I Told You to Vote, So Why Didn't You Vote For Blasko?

Since everyone's jumping into the proverbial pot of cooking comments on why no women made the recent Hottest 100 of All Time list, I thought it necessary in the interests of balance to throw in my two cent coin and contaminate the meal. So firstly, why didn't I vote for any women? The answer is I did, and if you didn't figure that out then you obviously don't know me very well. In fact, had you been following the comments after I told you to vote, you would know that if I had my way Sarah Blasko's cover of Flame Trees would be #1. You should also expect me to have voted for a couple of her other songs, which I did.

So why didn't the rest of you vote for women? The answer is that actually, you probably did as well. So why didn't they make it?

Statistics.

Yes, our old friend from the days of Emperors and Scum has reared its ugly head and come back to haunt the entire nation.

Let's first consider the period that the poll covered: all of time. Since this is too large a time period to be practical for our purposes, let's instead consider music from the 1960's onwards. The 1960's is a good decade to start from, since that's the earliest decade that features in the list. So if all things were fair, then each decade from the 60's would feature 20 times. But nothing's ever fair, and so it's not the case: The 60's & 70's combined come in at about 20% of the entries, the 80's & 00's both feature about 20% each, and the 1990's dominated with over 40% all on its own.

If you were a band in the 60's you were up against the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, etc. Good luck being remembered, then. So going by our decade-by-decade analysis, women now only have a shot at about 90 spots. The only band with female members from the 70's that comes to mind is ABBA, and that also neatly brings us to the second factor to throw into the fray: The Hottest 100 voter demographic. Do you think a typical voter for the Hottest 100 is going to be a huge fan of something like "Waterloo"? Me neither.

Unfortunately, I can't name any prominent female artists from the 80's. Hell, I struggle to name more than a couple of artists from the 80's anyway without having to resort to Wikipedia, let alone any good songs from the era. So that leaves the 90's and 00's, which equates to about 60 spots. All being fair, they would be split evenly, giving female artists 30 spots on the list, give or take. So where are they?

According to some, the commercial charts. They make music in certain genres that appeals to certain demographics, but nothing that's going to go down in history as The Greatest Song Ever As Voted By People Here and Now Who Might Not Listen to That Sort of Thing Anyway. They're still successful, so they're doing everything right. They just won't make it on to your shortlist.

But what about the ones that will? Like I mentioned, odds are you voted for at least one of these. But which songs did you vote for? Were they the same songs that I voted for? Probably not. And therein is the final heart of the anatomically incorrect beast.

Ask me to name my favourite Sarah Blasko song, and I'd say, "Her cover of Flame Trees. Were you not paying attention at the beginning of this article?" But if I were to ask you what your favourite Blasko song was, you might well name a completely different song. There's no one definitive song that stands out for everyone, and the same goes for a lot of other female artists/bands/etc (and while we're at it, a lot of artists/bands./etc in general). They're all equally good, and so all equally likely to get votes. The votes get split, none of them make the final 100, and the media kicks up a fuss about nothing.

In other words, we shouldn't be panicking. Statistically speaking, a good portion of the list is probably filled with one hit wonders anyway.

A Call To Arms

Attention, fools!
It is time that we, the people, did something for the community, nay, the WORLD, and I, your noble leader dude that you all seem to listen to for no apparent reason have one particular deed in mind.
Bring this article up to scratch, and you'll be the win. Because a town as terrible as Newcastle NEEDS a page that's at least not filled with irrelevant crap, but rather scathing criticism and thinly veiled truths.
Thanks!
-MGMT.