About RockLists
RockLists is an archive of the countdowns that rock radio stations broadcast to their listeners: the year-end Top 100s, the Memorial Day “500 greatest songs of all time” marathons, the decade retrospectives and the artist polls.
What is here
The archive currently holds 597 countdowns from 47 stations, networks and charts, covering 1977–2025. That adds up to 126,249 individual chart positions for 24,625 songs by 6,398 artists. Every list is presented complete and in the order the station broadcast it.
Because the same songs appear on many countdowns, the archive is also a record of taste over time. Each song and artist has a page collecting every appearance, and the lists are combined into rankings for each year, each decade and all time, following a simple, transparent points method.
Where the lists come from
The site opened in August 2004 with countdowns its founder had recorded from KROQ, 91X and Live 105 over the previous two decades, and grew through listener contributions: tapes, notebooks, printouts from station websites and screenshots of playlists. Where a list is incomplete or a position was never recovered, the page says so. Where a station’s own transcription contained obvious spelling mistakes, the artist and song names have been standardized so that every entry links to the right chart history; the original text is preserved in the database.
Which stations are included
The core of the archive is American commercial alternative radio in its 1980s new-wave and 1990s modern-rock eras, led by KROQ in Los Angeles, 91X in San Diego, Live 105 in San Francisco, Q101 in Chicago, WHFS in Washington and WFNX in Boston. Since 2026 the archive has grown well beyond that core: Triple J’s Hottest 100 from its first poll to today, Studio Brussel’s De Tijdloze, John Peel’s Festive Fifty, public radio polls from The Current, KEXP, WFUV and WXPN, and classic rock and hard rock countdowns from stations like Q104.3 and WMGK. Each format is ranked on its own, so the alternative rankings are not diluted by classic rock, and every countdown page shows where its data came from.
Members
Anyone can create an account to make ranked lists of their own, compare them with the radio consensus, vote in polls and have their contributions credited. Member lists are kept completely separate from the radio rankings.
Corrections and additions
Radio countdowns were transcribed by hand from broadcasts, so errors happen. If you spot a wrong position, a misattributed song or a missing list, please tell us. Every correction is credited.
Who runs it
RockLists is published by Capital Business Services Group, LLC, of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is supported by advertising and affiliate links. See the contact page for details.