Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 25 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 2002

Q: What was the top rock song of 2002?

Combining 25 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2002 is "By the Way" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which appeared on 22 of the lists.

25 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2002: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, K-Rock, WFNX, 107.7 The End, 89X, CD101, Y100, The Buzz, WCCC The Rock, Channel 104.9, 102.7 WEQX, 103.1 The Buzz, 88.3 The Sting, 93XRT, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), Radio 104.1, Virgin Radio, WBER, Triple J, Radio & Records and KNAC. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2002 is “By the Way” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which appeared on 22 of the 25 countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. 20 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Fell in Love With a Girl” by The White Stripes (2 stations), “Aerials” by System of a Down (2 stations), “Blurry” by Puddle of Mudd (2 stations), “You Know You're Right” by Nirvana (2 stations) and “Flake” by Jack Johnson (2 stations) and others. System of a Down was the year’s most-charted artist, with six different songs placing 62 times across the countdowns.

25countdowns

768songs charted

20different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2002

All 768 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2002 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	By the Way Red Hot Chili Peppers	1,964	22	#1	1
2	Aerials System of a Down	1,616	19	#1	2
3	Toxicity System of a Down	1,537	18	#1	1
4	You Know You're Right Nirvana	1,497	19	#1	2
5	All My Life Foo Fighters	1,473	19	#4	–
6	Sweetness Jimmy Eat World	1,467	18	#2	–
7	The Middle Jimmy Eat World	1,444	15	#1	1
8	Fell in Love With a Girl The White Stripes	1,433	19	#1	2
9	Hate To Say I Told You So The Hives	1,385	18	#1	1
10	Warning Incubus	1,343	18	#7	–
11	Get Free The Vines	1,320	20	#5	–
12	Running Away Hoobastank	1,319	17	#4	–
13	Blurry Puddle of Mudd	1,299	14	#1	2
14	In My Place Coldplay	1,283	20	#2	–
15	Amber 311	1,279	18	#2	–
16	The Zephyr Song Red Hot Chili Peppers	1,276	20	#10	–
17	Here to Stay Korn	1,263	18	#6	–
18	Youth of the Nation P.O.D.	1,259	15	#1	1
19	Seein' Red Unwritten Law	1,253	18	#6	–
20	No One Knows Queens of the Stone Age	1,189	18	#1	1
21	Prayer Disturbed	1,178	17	#3	–
22	Crawling in the Dark Hoobastank	1,169	14	#2	–
23	She Hates Me Puddle of Mudd	1,145	16	#11	–
24	Cochise Audioslave	1,140	20	#19	–
25	For You Staind	1,129	14	#1	1
26	Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground The White Stripes	1,082	17	#8	–
27	First Date blink-182	1,070	17	#4	–
28	The Red Chevelle	1,027	16	#8	–
29	Keep Fishin' Weezer	992	18	#6	–
30	My Friends Over You New Found Glory	985	17	#18	–
31	Last Nite The Strokes	977	12	#2	–
32	Dope Nose Weezer	967	19	#8	–
33	I Am Mine Pearl Jam	948	19	#7	–
34	Thoughtless Korn	947	16	#5	–
35	Drift and Die Puddle of Mudd	944	15	#2	–
36	Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Good Charlotte	944	16	#13	–
37	Nice to Know You Incubus	925	14	#3	–
38	Without Me Eminem	922	13	#2	–
39	She Loves Me Not Papa Roach	905	17	#10	–
40	Downfall Trust Company	904	15	#11	–
41	Lose Yourself Eminem	887	12	#1	1
42	Someday The Strokes	879	15	#15	–
43	Flake Jack Johnson	874	14	#1	2
44	I Feel So Box Car Racer	866	17	#14	–
45	Somewhere Out There Our Lady Peace	825	16	#2	–
46	I Stand Alone Godsmack	816	12	#1	1
47	Screaming Infidelities Dashboard Confessional	798	16	#3	–
48	Hero Chad Kroeger	792	13	#9	–
49	Clocks Coldplay	773	15	#7	–
50	Hard to Explain The Strokes	728	15	#5	–
51	Bother Stone Sour	676	13	#6	–
52	Still Waiting Sum 41	672	14	#17	–
53	A Praise Chorus Jimmy Eat World	669	16	#24	–
54	It's Goin' Down X-Ecutioners	647	14	#19	–
55	Boom P.O.D.	647	16	#12	–
56	Too Bad Nickelback	628	10	#10	–
57	Fine Again Seether	618	14	#21	–
58	Sorrow Bad Religion	615	9	#1	1
59	I Wish You Were Here Incubus	610	8	#5	–
60	In the End Linkin Park	585	7	#4	–
61	Wasting My Time Default	584	10	#7	–
62	Always Saliva	574	13	#29	–
63	Where Are You Going? Dave Matthews Band	558	11	#5	–
64	One Last Breath Creed	539	9	#17	–
65	Poem Taproot	520	13	#19	–
66	Papercut Linkin Park	514	8	#2	–
67	Get Over It OK Go	512	12	#39	–
68	Lost Cause Beck	501	9	#7	–
69	Electrical Storm U2	501	14	#9	–
70	Never Gonna Stop Rob Zombie	500	9	#20	–
71	My Sacrifice Creed	500	8	#5	–
72	Defy You The Offspring	498	10	#20	–
73	Deny Default	496	9	#17	–
74	Innocent Our Lady Peace	485	11	#11	–
75	Chop Suey System of a Down	481	6	#1	1
76	Epiphany Staind	465	10	#30	–
77	Rock Star N.E.R.D.	464	9	#18	–
78	Innervision System of a Down	455	15	#37	–
79	Are You In Incubus	440	6	#9	–
80	We Are All Made of Stars Moby	433	13	#31	–
81	Bubble Toes Jack Johnson	405	7	#11	–
82	The One Foo Fighters	391	10	#11	–
83	Girl All the Bad Guys Want Bowling for Soup	380	8	#5	–
84	There Is Box Car Racer	374	9	#18	–
85	When I'm Gone 3 Doors Down	373	12	#39	–
86	Get Away Earshot	370	7	#13	–
87	Parabola Tool	368	9	#7	–
88	Where Do We Go From Here Filter	367	12	#54	–
89	Outtathaway The Vines	366	12	#21	–
90	Tribute Tenacious D	356	8	#37	–
91	The Way You Like It Adema	352	9	#14	–
92	A Sorta Fairytale Tori Amos	345	8	#13	–
93	Diamonds and Guns Transplants	345	8	#34	–
94	Up All Night Unwritten Law	329	9	#3	–
95	Friends and Family Trik Turner	318	10	#27	–
96	How You Remind Me Nickelback	316	5	#20	–
97	Alive P.O.D.	315	4	#8	–
98	Bouncing Off the Walls Sugarcult	310	7	#19	–
99	Hey Mister Custom	303	8	#42	–
100	Honestly Zwan	302	10	#25	–

