A Wrap Up Of The Best And Wildest Requestival Choices
Vengaboys! Julia Gillard's misogyny speech! That 'You Wouldn't Steal a Car' advert!
Requestival is only one year old — the annual event began on triple j back in 2020 — but it has already become one of the most anticipated events of the musical calendar.
The set-up is simple: controls of the triple j mixing board are handed over to the listeners. Fans can write in to have whatever weird and wonderful tune they want played, from nostalgic bangers to memeified hits. Nothing is off the table, from metal, to hip hop, to the kind of tunes you’d more likely hear over on ClassicFM. The only remit is that the whole week-long event be as strange and chaotic as absolutely possible.
And that, precisely, is what makes it so much fun. These days, popular music culture has become narrowly focused. There’s a certain type of song that gets played on the radio, and it gets played over and over again. We are at the risk of developing musical tunnel vision, raised on a diet of good but repetitive tracks.
Requestival represents a break from that monoculture. It’s proof that audiences are far more hungry for experimentation than most music stations might assume; ready for risks, and jokes, and Hilary Duff’s ‘What Dreams are Made of’. If we need to learn anything from Requestival, it’s that: there is real room for new and frequently strange sounds.
How else, after all, to explain some of the music that got played this week? Last year’s Requestival was wild, sure, but the 2021 iteration of the event left it in the water. For instance, listeners were treated to a classic remix of a classic news theme…
.@Pendulum – ABC News Theme [08:57]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 12, 2021
…The opening track to one of the most famous sitcoms of the last few decades…
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Theme from "The Fresh Prince") [06:14]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 12, 2021
…A novelty hit by one of the biggest names in children’s entertainment…
Bob The Builder – Mambo No. 5 [08:22]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 11, 2021
…A banger by Hilary “The Motherfucker” Duff..
Hilary Duff – What Dreams Are Made Of [07:28]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 11, 2021
…A Will Smith classic…
Will Smith – Men In Black [07:17]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 11, 2021
…A videogaming staple…
Nintendo Wii – Mii Channel Theme [08:16]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 11, 2021
…One of Australia’s most famous political speeches…
Julia Gillard – Misogyny Speech [11:19]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 12, 2021
…A hit from the era of internet piracy…
Federation Against Copyright Theft & The Motion Picture Association – You Wouldn't Steal A Car [06:54]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
…One of the most heinous ear-worms ever laid to tape…
Eiffel 65 – Blue [02:56]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
…The goddamn Vengaboys…
Vengaboys – We Like To Party! (The Vengabus) [15:09]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
…And so much more.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Leslie Odom, Jr. & Original Broadway Cast of "Hamilton" – My… [07:06]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
Shakira – Whenever, Wherever [17:05]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
Bobby Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers – Monster Mash [16:31]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
Flight Of The Conchords – Too Many Dicks (On The Dance Floor) [15:45]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
t.A.T.u. – All the Things She Said [14:49]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
Alice Deejay – Better Off Alone [14:27]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 13, 2021
Julia Gillard – Misogyny Speech [11:19]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) May 12, 2021
Bring on Requestival 2022, I say. And let’s not forget in the interim how ready the listening public is for something a little unusual.