Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 24 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 2003

Q: What was the top rock song of 2003?

Combining 24 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2003 is "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, which appeared on 24 of the lists.

24 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2003: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, K-Rock, WFNX, 89X, CD101, Y100, CFNY 102.1 The Edge, The Bear, The Buzz, WCCC The Rock, Channel 104.9, 102.1 The Edge, 102.7 WEQX, 103.1 The Buzz, 88.3 The Sting, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), WBCN, WBER, Triple J and Radio & Records. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2003 is “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes, which appeared on 24 of the 24 countdowns and was voted number one by eight of them. 15 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes (8 stations), “Like a Stone” by Audioslave (2 stations), “Headstrong” by Trapt (2 stations), “The Scientist” by Coldplay and “Faint” by Linkin Park and others. Audioslave was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 66 times across the countdowns.

24countdowns

692songs charted

15different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2003

All 692 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2003 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	2,307	24	#1	8
2	Like a Stone Audioslave	2,095	22	#1	3
3	Bring Me to Life Evanescence	1,665	19	#1	1
4	Somewhere I Belong Linkin Park	1,649	19	#1	1
5	Times Like These Foo Fighters	1,612	19	#3	–
6	Weak and Powerless A Perfect Circle	1,587	22	#10	–
7	Can't Stop Red Hot Chili Peppers	1,549	18	#2	–
8	Faint Linkin Park	1,545	19	#1	1
9	The Hardest Button to Button The White Stripes	1,512	22	#10	–
10	Just Because Jane's Addiction	1,474	22	#7	–
11	So Far Away Staind	1,474	19	#6	–
12	Headstrong Trapt	1,456	17	#1	2
13	Go With the Flow Queens of the Stone Age	1,413	20	#9	–
14	Clocks Coldplay	1,411	17	#1	1
15	Are You Gonna Be My Girl Jet	1,388	21	#1	1
16	The Boys of Summer The Ataris	1,388	19	#9	–
17	Show Me How to Live Audioslave	1,358	19	#9	–
18	There There Radiohead	1,317	20	#4	–
19	Send the Pain Below Chevelle	1,312	17	#3	–
20	Hey Ya! Outkast	1,274	16	#1	1
21	Girls Not Grey AFI	1,267	20	#7	–
22	Hands Down Dashboard Confessional	1,192	19	#6	–
23	Numb Linkin Park	1,182	19	#10	–
24	Feeling This blink-182	1,169	19	#5	–
25	No One Knows Queens of the Stone Age	1,162	13	#2	–
26	Bandages Hot Hot Heat	1,145	19	#3	–
27	Going Under Evanescence	1,107	18	#16	–
28	The Scientist Coldplay	1,067	17	#1	1
29	12:51 The Strokes	1,039	19	#8	–
30	Someday Nickelback	1,037	16	#3	–
31	I Hate Everything About You Three Days Grace	1,015	16	#4	–
32	When I'm Gone 3 Doors Down	1,012	14	#2	–
33	Creatures (For a While) 311	942	15	#16	–
34	Stupid Girl Cold	921	16	#11	–
35	Still Waiting Sum 41	889	12	#2	–
36	All My Life Foo Fighters	876	11	#6	–
37	Meant to Live Switchfoot	860	17	#11	–
38	Fall Back Down Rancid	837	18	#20	–
39	Minerva Deftones	828	16	#20	–
40	Swing Swing The All-American Rejects	822	13	#16	–
41	Dosed Red Hot Chili Peppers	820	15	#15	–
42	Bottom of a Bottle Smile Empty Soul	800	13	#10	–
43	Price to Play Staind	791	16	#27	–
44	Hit That The Offspring	777	19	#15	–
45	The Horizon Has Been Defeated Jack Johnson	767	15	#22	–
46	I Am the Highway Audioslave	755	17	#4	–
47	The Anthem Good Charlotte	747	14	#5	–
48	Honestly Zwan	721	19	#18	–
49	Falls On Me Fuel	719	15	#22	–
50	Straight Out of Line Godsmack	717	12	#3	–
51	Will You P.O.D.	707	16	#29	–
52	Serenity Godsmack	691	11	#7	–
53	Always Saliva	680	10	#14	–
54	Fine Again Seether	669	9	#16	–
55	The Leaving Song Pt. II AFI	662	14	#8	–
56	Hurt Johnny Cash	653	10	#6	–
57	Stacy's Mom Fountains of Wayne	649	11	#1	1
58	Still Frame Trapt	630	13	#8	–
59	The Red Chevelle	627	9	#8	–
60	Buried Myself Alive The Used	613	16	#36	–
61	Fortune Faded Red Hot Chili Peppers	586	15	#12	–
62	Diamonds and Guns Transplants	581	12	#8	–
63	In This Diary The Ataris	575	13	#19	–
64	Away From Me Puddle of Mudd	562	18	#27	–
65	Think Twice Eve 6	561	11	#11	–
66	The Hell Song Sum 41	559	13	#33	–
67	The Seed (2.0) The Roots	554	11	#4	–
68	Moses Coldplay	543	11	#25	–
69	Gravedigger Dave Matthews	536	12	#3	–
70	I Believe in a Thing Called Love The Darkness	478	12	#18	–
71	Did My Time Korn	451	11	#28	–
72	Remember Disturbed	448	9	#29	–
73	Darling Nikki Foo Fighters	437	8	#18	–
74	PDA Interpol	430	8	#29	–
75	Blue and Yellow The Used	428	12	#3	–
76	Here Without You 3 Doors Down	424	7	#5	–
77	Bad Day R.E.M.	420	8	#17	–
78	Go to Sleep Radiohead	417	9	#36	–
79	St. Anger Metallica	407	10	#27	–
80	United States of Whatever Liam Lynch	402	12	#5	–
81	It's My Life No Doubt	402	7	#6	–
82	With My Own Two Hands Ben Harper	394	9	#29	–
83	Innervision System of a Down	394	8	#38	–
84	Shatterday Vendetta Red	383	12	#31	–
85	The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows Brand New	377	11	#27	–
86	Way Away Yellowcard	376	11	#26	–
87	Amsterdam Guster	375	5	#3	–
88	Low Foo Fighters	367	13	#48	–
89	What It Is to Burn Finch	364	12	#46	–
90	Right Now Korn	363	10	#28	–
91	Driven Under Seether	362	9	#15	–
92	Closure Chevelle	362	9	#34	–
93	One Thing Finger Eleven	360	8	#14	–
94	You Know You're Right Nirvana	360	6	#5	–
95	Cochise Audioslave	353	8	#28	–
96	Try Honesty Billy Talent	345	9	#28	–
97	We Used To Be Friends The Dandy Warhols	341	7	#13	–
98	Sleeping Awake P.O.D.	341	13	#14	–
99	Liberate Disturbed	341	6	#4	–
100	All That's Left Thrice	336	11	#50	–

