On Tuesday, Triple J will open voting for The Hottest 100 of the Decade, a bigger and better version of the annual competition. It is a time reflect on the past 10 years, to relive precious memories, and to argue fruitlessly with friends, family and colleagues about popular music. But it is more than that. It is a shot at redemption. The Hottest 100 of the Decade is an opportunity to rectify a national disgrace.

Five years ago, Triple J banned Taylor Swift from their annual countdown. If the Hottest 100 is, as it is so often claimed, "the world's greatest music democracy", then that was its darkest day, its march on Rome, its October Revolution, its Iowa caucus, its burning of the Reichstag.

Taylor Swift in the music video for her hit Shake It Off. Credit:Taylor Swift Vevo

It was a complicated and controversial saga. I wrote about it at the time, in a level of detail I can only attribute to having been unemployed.

The truncated history is that Taylor Swift had been uncool for years and then, quite suddenly late in 2014, was very cool indeed. Her single Shake it Off, was more than just a good song; it was a cultural moment. Across the world, otherwise normal people realised that they loved Swift.