Top 10 Rock Songs of the 2000s

Compiling a list of the top 10 rock songs of the 2000s is a difficult task, as the genre encompassed everything from folk to emo to metal to whatever you want to call Nickelback and Creed. Some of these songs rock harder than others, but they are all memorable.

Here’s one opinion of the top 10 rock songs of the 2000s. Each song title is linked to its music video on YouTube.

Top 10 rock songs of the 2000s:

10 Idioteque, Radiohead, 2000

By the time track 8 of Radiohead’s groundbreaking Kid A rolled around, listeners had grown used to the difficult nature of the album. And then out of nowhere came a catchy electronic dance beat and a bunch of seemingly random lyrics about scare mongering and mobiles chirping. “Idioteque” stood out like a sore thumb, in a good way.

9 Welcome to the Black Parade, My Chemical Romance, 2006

In 2006, goth rockers My Chemical Romance released the underappreciated concept album The Black Parade. The ambitious title track was notable for its grandeur, as it seamlessly shifted from a quiet piano intro to marching band drums, to massive guitars, to walls of vocals. The scope and structure of the song recalled “Bohemian Rhapsody,” not a coincidence since Queen was one of singer Gerard Way’s favorite bands.

8 Float On, Modest Mouse, 2004

Never known for their optimism, indie rock favorites Modest Mouse created one of the more memorable rock songs of the decade with “Float On.” Atop a hypnotically plodding rhythm, frontman Isaac Brock explained how crashing into a police car, getting scammed out of money, and getting fired aren’t things to worry about, because life will be ok. It’s the 2000s version of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”

7 Somebody Told Me, The Killers, 2004

This glitzy Las Vegas band hit the scene in 2004 and had an instant hit with “Somebody Told Me,” a dance-rock track featuring oodles of synthesizers and a cheeky chorus with Brandon Flowers singing the unforgettable line, “Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year.

6 Wolf Like Me, TV On the Radio, 2006

The ferocious “Wolf Like Me” paid tribute to blues singer Howlin’ Wolf while also rocking hard with an explosive bassline and a werewolf sex metaphor. TV On the Radio were adept at writing deep, complex songs, but this one was a straightforward, testosterone-driven song about satisfying primal urges.

5 Such Great Heights, The Postal Service, 2003

This song was a dreamy electro masterpiece created through the mail, as band members Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello put the song together by creating pieces of music and mailing the song back and forth, until they had edited it into its final version. Even the United States Postal Service approved – while the USPS initially threatened to sue the band for infringing on its name, they later reached a settlement that allowed “Such Great Heights” to be featured in USPS commercials.

4 Skinny Love, Bon Iver, 2008

In late 2006, Justin Vernon holed himself up in a cabin in Wisconsin and wrote what turned out to be the critically-acclaimed For Emma, Forever Ago. The acoustic “Skinny Love” found Vernon singing in a soft falsetto, before the chorus came along and Vernon started pouring his guts out. The raw, painful emotion was obvious. Such passion is a rare thing in rock music.

3 Stuck Between Stations, The Hold Steady, 2006

Brooklyn’s The Hold Steady earned the tag “America’s bar band” thanks to their accessible sound and everyman appeal. Frontman Craig Finn’s storytelling was second to none, and nowhere was that more evident than in “Stuck Between Stations,” their biggest hit. The song opened with a guitar riff that instantly grabbed the listener, then Finn proceeded to sing about Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, the poet John Berryman, and a cute girl who wasn’t all that strict of a Christian. It was gripping stuff all the way around.

2 American Idiot, Green Day, 2004

Thank goodness someone stole the master recordings for Green Day’s seventh album, because that forced the band to go back and start the writing process all over again. When they did, they emerged with the classic American Idiot, their most punk effort in years, both in terms of its sound and its message. Billie Joe Armstrong raged, “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda,” giving voice to the millions of Americans who felt disillusioned by the Bush administration.

1 Fell in Love with a Girl, White Stripes, 2002

The list of the top 10 rock songs of the 2000s is headed by one hundred and nine seconds of fury. The shortest hit single of the decade, “Fell in Love with a Girl” best defined the garage rock era and introduced Jack and Meg White to the masses. The initial confusion over the duo’s relationship (Siblings? Ex-lovers?) added to the mystique, as did the Lego-fied music video.

Sources:
http://www.mtv.com/bands/g/green_day/news_feature_040913/
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1491012/20040916/index.jhtml?headlines=true
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6724051