Are These the Greatest Rock Songs of the Century?

January 15, 2021 2 min read

Earlier this week, an article popped up in my newsfeed that caught my attention.

Titled “The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of the Century… So Far”, it ran down the best tracks of the 2000s and 2010s as chosen by the staff of Louder Sound. It’s quite a list, and if you’ve got a couple of hours to spend listening to some great tunes, I’d recommend having a read of it in full.

For the time being, though, here is the top 20:

20. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole

19. Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way

18. Rival Sons - Keep On Swinging

17. The Struts - Kiss This

16. Motorhead - Life's A Bitch

15. Green Day - American Idiot

14. Slash featuring Andrew Stockdale - By The Sword

13. The Wildhearts - Diagnosis

12. Clutch - Electric Worry

11. ZZ Top - I Gotsa Get Paid

10. Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows

9. Iron Maiden - Blood Brothers

8. Audioslave - Cochise

7. Velvet Revolver - Slither

6. Rush - Caravan

5. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

4. Foo Fighters - Best Of You

3. Alter Bridge - Blackbird

2. AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train

1. The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love

After a while of reading and re-reading this list, I gave up trying to weigh up the merits and demerits of the selections and whether or not they truly were the “greatest.” Ultimately, it’s impossible to qualify that, given the subjectivity of these things. Besides, I loved so many of the songs on the list in equal measure, I found it way too difficult to rank them.

But, it did get me to wondering; what are the tracks that have really impacted me in the past twenty years? Which songs have ear wormed their way through my brain and made me truly grateful for the existence of guitar-based music.

In no particular order, I’ve decided to share a couple of my favourites that didn’t make it onto Louder Sound’s list:

Jared James Nichols – Nails in the Coffin

Graveyard – The Siren

Priestess – Lay Down

KISS – Modern Day Delilah

So those are just a couple of mine (that probably betray my love for classic sounding hard rock, but there ya go!).

But I want to know what yours are. Which songs have spoken to you over the past two decades? Doesn’t have to be rock. Doesn’t even have to be guitar based. It can be unsigned local bands you dig, or major stadium fillers.

Whatever’s been speaking to you, we want to know about it! So as always, share your stories in the comments section.

Oh, and hey, if you want to use this thread to promote your own music, we won’t hold that against ya either!

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