The Hill I Will Die On: The Hottest 100 Of 2010 Was The Best Of All Time
The top 20 of 2010 is the best collection of tracks in the countdown's history.
The Hill I Will Die On is a regular Junkee series in which we air our pettiest gripes. It should, of course, not be taken very seriously.
Yesterday, as the shadows stretched in the long afternoon and the end of the working day drew near, Little Red’s ‘Rock It’ shuffled on my stereo.
It starts with a bang, the bass and kick drum hitting a one-two punch, before the bright piano riff lays itself gently on top. It’s an archetypal slice of Australian indie rock from that era, and hearing it now is to fall straight through time. The band have long since broken up — they sadly disbanded rather abruptly in 2012 — but ‘Rock It’ lives on.
It was a big commercial success, raking in an AIR Award for Best Independent Single and hitting #19 in the ARIA charts. It also landed at #2 in the Hottest 100 of that year — a devastating outcome really, as it lost out to the dreary Angus & Julia Stone single ‘Big Jet Plane’.
But it found itself in great company nonetheless in that year’s Hottest 100 — rounding out the top three was Ou Est Le Swimming Pool’s melancholy anthem ‘Dance The Way I Feel’, followed by the widescreen candle-holding rock of Birds of Tokyo’s ‘Plans’ and Boy & Bear’s lilting Crowded House cover ‘Fall At Your Feet’.
A further glance over the top 20 delights even further: Mark Ronson’s ‘Somebody To Love Me’, Adrian Lux’s ‘Teenage Crime’, The Jezabels’ masterpiece ‘Mace Spray’, Kanye West’s ‘Runaway’.
In fact, a look back over the Hottest 100 of 2010 reveals one of the best collections of songs in the history of the poll. Actually, not ‘one of’ — as Tina Turner so eloquently said, it’s simply the goddamn best. Specifically, the top 20 of that year outstrips any other — and this is a hill I am more than prepared to die on.
Magic Fountains And Vampires & Wolves
Sure, it might seem a hard argument to make when I’m dismissing the song that topped the entire countdown, ‘Big Jet Plane’. But ‘Big Jet Plane’ is — sorry, Stones — a drag of a listen, a prime example of an easy listening triple j hummer making it to the top of the poll because everyone just pops it in their lists and doesn’t think too much about it (hello Ocean Alley).
There’s also something that needs to be addressed first up: the Hottest 100 is overwhelmingly dominated by white, male artists. The Hottest 100 of 2010 contained only a handful of female acts or artists of colour, and while it certainly isn’t the worst top 20 in terms of diversity, it’s still a sobering reflection of the history of the poll. It’s only in very recent years has there been a slight change in proceedings — Kendrick Lamar won with ‘HUMBLE.’ in 2017, and Billie Eilish topped the countdown just last year with ‘bad guy’.
And look, there are some absolute clangers in the 2010 top 20. I don’t think anyone can stand to listen to ‘Fuck You’ by CeeLo Green anymore, and if you can stand it, you should think a little more about that choice, given what a horribly offensive douchebag Green has revealed himself to be. Drapht’s ‘Rapunzel’ sounds wildly outdated, and depending on where you stand, Art Vs. Science’s ‘Magic Fountain’ could be a crime against humanity or just one of the silliest songs every to be released. If I’m being honest, that dislocating, horrendous, breakdown still slaps a smile on my face.
But for the most part, the top 20 is simply back-to-back-to-back bangers, featuring some of the best tracks to of the last 20 years. Kanye West’s tortured ‘Runaway’ is simply one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded, a trembling nine-minute ode of forgiveness and reflection.
Mark Ronson & The Business International’s ‘Somebody To Love Me’ and ‘Bang Bang Bang’ are intoxicating, Adrian Lux’s ‘Teenage Crime’ remains one of the sharpest dance tracks of the 20th century, and ‘Mace Spray’, The Jezabels’ second highest ranking Hottest 100 song after ‘Endless Summer’, was a dramatic, Kate Bush-level epic. The Wombats’ ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’ still has the ability to turn a festival crowd into a sweaty, heaving mess.
Masterpieces And Silliness
Away from the more serious moments, the top 20 of 2010 also contained a bunch of tracks that were just pure, stupid ass fun. The aforementioned ‘Magic Fountain’ may be one of the more ridiculous songs to enter the top 10 ever, while Duck Sauce’s ‘Barbra Streisand’ is still heard on dancefloors to this day (COVID permitting), and Pendulum’s ‘ABC News Theme’ remix is pure festival fodder.
Even the ‘filler’ tracks in the top 20 are excellent, like Flight Facilities’ delicate ‘Crave You’, Washington’s pinball pop of ‘Sunday Best’, Cloud Control’s ‘There’s Nothing In The Water We Can’t Fight’, Sia’s unwigged ‘Clap Your Hands’. There was a lightness and joy to a lot of the top 20 that was infectious.
Sure, my love of this top 20 is linked to the fact that this was my last year of high school, and a lot of these songs are inextricably tied to memories of my friends and I driving around Byron Bay late at night, stopping at lookouts to get [REDACTED] and look at beam of the lighthouse. I can still see Jonson Street zipping by when ‘Dance The Way I Feel’ plays to this day.
But also — I’m just correct.
Jules LeFevre is editor of Music Junkee and still listens to the top 20 of the 2010 Hottest 100 at least once a week. She is on Twitter.