Triple J tweet shines light on “the real issue”

Music journalists Mikey Cahill and Marcus Teague talk with Something for Kate's Paul Dempsey about whether Triple J's tweet represents a bigger problem for Australian music.

Triple J’s social media team would’ve thought it was following on with yet another internet meme when they tweeted “Did it hurt? When you aged out of the youth radio station?”.

Little did they know, their tweet would cause a storm that Hit Different’s Mikey Cahill, Marcus Teague and guest Paul Dempsey all believed was emblematic of a wider problem in the industry.

For years Triple J has been accused of focusing too much on young emerging acts, resulting in older artists being frozen out and left to wane in popularity when the station inevitably cut their air-time. But Teague says Triple J can’t totally be blamed for following their agenda as a station that emphasises unearthing new Australian talent.

“Triple J is incredibly powerful for young bands and artists, everyone knows that,” Teague said on Hit Different.

“So I think it can be confronting for some people when they do age out of that moment, and when they’re told that there’s another generation coming behind you.”

“Unfortunately in Australia, we’re just not set up to support those people really well beyond Triple J.”

Something for Kate lead singer and guitarist Paul Dempsey agreed with Teague, refusing to solely blame Triple J for older female artists losing value as they aged. He instead said the tweet summed up a bigger issue of Australian artists, particularly women, being left behind and feeling less marketable as they aged.

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We covered it on Hit Different, a weekly podcast that puts music culture in context.

“I think it shouldn’t be a discussion about Triple J; it should be a much more worthy discussion about women’s experiences and ageism in the music industry as a whole,” Dempsey said.

“It shouldn’t be about one radio station, because that ageism exists everywhere, in all four corners of the music industry.”

Dempsey explained how female artists he knew in the industry had complained they felt “less marketable” and that the COVID pandemic was forcing them to miss out on pivotal years in their music careers. All three Hit Different hosts said they thought it was “simply not fair”, as the internet is a key reason for many artists slipping through the cracks and losing strong fanbases as they got older.

With social media as relevant as ever in the music industry, Dempsey provided a small solution he uses to help keep his peers popular and relevant.

“It’s bigger than just music, it’s across society that people start to get marginalised or less seen at a certain point – it’s a discussion that needs to continue,” Dempsey said.

“One immediate power I feel like I do have is social media, if I hear something and I think it’s fantastic then I can just tell a lot of people about it with a few clicks, so that feels good.”

Hear the full story on Hit Different, a free weekly podcast that puts music culture in context.