Every station’s number one of 2002

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Fell in Love With a Girl The White Stripes	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 2002
91X	Sorrow Bad Religion	91X Top 91 Songs of 2002
Live 105	Hate to Say I Told You So The Hives	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 2002
Q101	Youth of the Nation P.O.D.	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 2002
WHFS	Aerials System of a Down	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 2002
K-Rock	Blurry Puddle of Mudd	K-Rock Top 92.3 Songs of 2002
WFNX	Aerials System of a Down	WFNX Top 100 Songs of 2002
107.7 The End	You Know You're Right Nirvana	The End Top 107 Songs of 2002
89X	Lose Yourself Eminem	89X Top 89 Songs of 2002
CD101	Fell in Love With a Girl The White Stripes	CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2002
Y100	Chop Suey System of a Down	Y100 Top 100 Songs of 2002
The Buzz	You Know You're Right Nirvana	The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2002
WCCC The Rock	I Stand Alone Godsmack	WCCC Top 106 Songs of 2002
Channel 104.9	Flake Jack Johnson	Channel 104.9 Top 104.9 Songs of 2002
102.7 WEQX	Flake Jack Johnson	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2002
103.1 The Buzz	For You Staind	Buzz 103.1 The 103 Most Played Buzz Cuts of 2002
88.3 The Sting	Your Gravest Words The Lawrence Arms	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 40 Songs of 2002
93XRT	Don't Know Why Norah Jones	WXRT Listener Poll: Top 30 Songs of 2002
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Girls Are The New Boys Saloon	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 2002
Radio 104.1	Toxicity System of a Down	WMRQ Top 104 Songs of 2002
Virgin Radio	By the Way Red Hot Chili Peppers	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 2002
WBER	Rebels Of The Sacred Heart Flogging Molly	WBER Listener Countdown 2002
Triple J	No One Knows Queens of the Stone Age	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2002
Radio & Records	Blurry Puddle of Mudd	Radio & Records Top 100 Songs of 2002
KNAC	I'm Hiding Korn	KNAC Top 105 Songs of 2002

All 2002 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2002 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 2002 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all 25 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.