Is Triple J sexist?

Wow, hasn't the recent Triple J Hottest 100 Of All Time sparked a lot of debate about the lack of female artists represented in the top 100 list. It got me thinking, is Triple J a sexist radio station? Is it the play listing of Triple J that is responsible for the recent results, or are the results indicative of the music industry in general?

I manage the J Play website (www.jplay.com.au) - J Play has been tracking what music they play on Triple J since August 2006. J Play is not affiliated with Triple J or the ABC, it is a stand alone project and only reports on what the national youth radio station broadcasts.

First of all, I looked at the Top 100 songs played on Triple J this year to date. Each of the songs in the Top 100 list have been aired on Triple J 100+ times in 2009. Surprisingly, 5 out of the top 10 songs aired on Triple J this year to date are by female artists / female fronted bands (Florence And The Machine, Metric, Sia, La Roux & Little Birdy). That's a 50/50 spread in the Top 10. The top 50 was 68% in favour of male artists. The top 100 was 77% in favour of male artists.




Evidence of the Top 10 most played tracks on Triple J this year
(courtesy of www.jplay.com.au)

We've looked at the most played songs on Triple J this year, what about the most played artists? The most played artist on Triple J in 2009 is a female artist, Lily Allen. 4 of the top 10 artists on Triple J this year are female artists or female fronted bands (Lily Allen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metric & La Roux). All of these artists have received 300+ airings on Triple J so far this year.

Looking at the above results, it's fair to say that Triple J is giving female artists great representation on the airwaves, so why were female artists so under represented in the recent Hottest 100 Of All Time? That's a question that I don't have an answer to, but I feel it's clear on the above evidence that Triple J's programming is not the reason behind it.