Listening to Triple M at Work: Does Sam Rate It?
Music can either make or break a job. A workplace where you can take control of the AUX is everyone’s dream. It can make tedious work go quickly and unpleasant work slightly more bearable. But not everyone has that luxury. My current manager is a 50-something who, assumably, grew up listening to music. His son, who also works there, has a very similar music taste. They are often heard whistling, humming and singing along to whatever old song comes on Triple M, their station of choice. It seems made for them. Having grown up listening to my Dad’s collections of music, I feel that I, too, have a sliver of that taste in music, but it’s always been music that I go to sparingly. So how does Triple M fair when listened to every day? It’s complicated.
Presenters
Triple M, like most commercial radio stations, take great pride in their presenters. Just like Lebron moving to the Lakers, presenters often move between stations and cities, chasing the best-paying gig. They can be found plastered on billboards, buses and taxis all over the city. There is a plethora of cross-promotion between shows during the day and every show seems to hype the next one up more than the last show hyped theirs. Most of the presenters are bearable, but that’s probably the best compliment I can give. I don’t find myself laughing or intrigued when I listen, and it seems like their egos greatly overshadow their talent and personality. There is no greater example of this than the insufferable Mick Molloy. I didn’t know I disliked this man until I had to listen to him every day. Well, I’m not sure that I dislike him, but his loud, annoying voice sounds like Frank Walker of National Tiles fame if his voice were and octave deeper, 10 decibels louder and was spouting absolute nonsense; it certainly doesn’t make for pleasant listening.
Audience
There is one example that comes to mind when I consider Triple M’s audience. They were in a discussion regarding the banning of grid girls in Formula 1 racing, and whether V8 Supercars should do the same. A listener called in to make the remark: “What else are we supposed to look at while we wait for the cars?” I realise that that’s a generalisation and it doesn’t represent the views of all Triple M listeners, so it’s a hard call to make.
Ads
Just like triple j has entry-level hipsters and Nova has suburban soccer mum’s trying to appear trendy to their children’s friends, Triple M has a very distinct listenership. As you could guess from listening to the ads, it seems to consist of blokes who use tools during the day, drink beer at night and bet on sport on the weekends. Many obnoxious, “blokey-bloke” voices, not dissimilar to the aforementioned Mr Molloy, can be heard telling us about some gambling app’s newest weekly special or how good a particular drop of beer would go down after knockoff. But it wouldn’t make a difference, any radio advertising is enough to turn me off.
Music
Triple M probably have less of a diverse playlist than most radio stations. The music they play does span generations, but for the most part, it consists of only rock and roll and it’s many subgenres. For that reason, it’s a playlist I absolutely love. Most of the music played on Triple M is music from my Dad’s collection; music that I grew up listening to. It’s an era of music I rarely hear on commercial radio. Almost every day I’ll hear hits from Hunters & Collectors, Australian Crawl, Divinyls, The Angels, Fleetwood Mac, Queen and so many more. I’ve discovered recognisable songs of that generation from bands like Big Country, Tears for Fears and R.E.M. They have a small array of contemporary rock songs that get regular play from bands like Gang of Youths, Vance Joy and Royal Blood. You’ll also hear songs that you’d expect like Eye of the Tiger, I’m Gonna Be and All Star unironically, but we can’t have it all, can we?
It’s an era of music that I feel has been neglected by contemporary music listeners but seems to be resurging. Perhaps that’s just because I would lose my shit if I heard the shrill guitar intro of Hunters and Collectors’ Talking to a Stranger while sitting in a bar, but I reckon it would go off. We’re hearing more and more sounds that seem to have been influenced by this era, and I’m not complaining. If you’re interested in joining the resurgence, or just want to hear some absolute belters of times passed, take a listen to a playlist I’ve slapped together below.
The shitty ads, annoying presenters and obnoxious listeners are a small price to pay. Solely because I get to hear such great tunes that I wouldn’t normally hear during my day, I highly rate listening to Triple M at work. Nothing motivates me to stack apples quicker than responding “no way, get fucked, fuck off!” to the radio in my head.
