One of the most oft-cited issues that Australian music fans have with our national youth broadcaster, triple j, is the curation of their playlist. Namely, the often opaque decisions that go into whom they choose to play and whom they don’t.
Some have even accused the station of harbouring a bias towards a particular kind of ‘sound’ and bands have even come out and admitted to catering their songs to what they think the station’s program directors would like.
Naturally, triple j insiders have scoffed at such claims and presenters have defended the eclecticism of their playlist. Matt Okine, for example, has hit back at claims that triple j caters too much to mainstream tastes.
“The internet has given everyone a sense of entitlement,” Okine told the Herald Sun. “People suddenly think everything should be tailored to their exact needs. You hear them complain: ‘Triple J has turned to shit, it’s so mainstream.’”
“Oh really? We just played Amity Affliction, followed by a West African London-based electronic duo, and an indie singer from Brooklyn,” he added. “If that’s mainstream, I shudder to think about the shit they’re playing on commercial stations.”
But many are still unsatisfied with the station’s representation of local artists. Back in January 2014, Cherry Bar owner James Young wrote an op-ed for Tone Deaf in which he criticised the station’s lack of support for Aussie rockers Airbourne.
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“I love The Black Keys, but they don’t need taxpayer funded radio support, neither does Alt-J,” he wrote. So how do Airbourne feel about the level of support they’ve received from triple j in the past? Well, we went ahead and asked them.
“I think triple j did play us a long, long time ago back in the day, but yeah, it does hurt you a little bit, because triple j is a powerful radio station in this country,” Airbourne guitarist David Roads recently told Tone Deaf.
“It would be good if they were playing more Australian bands, but I guess we’re not too fussed about it now. We know we’ve got our fans here and our hard rock fans, but I guess with the support of triple j it would get across to a broader audience because they’ve got coverage of the whole country.”
“I know Triple M played us as well, but it didn’t get in some of the rural areas and that’s where a lot of our fans are. Because they’re so isolated they don’t hear about us unless they’re following music magazines or online.”
But when we asked Dave, whose band made our countdown of six Aussie bands who’ve succeeded without triple j support, whether Airbourne’s career would’ve played out differently had they received triple j support, he wasn’t sure.
“Hard to tell, really,” he said. “Maybe, just maybe we might’ve gotten that bit bigger with constant play from triple j. If a mainstream radio station like triple j got behind you and played your new singles or album like they do with popular bands of the time and give you heavy rotation it would have an impact.”
“But that’s the way our career’s been so far. We’ve never had mainstream radio support anyway, we’ve been the slow-growing sort of band, as opposed to the overnight success thing. We’ve been doing the hard yards, playing as much as we can, and that seems to be working for us.”
It certainly is. Airbourne may not be massive in their home country, but they’re a phenomenon overseas, particularly in Europe. “We’re playing pretty high up on festival lineups over there and that can be in front of anything from 70 to 100,000 people,” Dave said.
“Germany is the first big country that took us on board in Europe. Then we sort of blew up in France. It’s sort of big all over the place there. Most of mainland Europe we do well in and we’ve even grown in eastern Europe.”
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Responding to questions about the alleged triple j ‘sound’ bias back in 2014, Airbourne’s manager, Gregg Donovan, was emphatic: “It’s not [triple j’s] responsibility to make you successful so we should all stop blaming them if they don’t get on board.”
“One of our most successful acts is Airbourne,” Donovan told The Music. “triple j have never played them and they’re doing incredible business overseas. We knew that they were not a triple j type artist and we acted accordingly when planning their tours and releases.”
However, one of Donovan’s other acts, Boy & Bear, garner massive support and airplay from Triple J, but as Donovan said, “We still plan our releases based around a flat earth mentality… if we get the triple j’s support then great, if we don’t then we move forward with our plan. ”
Keep an eye out for our full interview with Airbourne in the coming weeks!
