Hottest 100 of All Time: Graphtastic Analysis

Bawley continues to keep careful watch over the Triple j Hottest 100 of All Time. Earlier in the week we examined gender imbalance in the Bottom 40 songs; another 40 songs have been announced and we can start to compare the results so far with the 1998 results.

In 1998 51% of all the songs were American, in 2009 there has been 37 American songs played so far, will there be another 14 American songs in the Top Twenty? I doubt it.

The 2009 list is already more diverse than its 1998 predecessor. The 1998 list contained songs from five countries, whereas the 2009 countdown already has songs from seven countries: System of a Down (Armenia), Bob Marley (Jamaica) and Daft Punk (France) are the new comers while it looks like Irish tossers U2 have dismantled their way out of favour.


One thing that hasn’t changed much is the average year of release, both the 1998 and 2009 averages seem to have flattened out around 1990. But which way will the line go come Sunday?

Looking ahead to number one, corpses have a tendency to win these things. Graphing the 1989 and 1998 winners’ age at death shows a distinct upward trend, suggesting that the 2009 winner will be a 30 year old deceased male! Jeff Buckley anyone?