What was the top rock song of 2010?

Combining 9 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2010 is "Tighten Up" by The Black Keys, which appeared on 8 of the lists.

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

The best rock songs of 2010

Nine radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2010: KROQ, 91X, Q101, WFNX, CD101, CFNY 102.1 The Edge, Studio Brussel, The Current and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2010 is “Tighten Up” by The Black Keys, which appeared on eight of the nine countdowns. Eight different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Lay Me Down” by The Dirty Heads Featuring Rome (2 stations), “Lisztomania” by Phoenix, “Odd One” by Sick Puppies, “Little Lion Man” by Mumford and Sons and “Home” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and others. Muse was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 22 times across the countdowns.

9countdowns

473songs charted

8different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2010

All 473 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2010 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Tighten Up The Black Keys	678	8	#2	–
2	Little Lion Man Mumford & Sons	572	7	#1	1
3	Resistance Muse	568	7	#2	–
4	Ready to Start The Arcade Fire	539	8	#4	–
5	Animal Neon Trees	485	6	#3	–
6	Lisztomania Phoenix	474	5	#1	1
7	Sweet Disposition The Temper Trap	435	5	#6	–
8	Cousins Vampire Weekend	375	6	#8	–
9	Bloodbuzz Ohio The National	368	5	#15	–
10	Dog Days Are Over Florence And The Machine	365	5	#1	1
11	Radioactive Kings of Leon	358	9	#17	–
12	My Best Theory Jimmy Eat World	354	6	#15	–
13	In One Ear Cage The Elephant	350	5	#5	–
14	Lay Me Down Dirty Heads	335	5	#1	2
15	Gold, Guns, Girls Metric	325	4	#6	–
16	The High Road Broken Bells	320	5	#7	–
17	Mountain Man Crash Kings	318	4	#9	–
18	The Royal We Silversun Pickups	318	4	#17	–
19	Back Against the Wall Cage The Elephant	309	5	#11	–
20	Undisclosed Desires Muse	301	6	#15	–
21	The Cave Mumford & Sons	295	4	#3	–
22	Stylo Gorillaz	277	5	#11	–
23	Crossfire Brandon Flowers	276	5	#16	–
24	This is War 30 Seconds to Mars	271	3	#2	–
25	Between The Lines Stone Temple Pilots	253	5	#10	–
26	Uprising Muse	247	3	#15	–
27	Waiting For The End Linkin Park	238	4	#9	–
28	Just Breathe Pearl Jam	238	5	#25	–
29	Rhinestone Eyes Gorillaz	235	3	#13	–
30	The Catalyst Linkin Park	233	5	#14	–
31	Giving Up The Gun Vampire Weekend	231	4	#19	–
32	Kings & Queens 30 Seconds to Mars	230	4	#9	–
33	Your Decision Alice In Chains	229	3	#12	–
34	Laredo Band of Horses	226	3	#21	–
35	The Sound Switchfoot	199	3	#4	–
36	Home Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros	197	3	#1	1
37	Substitution Silversun Pickups	196	4	#18	–
38	I Was A Teenage Anarchist Against Me!	192	4	#27	–
39	Diamond Eyes Deftones	189	3	#25	–
40	Audience Cold War Kids	188	4	#12	–
41	Impossible Anberlin	187	3	#10	–
42	New Fang Them Crooked Vultures	185	5	#23	–
43	You And Your Heart Jack Johnson	185	3	#12	–
44	The Good Life Three Days Grace	176	2	#11	–
45	Sick Of You Cake	176	4	#33	–
46	This Too Shall Pass OK Go	176	4	#24	–
47	Freak The Smashing Pumpkins	174	4	#31	–
48	The Ghost Inside Broken Bells	169	3	#10	–
49	Letters From The Sky Civil Twilight	167	3	#10	–
50	On Melancholy Hill Gorillaz	166	3	#42	–
51	F You Cee-Lo Green	164	2	#10	–
52	Living in a Dream Finger Eleven	161	2	#13	–
53	Written In Reverse Spoon	154	3	#44	–
54	Die By The Drop The Dead Weather	154	4	#15	–
55	Barricade Interpol	153	4	#50	–
56	Heads Will Roll Yeah Yeah Yeahs	153	2	#4	–
57	Fader The Temper Trap	144	3	#28	–
58	Break Three Days Grace	143	2	#20	–
59	Holiday Vampire Weekend	141	3	#21	–
60	Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever) Muse	139	5	#20	–
61	Aint no Rest for the Wicked Cage The Elephant	135	2	#32	–
62	You Got Me Crash Kings	134	2	#34	–
63	The Suburbs The Arcade Fire	132	2	#11	–
64	We Used to Wait The Arcade Fire	130	2	#11	–
65	Flash Delirium MGMT	129	2	#31	–
66	Symphonies Dan Black	128	2	#25	–
67	World So Cold Three Days Grace	120	2	#24	–
68	Wait Up (Boots Of Danger) Tokyo Police Club	120	2	#17	–
69	Ambling Alp Yeasayer	120	2	#28	–
70	One Life Stand Hot Chip	119	2	#33	–
71	1901 Phoenix	118	3	#14	–
72	Sing My Chemical Romance	117	3	#12	–
73	High Road Broken Bells	117	2	#7	–
74	Wheels Foo Fighters	115	2	#37	–
75	Black Rain Soundgarden	115	2	#35	–
76	Bang Pop Free Energy	112	3	#39	–
77	Congratulations MGMT	112	2	#32	–
78	Another Way to Die Disturbed	112	2	#22	–
79	I Can Talk Two Door Cinema Club	110	2	#20	–
80	Lesson Learned Alice In Chains	110	2	#28	–
81	Memories Weezer	107	4	#48	–
82	Closer To The Edge 30 Seconds to Mars	105	3	#38	–
83	Rise Up Cypress Hill	104	2	#46	–
84	Amongst The Waves Pearl Jam	103	3	#56	–
85	Horchata Vampire Weekend	101	2	#44	–
86	Airplanes Local Natives	101	2	#14	–
87	Cameras Matt And Kim	101	3	#38	–
88	Crystalised The xx	101	2	#12	–
89	Odd One Sick Puppies	100	1	#1	1
90	The future The Van Jets	100	1	#1	1
91	Big Jet Plane Angus and Julia Stone	100	1	#1	1
92	Rock It Little Red	99	1	#2	–
93	Jesus Stole My Girlfriend Violent Soho	99	3	#67	–
94	Nightmare Avenged Sevenfold	98	1	#3	–
95	Dance the Way I Feel Ou Est le Swimming Pool	98	1	#3	–
96	Dance Yrself Clean LCD Soundsystem	98	1	#3	–
97	Dog Days Are Over Florence + The Machine	98	2	#10	–
98	No sound but the wind (live @werchter) Editors	98	1	#2	–
99	Plans Birds of Tokyo	97	1	#4	–
100	The Devil In Stitches Bad Religion	97	2	#24	–

Every station’s number one of 2010

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Lisztomania Phoenix	KROQ Top 30 Songs of 2010
91X	Lay Me Down The Dirty Heads Featuring Rome	91X Top 91 Songs of 2010
Q101	Odd One Sick Puppies	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 2010
WFNX	Little Lion Man Mumford and Sons	WFNX Top 101 Songs of 2010
CD101	Home Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros	CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2010
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	Lay Me Down The Dirty Heads	102.1 The Edge Top 102 Songs of 2010
Studio Brussel	The future The Van Jets	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2010
The Current	Terrible Love The National	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2010
Triple J	Big Jet Plane Angus & Julia Stone	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2010

All 2010 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2010 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 2010 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 nine qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.