These days, triple j’s Hottest 100 is arguably the biggest date on Australia’s music calendar. This year’s countdown was the biggest on record, raking in a staggering 2.7 million votes from across the world — 95 percent of those being from Australia.

But in 1999, the Hottest 100 was still in its blissful infancy. The unspoken rules voters might follow now were non-existent — you even had to use a landline to vote, a truly disturbing prospect.

Despite the technological barriers, music lovers from across Australia still came out in droves to vote for their favourite tunes — however weird they were. The results of the 1999 countdown were truly bonkers, so we decided to look at the best and wildest moments of the last poll of the 20th century.

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When ‘Bevan: The Musical’ Made It To #35

People can trash the countdowns of recent years all they want for not playing ‘real music’, but that won’t make up for the sins of the poll’s formative years.

We can all look at the fact that Denis Leary topped the first Hottest 100 ever with his song ‘Asshole’, but a more bizarre one is Peter Helliar’s ‘Bevan: The Musical’, which was performed live on Merrick & Rosso on triple j. Honestly, the whole thing is madness, but what’s more amazing is how much you realise you needed the life story of Young Talent Time cast member Beven Addinsall set to music.

We’re not 100 percent sure, but we think it’d be fair to say that ‘Bevan: The Musical’ is the only song to ever make the Hottest 100 that references the Lethal Weapon ride at Gold Coast’s MovieWorld.

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When Madison Avenue Beat All Your Rock Faves

While post-2000 Madison Avenue is primarily known for that all-time, absolutely legendary, complete clusterfuck of an ARIA Awards performance, in 1999 they were just an electronic duo out of Sydney that were making huge waves both here and internationally with their monster track ‘Don’t Call Me Baby.’

The song hit #22 in the countdown, beating out such classics like Blink-182’s ‘All The Small Things’, The Living End’s ‘West End Riot’, Jamiroquai’s ‘Canned Heat’ and way more.

Hard to think a band that is immortalised by their memehood could’ve once captured the hearts of a nation, but then again Macklemore topped the 2012 countdown. Some things never change.

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It Was Probably The Dirtiest Countdown In History

Perhaps it’s because everyone thought the world was going to end at the turn of millennium that just made votes really, really horny, but a surprising amount of tracks in the countdown aren’t really appropriate for children.

Four songs in the countdown feature a swear word in the title: Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Starfuckers, Inc.’ at #69 (nice), Testeagles’ ‘Turn That Shit Up’ at #67, Machine Gun Fellatio’s ‘Mutha Fukka On A Motorcycle’ at #59 and The Tenants’ ‘You Shit Me To Tears’ all the way at #3.

On top of that, two songs in the countdown feature the word sex in the title — Macy Gray’s ‘Sex-O-Matic Venus Freak’ at #92 and Beck’s ‘Sexx Laws’ at #53 – and The Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang, one of the most ‘explicity-about-sex’ songs of all time, made it to #6. Throw in Regurgitator’s ‘I Wanna Be A Nudist’ ranked at #58 and you’ve got a countdown that only HBO would dare air in 2019.

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We Also Just Really Fucking Loved Powderfinger

This wasn’t the first countdown Powderfinger featured heavily in, and it definitely wasn’t the last, but 1999 was the beginning of the Brisbane band’s reign over the countdown.

With four songs taken from two albums, Powderfinger made sure no other artist stood a bloody chance. Not only that, but 1999 marks the only year — until this year — where the same act had both the #1 and the #100 song, with Powderfinger’s ‘These Days’ and ‘Passenger’ taking the spots respectively. What’s even stranger is that ‘These Days’ was initially released as a B-Side to ‘Passenger’.

What’s more: Powderfinger would go on to be only act in history to top the countdown in consecutive years, doing the same damn thing in 2000.

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Madonna? In The Hottest 100? Surely not?

Suddenly, the same losers that think Beyoncé, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus don’t have a place on triple j, and that the station has gotten shit because of pop music, didn’t seem to be piping up too much when Madonna appeared in 1999.

That’s right. Not only has pop music been making the countdown since its inception, but the undisputed queen of pop did so in 1999 with her track ‘Beautiful Stranger’, and it was taken from the Austin Powers soundtrack. If that’s not a pretty solid message telling Hottest 100 snobs to lighten the fuck up, nothing is.

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For The First Time, Aussies Began To Kill It

It’s hard to imagine a countdown now that isn’t dominated by Australian music. Triple j consistently push hard for Aussie artists to make the countdown, and locals have topped seven out of ten of the past countdowns.

However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, the first ever-annual Hottest 100 only featured 24 Australian songs — a number that would be considered a travesty nowadays.

1999 marked a massive change in how future countdowns would look, with it being the first year that the majority of entries were from Australian acts. 52 songs on the countdown came out of Australia — including the entire top three, marking the first of four times that that has happened.

It’s hard to imagine what sparked such pride in local talent that has only gotten stronger — our bet is on ‘Bevan: The Musical’ — but frankly we’re all better off because of it.

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Jackson Langford is a freelance music and culture writer from Newcastle. He tweets at @jacksonlangford 

All this week, Junkee is heading back in time to relive the greatest moments in pop culture from 1999. For more 1999 content, head here.