What was the top rock song of 2008?

Combining 23 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2008 is "Sex On Fire" by Kings of Leon, which appeared on 23 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 23 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 2008

23 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2008: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, CFNY 102.1 The Edge, 102.7 WEQX, 103.1 The Buzz, 103.1 The River, 105.7 The Point, 107.1 The Peak, 88.3 The Sting, 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, 94.1 The Zone, 99 Rock, ALT 104.5, KFMA, KSLG, KWOD, Lightning 100, Studio Brussel, WBER, WVBR, WXPN and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2008 is “Sex On Fire” by Kings of Leon, which appeared on 23 of the 23 countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. 19 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay (3 stations), “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon (2 stations), “I Will Possess Your Heart” by Death Cab For Cutie (2 stations), “You're Gonna Go Far, Kid” by The Offspring and “2AM” by Slightly Stoopid and others. Coldplay was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 62 times across the countdowns.

23countdowns

885songs charted

19different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2008

All 885 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2008 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Sex On Fire Kings of Leon	1,830	23	#1	2
2	Viva La Vida Coldplay	1,787	22	#1	4
3	I Will Possess Your Heart Death Cab for Cutie	1,640	20	#1	2
4	Pork And Beans Weezer	1,598	20	#1	2
5	Let It Die Foo Fighters	1,213	16	#2	–
6	Human The Killers	1,183	21	#11	–
7	Believe The Bravery	1,149	14	#2	–
8	Long Road to Ruin Foo Fighters	1,134	15	#5	–
9	Volet Hill Coldplay	1,076	21	#12	–
10	You're Gonna Go Far, Kid The Offspring	1,076	15	#1	1
11	A-Punk Vampire Weekend	1,019	16	#6	–
12	Troublemaker Weezer	1,018	14	#7	–
13	Handlebars Flobots	1,018	13	#2	–
14	If I Had Eyes Jack Johnson	1,009	15	#1	1
15	Hammerhead The Offspring	998	14	#2	–
16	Time To Pretend MGMT	976	15	#1	1
17	I'm Not Over Carolina Liar	948	14	#13	–
18	Lost! Coldplay	936	16	#1	1
19	Re-Education (Through Labor) Rise Against	929	14	#4	–
20	Salute Your Solution The Raconteurs	885	16	#4	–
21	Inside The Fire Disturbed	865	11	#3	–
22	The Pretender Foo Fighters	804	11	#1	1
23	Supernatural Superserious R.E.M.	761	13	#3	–
24	Love Me Dead Ludo	754	11	#2	–
25	Given Up Linkin Park	742	10	#6	–
26	Believe Staind	732	12	#3	–
27	Discipline Nine Inch Nails	731	13	#4	–
28	Cath Death Cab for Cutie	717	18	#20	–
29	Paper Planes M.I.A.	687	10	#2	–
30	Rise Above This Seether	682	11	#3	–
31	Sometime Around Midnight The Airborne Toxic Event	672	13	#9	–
32	The Day That Never Comes Metallica	661	13	#8	–
33	The Western World Pennywise	651	11	#1	1
34	Electric Feel MGMT	645	8	#2	–
35	I'm Amazed My Morning Jacket	638	8	#8	–
36	Kids MGMT	622	10	#5	–
37	Love Hurts Incubus	620	12	#13	–
38	Shadow of the Day Linkin Park	617	9	#4	–
39	I Don't Care Apocalyptica	614	8	#1	1
40	Empty Walls Serj Tankian	593	10	#10	–
41	Gamma Ray Beck	577	13	#10	–
42	Shadowplay The Killers	560	10	#8	–
43	Bodysnatchers Radiohead	550	10	#9	–
44	Paralyzer Finger Eleven	519	6	#6	–
45	Bleed It Out Linkin Park	515	9	#5	–
46	They Say Scars On Broadway	498	9	#20	–
47	The Good Left Undone Rise Against	495	7	#3	–
48	Psycho Puddle of Mudd	495	7	#1	1
49	crushcrushcrush Paramore	492	10	#11	–
50	You Don'T Know Me Ben Folds	490	6	#1	1
51	Always Where I Need to Be The Kooks	481	12	#33	–
52	It's Not My Time 3 Doors Down	477	7	#6	–
53	Hope Jack Johnson	470	10	#11	–
54	Mercy Duffy	469	6	#2	–
55	Wild International One Day As A Lion	468	9	#21	–
56	The Shock Of The Lightning Oasis	462	9	#17	–
57	Shut Up And Let Me Go The Ting Tings	456	9	#16	–
58	Nine In The Afternoon Panic! at the Disco	451	10	#5	–
59	Falling Down Atreyu	448	7	#13	–
60	Fake It Seether	441	7	#2	–
61	House Of Cards Radiohead	413	5	#3	–
62	Decode Paramore	404	10	#26	–
63	Never Too Late Three Days Grace	402	6	#12	–
64	Come Around Counting Crows	395	5	#5	–
65	Don't You Evah Spoon	393	7	#27	–
66	Leave Out All The Rest Linkin Park	393	9	#16	–
67	Jigsaw Falling Into Place Radiohead	388	8	#7	–
68	L.E.S. Artistes Santigold	383	6	#21	–
69	Something Is Not Right With Me Cold War Kids	383	10	#35	–
70	Take Back The City Snow Patrol	382	7	#17	–
71	Help Me Alkaline Trio	382	9	#29	–
72	Beautiful 10 Years	374	7	#18	–
73	Stop! Against Me!	365	8	#13	–
74	You are the best thing Ray LaMontagne	362	5	#6	–
75	I'm Yours Jason Mraz	359	4	#4	–
76	Addicted Saving Abel	359	5	#4	–
77	You Atmosphere	358	7	#9	–
78	What I've Done Linkin Park	356	6	#22	–
79	Funplex The B-52's	347	9	#42	–
80	Feel Good Drag Anberlin	339	6	#9	–
81	Shattered (Turn the Car Around) O.A.R.	332	4	#8	–
82	Mother Mary Foxboro Hot Tubs	332	9	#24	–
83	Icky Thump The White Stripes	331	5	#8	–
84	That's Not My Name The Ting Tings	330	5	#9	–
85	The Way I Am Ingrid Michaelson	323	4	#5	–
86	Bad Girlfriend Theory of a Deadman	320	5	#11	–
87	You Can't Count On Me Counting Crows	313	4	#6	–
88	Almost Easy Avenged Sevenfold	313	6	#13	–
89	Sky Is Over Serj Tankian	310	9	#38	–
90	The Resolution Jack's Mannequin	310	6	#9	–
91	Say Hey (I Love You) Michael Franti & Spearhead	309	5	#26	–
92	Slow Burn Atreyu	301	5	#14	–
93	Oxford Comma Vampire Weekend	300	5	#10	–
94	Rock & Roll Eric Hutchinson	297	4	#4	–
95	Undead Hollywood Undead	280	7	#34	–
96	Strange Overtones David Byrne and Brian Eno	277	4	#8	–
97	Hard Sun Eddie Vedder	276	7	#8	–
98	I Get It Chevelle	276	5	#16	–
99	Make You Crazy Brett Dennen	272	5	#31	–
100	I Kissed A Girl Katy Perry	271	5	#18	–

