User:EdgyVeggie505/sandbox

State of the Art is the fifth studio album released by Australian hip hop trio, Hilltop Hoods, on 12 June 2009.[2] It was released after it's first single 'The Hard Road', and was followed by the released of 2 more singles from the album, 'Still Standing' and 'The Light You Burned'. the entire album is 14 tracks long (including 2 bonus tracks). The album follows on with

State of the Art is the first release by their newly founded record label, Golden Era Records. It is the first release to be made by the group since their ARIA Award winning album, The Hard Road, in 2006, and its remix album, The Hard Road: Restrung, which was released in 2007. The first track on the album, "The Return" is about how long it had been since they last released an album. The first single, "Chase that Feeling", was released on 5 May 2009.[4] The album debuted at number one on the Australian ARIA Charts and has been certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments exceeding 140,000 copies.[5] The album features appearances by a quartet from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Trials, Pharoahe Monch, and on the bonus tracks also Vents, Funkoars and Briggs who are also signed to Golden Era Records.

State of the art, like many Hilltop Hoods releases, feature sounds samples from a variety of sources.

State of the Art is the 4th studio album to feature the character of 'Armageddon' on the cover, a creation of Hilltop Hoods to adorn their albums^[1] . The trio consider him to he the 4th member of the band, and said they were inspired in their youth to create him by Iron Maiden's popular character 'Eddie'^{[1] [2]} .

The illustration for the album and associated releases was provided by John Engelhardt^[3] , and graphic design provided by April77 Creative^{[4] [3]} . Associated Photography release with the album was created by Mathematics & Conan Whitehouse, and Image post production services was provided by Ben Funnel^[3] .

Singles 'Still Standing', 'The Light You Burned' and 'Chase that feeling' were also released with covers featuring Armageddon.

Hilltop Hoods promoted their album with their 'State of the Art' tour, with support act Canadian hip hop artist Classified (rapper), and Australian rapper Briggs.^[5]

‘State of the Art’ spend 2 weeks at number 1 in the ARIA charts after it was released on 12 June 2009. It overtook The Black Eyed Peas album ‘the E.N.D.’ which held the number 1 position for 3 consecutive weeks before the release of 'State of the Art'. ^[6] Following the death of Michael Jackson on 25th June 2009, ^[7] album "The Essential Michael Jackson" overtook "State of the Art" and remained at number one for 7 weeks, despite its release in 2005. ^[8]

After dropping from the number 1 spot, ‘State of the Art’ spent a total of 28 weeks within the ARIA top 50 albums Chart. ^[9]

After its initial 21 week streak, the album left the top 50 for 7 weeks, then placed on and off over the next 5 weeks.

^[9] The album took an almost 10 year hiatus from the top 50 album charts, but returned for a single week at position #41 in December 2019. ^[9] .

'Chase that Feeling', the first single from the album, was released on the 5th of May and peaked at number 8 in the weekly ARIA top 50 Singles Charts. ^[10] It remained in the top 50 for 28 weeks. ^[10] 'Still Standing' is the second single from 'State of the Art' and was released with the album on 12th June 2009. ^[11] It peaked at number 34 in the ARIA Top Weekly Singles Charts, and spent 6 weeks in the top 50. ^[11]

'State of the Art' was number 1 on the Weekly Top Urban Album Chart for three weeks (22 June- 6 July). ^[12] Only 8 albums held the top position in this chart through 2009.^[12]

'State of the Art' finished at number 12 in the Yearly ARIA Top 25 Albums Chart, it was their first album to be included in this chart. ^[13] Albums to follow from Hilltop Hoods to be ranked in this chart include ‘Drinking from the Sun’ which came in 13th in 2011, ^[14] ‘Walking Under Stars’ which came in 9th in 2014, ^[15] and 25th in 2015. ^[16] Their last album to reach this chart was ‘Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung’ which reached number 13 in the 2016 chart. ^[17]

Popular Australian youth radio station Triple J hosts an annual listener poll of the ‘Hottest 100’ songs released in that year. In 2009 1.1 million votes were tallied, and the results aired on the 26th of January 2010.^[18]

'Chase that Feeling' came in at number 3, behind 'Little Lion Man' by Mumford and Sons (number 1) and 'Parle Vous Francais' by Art vs. Science (number 2).^[19] 'Still Standing' placed at 37, making them one of 23 artist to receive at least 2 songs nominations in the 100.^[19] 'Chase That Feeling' was also selected with 41 other songs from the 100 to be released in Triple j Hottest 100 Volume 17 CD, representing the countdown of that year. The song features as track 6 in disc 1 of the CD release.

When ‘Chase that feeling’ placed 3rd, they tied the record for highest placed hip hop song in the hottest 100 with 3 other songs. Their own song ‘The Hard Road’ placed 3rd in 2006,^[20] as did the Gorillaz ‘Feel Good Inc.’ in 2005,^[21] and Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ in 1995.^[22] This tied record was broken in 2012 when ‘Thrift Shop’ by Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz placed number 1.^[23]

Like the yearly Hottest 100 poll, occasionally special edition polls are run by the youth radio station. One of these was the Triple J Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time vote which ran in 2011, where the radio station invited listeners to submit votes for their favourite Australian Album. ‘State of the Art’ placed 85th in this countdown, alongside the 16th placed ‘The Hard Road’ and ‘The Calling’ which placed 23rd. ^[24] Hilltop Hoods were one of 9 artists to receive at least 3 albums ranked in this Hottest 100 .^[24]

In this section I believe that Triple J (radio station) will be an excellent source as the leading music outlet for alternative australian hiphop.^[27]

Following this, I want to include a brief overview of the audience opinion using the data gathered in the Triple J hottest 100, as a representation of the audience reception of its release. ^[28]

At the J Awards of 2009, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year.^[29]

Describe your media- My media is a graph showing the performance of the Hilltop Hoods Album 'State of the Art', and the 2 singles from this album 'Chase That Feeling' and 'Still Standing'. The position in the top 50 Australian charts is plotted on the x axis, and the dates are shown on the y axis.

Is it your own work- Yes, i found the data while working on my article and created the image to best display it.

What is the file format- JPEG

Which license did you use- self|cc-by4.0

What category/ gallery did you add it to- Australian Music, Hip Hop, Hilltop Hoods

How will you describe the file- This image shows the weekly position of the Hilltop Hoods Album 'State of the Art' and the 2 singles from it 'Chase That Feeling' and 'Still Standing' in the ARIA weekly top 50 singles chart, and ARIA weekly top 50 albums chart.