Every station’s number one of 2003

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 2003
91X	The Scientist Coldplay	91X Top 91 Songs of 2003
Live 105	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 2003
Q101	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 2003
WHFS	Like a Stone Audioslave	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 2003
K-Rock	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	K-Rock Top 92.3 Songs of 2003
WFNX	Headstrong Trapt	WFNX Top 100 Songs of 2003
89X	Faint Linkin Park	89X Top 89 Songs of 2003
CD101	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2003
Y100	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	Y100 Top 100 Songs of 2003
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	Somewhere I Belong Linkin Park	CFNY Top 102 Songs of 2003
The Bear	Clocks Coldplay	The Bear Top 107 Songs of 2003
The Buzz	Seven Nation Army The White Stripes	The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2003
WCCC The Rock	Stillborn (Planet of Sound version) Zakk Wylde	WCCC Top 106 Songs of 2003
Channel 104.9	Bring Me to Life Evanescence	Channel 104.9 Top 104.9 Songs of 2003
102.1 The Edge	Stacy's Mom Fountains of Wayne	KDGE Top 102 Songs of 2003
102.7 WEQX	Hey Ya Outkast	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2003
103.1 The Buzz	Kickout The Exies	Buzz 103.1 Top 103 Buzz Cuts of 2003
88.3 The Sting	What It Is To Burn Finch	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 50 Songs of 2003
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Don't Touch That Dial Cinerama	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 2003
WBCN	Like A Stone Audioslave	WBCN Top 104 Songs of 2003
WBER	Seven Nation Army White Stripes	WBER Listener Countdown 2003
Triple J	Are You Gonna Be My Girl? Jet	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2003
Radio & Records	Headstrong Trapt	Radio & Records Top 100 Songs of 2003

All 2003 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2003 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 2003 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 24 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.