Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 19 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 2002

Q: What was the top rock song of 2002?

Combining 19 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2002 is "By the Way" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which appeared on 17 of the lists.

19 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, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), Virgin Radio, 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 17 of the 19 countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. 15 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 “Sorrow” by Bad Religion and others. System of a Down was the year’s most-charted artist, with six different songs placing 49 times across the countdowns.

19countdowns

602songs charted

15different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2002

All 602 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	1,572	17	#1	1
2	Aerials System of a Down	1,294	15	#1	2
3	You Know You're Right Nirvana	1,244	16	#1	2
4	All My Life Foo Fighters	1,221	16	#4	–
5	Fell in Love With a Girl The White Stripes	1,207	15	#1	2
6	Toxicity System of a Down	1,160	13	#2	–
7	Hate To Say I Told You So The Hives	1,075	14	#1	1
8	Get Free The Vines	1,061	16	#5	–
9	Sweetness Jimmy Eat World	1,059	13	#2	–
10	Running Away Hoobastank	1,058	14	#6	–
11	The Middle Jimmy Eat World	1,057	11	#2	–
12	In My Place Coldplay	1,030	16	#2	–
13	Warning Incubus	1,027	14	#7	–
14	Youth of the Nation P.O.D.	1,022	12	#1	1
15	Here to Stay Korn	1,015	14	#6	–
16	No One Knows Queens of the Stone Age	1,008	15	#1	1
17	Amber 311	995	14	#2	–
18	Blurry Puddle of Mudd	960	10	#1	2
19	For You Staind	934	12	#5	–
20	Cochise Audioslave	930	16	#19	–
21	Last Nite The Strokes	914	11	#2	–
22	She Hates Me Puddle of Mudd	902	13	#11	–
23	Prayer Disturbed	890	13	#3	–
24	Seein' Red Unwritten Law	880	13	#6	–
25	Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground The White Stripes	870	13	#15	–
26	Crawling in the Dark Hoobastank	816	10	#2	–
27	First Date blink-182	810	13	#4	–
28	Keep Fishin' Weezer	802	15	#6	–
29	Drift and Die Puddle of Mudd	791	13	#2	–
30	Lose Yourself Eminem	789	11	#1	1
31	Thoughtless Korn	782	13	#5	–
32	Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Good Charlotte	777	13	#13	–
33	I Am Mine Pearl Jam	760	16	#7	–
34	Without Me Eminem	759	11	#2	–
35	The Red Chevelle	753	12	#8	–
36	The Zephyr Song Red Hot Chili Peppers	745	12	#16	–
37	Someday The Strokes	733	13	#15	–
38	My Friends Over You New Found Glory	703	13	#18	–
39	I Stand Alone Godsmack	702	10	#1	1
40	Dope Nose Weezer	679	14	#8	–
41	Nice to Know You Incubus	654	10	#3	–
42	She Loves Me Not Papa Roach	647	12	#24	–
43	Flake Jack Johnson	631	10	#1	1
44	I Feel So Box Car Racer	619	13	#14	–
45	Hard to Explain The Strokes	579	12	#5	–
46	Bother Stone Sour	572	11	#6	–
47	Downfall Trust Company	571	9	#11	–
48	Screaming Infidelities Dashboard Confessional	569	11	#12	–
49	Somewhere Out There Our Lady Peace	564	12	#13	–
50	Clocks Coldplay	561	12	#7	–
51	I Wish You Were Here Incubus	546	7	#5	–
52	Still Waiting Sum 41	538	11	#17	–
53	Hero Chad Kroeger	533	9	#9	–
54	Boom P.O.D.	533	12	#12	–
55	It's Goin' Down X-Ecutioners	512	12	#19	–
56	Wasting My Time Default	498	9	#7	–
57	In the End Linkin Park	492	6	#4	–
58	A Praise Chorus Jimmy Eat World	471	12	#28	–
59	Fine Again Seether	465	11	#21	–
60	Where Are You Going? Dave Matthews Band	464	9	#5	–
61	One Last Breath Creed	444	7	#17	–
62	Chop Suey System of a Down	428	5	#1	1
63	Sorrow Bad Religion	427	7	#1	1
64	Defy You The Offspring	419	8	#20	–
65	Always Saliva	417	10	#29	–
66	My Sacrifice Creed	404	6	#5	–
67	Poem Taproot	398	10	#19	–
68	Epiphany Staind	388	8	#30	–
69	Too Bad Nickelback	381	6	#14	–
70	Never Gonna Stop Rob Zombie	369	7	#20	–
71	Deny Default	368	7	#17	–
72	Papercut Linkin Park	364	6	#28	–
73	The One Foo Fighters	357	9	#11	–
74	Rock Star N.E.R.D.	349	7	#29	–
75	Are You In Incubus	348	5	#9	–
76	Diamonds and Guns Transplants	345	8	#34	–
77	Tribute Tenacious D	345	7	#37	–
78	We Are All Made of Stars Moby	343	11	#31	–
79	Innervision System of a Down	340	12	#37	–
80	Electrical Storm U2	305	11	#41	–
81	Honestly Zwan	302	10	#25	–
82	Get Over It OK Go	293	8	#40	–
83	When I'm Gone 3 Doors Down	278	9	#39	–
84	Lost Cause Beck	278	6	#7	–
85	Zephyr Song Red Hot Chili Peppers	277	4	#10	–
86	Get Away Earshot	277	5	#14	–
87	Outtathaway The Vines	277	10	#21	–
88	Never Again Nickelback	263	5	#13	–
89	Friends and Family Trik Turner	263	7	#27	–
90	Parabola Tool	258	7	#7	–
91	Girl All the Bad Guys Want Bowling for Soup	256	5	#5	–
92	Alive P.O.D.	256	3	#8	–
93	There Is Box Car Racer	250	6	#18	–
94	Bubble Toes Jack Johnson	242	4	#11	–
95	Down With the Sickness Disturbed	240	3	#8	–
96	Pretty Girl Sugarcult	239	5	#36	–
97	Where Do We Go From Here Filter	238	8	#54	–
98	How You Remind Me Nickelback	238	4	#20	–
99	My December Linkin Park	231	4	#15	–
100	Innocent Our Lady Peace	228	7	#28	–

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
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Girls Are The New Boys Saloon	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 2002
Virgin Radio	By the Way Red Hot Chili Peppers	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 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 19 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.