Every station’s number one of 2008

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	You're Gonna Go Far, Kid The Offspring	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 2008
91X	2AM Slightly Stoopid	91X Top 91 Songs of 2008
Live 105	Viva La Vida Coldplay	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 2008
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	Pork And Beans Weezer	102.1 The Edge's Top 102 Songs of 2008
102.7 WEQX	You Don't Know Me Ben Folds	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2008
103.1 The Buzz	Breath Breaking Benjamin	Buzz 103.1 Top 103 Buzz Cuts of 2008
103.1 The River	Viva La Vida Coldplay	103.1 The River Top 103 of 2008
105.7 The Point	Psycho Puddle of Mudd	105.7 The Point Top 106 Songs of 2008
107.1 The Peak	Viva La Vida Coldplay	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2008
88.3 The Sting	Sweet & Low Augustana	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2008
88Nine Radio Milwaukee	Sex on Fire Kings of Leon	88Nine Radio Milwaukee Top 100 Songs of 2008
94.1 The Zone	I'll Keep Your Memory Vague Finger Eleven	94.1 The Zone Most Played Songs of 2008
99 Rock	All The Same Sick Puppies	99Rock WFRD Top 99 of 2008
ALT 104.5	I'm Outta Time Oasis	Radio 104.5 Top 50.5 Songs of 2008
KFMA	The Western World Pennywise	KFMA Top 50 Songs of 2008
KSLG	Time to Pretend MGMT	KSLG Top 94 of 2008
KWOD	New Low Middle Class Rut	KWOD Top 106 Songs of 2008
Lightning 100	If I Had Eyes Jack Johnson	Lightning 100 Top 100 Songs of 2008
Studio Brussel	The architect dEUS	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2008
WBER	I Will Possess Your Heart Death Cab For Cutie	WBER Listener Countdown 2008
WVBR	Lost Coldplay	WVBR Top 93 of 2008
WXPN	I Will Possess Your Heart Death Cab for Cutie	WXPN Year in Review: Top 100 Songs of 2008
Triple J	Sex on Fire Kings of Leon	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2008

All 2008 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2008 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 2008 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 23 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.