ABC’s youth station 2JJJ in Sydney. Because 2DAY is linked to the Austereo network and 2JJJ to the Triple J network, the simulcast was heard accross the nation by both audiences at once.

It is probably the first time such a simulcast has happened. And it was very entertaining.

I have uploaded the segment, which you can listen to by clicking on the link below. Enjoy!

Listen to Hamish & Andy simulcast on Triple J

If you have heard the recent song ‘Mr Raven’ by M.C. Lars, you may have noticed its 19th century feel. It is a hip-hop song, and while I am generally not keen on rap or hip-hop, ‘Mr Raven’ caught my imagination. Triple J have been playing the song a bit recently, and so I decided to seek out the lyrics. And thereupon I discovered that ‘Mr Raven’ is based on ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe from his book The Raven and Other Poems, first published in 1845.

Please take a listen to ‘Mr Raven’. It’s the entire song, not a 30 second clip! (You can find the lyrics here).

Then have a read of the poem, which I have reproduced in full below—it’s an interesting story. Or I thought so, anyway…

The Raven
by Edgar Allan Poe, 1845

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore,.
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,
Nameless here forevermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
“‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.
This it is, and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is, I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you.” Here I opened wide the door;
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word,
Lenore?, This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word,
“Lenore!” Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping, something louder than before,
“Surely,” said I, “surely, that is something at my window lattice.
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore.
Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore.
“‘Tis the wind, and nothing more.”

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven, of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.
Perched upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door,
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly, grim, and ancient raven, wandering from the nightly shore.
Tell me what the lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore.”
Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning, little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as “Nevermore.”

But the raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered;
Till I scarcely more than muttered, “Other friends have flown before;
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.”
Then the bird said, “Nevermore.”

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster, till his songs one burden bore,—
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of “Never—nevermore.”

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o’er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o’er
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee— by these angels he hath
Sent thee respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, O quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the raven, “Nevermore!”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil! —prophet still, if bird or devil!
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore:
Is there—is there balm in Gilead? —tell me—tell me I implore!”
Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?
Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! —quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming.
And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!