ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the past, present, and future of Australian national identity through the lens of Australia’s national day and Australian popular music culture. On January 26, every year since 1901, Australians have marked their national day, Australia Day, on the anniversary of the day the first fleet of European settlers arrived in Sydney. As with any settler nation, this date is a fraught one for many – particularly for Australia’s Indigenous peoples, for whom this day marks the beginning of their dispossession from their ancestral lands. On January 26, every year since 1993, Australians have marked another tradition: triple j’s Hottest 100 – a showcase of the 100 most popular songs of the year as voted by the Australian people. I will demonstrate how current debates surrounding triple j’s Hottest 100 embody debates which are not being had within Australian culture. Ultimately, I will consider how music may be a place where psychic wounds in Australia’s national psyche may begin to heal.
