The past twelve months have been bonza for music, and for fans of ranking music. Triple J‘s first round of Hottest 100 statistics proves as much: more punters voted for their favourite tunes in 2017 than in any other year of the legendary countdown.
Before the poll closed on Monday, an astonishing 2,386,133 votes were cast. That’s a bloody tonne of people telling the youth broadcaster who they believed produced the finest tracks of the year, friends. Triple J says that figure is a solid 5.81% above last year’s count.
Women made the majority of voters, notching 51% of the count. Men accounted for 48%. Voters responding ‘Other’, and those who chose ‘No answer’, comprised the rest of the tally.
Voters were most likely to be 21 years of age, which seems pretty in-line with the broadcaster’s target demographic. Around 50% of all voters were in the 18 – 24 age range.
The record numbers come after Triple J’s decision to move the count from Australia Day. Some commenters have suggested the broadcaster artificially inflated the numbers to counteract a supposed boycott of the countdown on political grounds, but… come on. Maybe people just really like music, you know?
The countdown will be broadcast on Saturday, January 27.
