The Rubens Respond To Critics Of The Hottest 100

Taking out a position, let alone the number one spot, on triple j’s Hottest 100 is a top achievement in most musician’s eyes, but according to Sydney Morning Herald some have suggested the results of yesterday’s countdown were “unsurprising and safe”.

Following The Rubens’ win with Hoops in the 2015 countdown, SMH has suggested that the addition of a little Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber could’ve added some “spice” to the Hottest 100 countdown which they say provided “few surprises and absolutely no controversy. Or risk.”

The band has responded tactfully to the criticism, telling ABC News Breakfast (below): “Unsurprising — that’s an interesting way to describe something voted by people, I guess. It’s not meant to be surprising.” Lay it Down, boys.

That being said, the band also explained that they felt plenty surprised throughout the day due to the ranking of particular tunes.

“I think we were surprised, but I guess I was really surprised at some of the results,” The Rubens said. “I thought certain songs would have been much higher or lower. And that all comes down to personal taste.”

Many Australians and people around the world, some of which had a punt on the results, were also somewhat surprised by the way the countdown played out, including those who analysed social media posts in hopes of predicting the order of the Hottest 100.

This included Melburnian uni student Ed Pitt who collated over 20,000 song votes into a spreadsheet by sifting through Instagram posts with the Hottest 100 hashtag. Pitt came close though, predicting that The Rubens’ Hoops would come in at second place, followed by Kendrick Lamar’s King Kunta.

“If you look at that, it didn’t play the way that … people expected, but that’s good,” The Rubens explained.

Watch the footage below.