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

The best rock songs of 2012

Q: What was the top rock song of 2012?

Combining 7 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2012 is "Little Talks" by Of Monsters And Men, which appeared on 7 of the lists.

Seven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2012: KROQ, 91X, CD101, CFNY 102.1 The Edge, Studio Brussel, The Current and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2012 is “Little Talks” by Of Monsters And Men, which appeared on seven of the seven countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Seven different songs were voted number one somewhere: “We Are Young” by Fun., “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye, “Little Talks” by Of Monsters And Men, “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons and “R U Mine ?” by Arctic Monkeys and others. The Black Keys was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 16 times across the countdowns.

7countdowns

341songs charted

7different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2012

All 341 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2012 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Little Talks Of Monsters And Men	637	7	#1	1
2	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	623	7	#1	1
3	Madness Muse	497	7	#5	–
4	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	452	5	#1	1
5	Ho Hey Lumineers	441	6	#1	1
6	Gold On The Ceiling The Black Keys	440	6	#2	–
7	Take A Walk Passion Pit	401	6	#3	–
8	Tongue Tied Grouplove	353	4	#4	–
9	Hold On Alabama Shakes	351	5	#3	–
10	Midnight City M83	326	4	#4	–
11	Little Black Submarines The Black Keys	312	5	#11	–
12	Lonely Boy The Black Keys	295	4	#6	–
13	Runaways The Killers	287	5	#5	–
14	We Are Young fun.	282	3	#1	1
15	Burn It Down Linkin Park	275	3	#4	–
16	Simple Song The Shins	272	6	#8	–
17	45 The Gaslight Anthem	270	6	#9	–
18	It's Time Imagine Dragons	267	4	#14	–
19	Some Nights fun.	251	4	#13	–
20	Default Django Django	237	4	#8	–
21	Too Close Alex Clare	233	3	#3	–
22	Everybody Talks Neon Trees	223	3	#7	–
23	Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings) Silversun Pickups	219	4	#11	–
24	Anna Sun Walk the Moon	217	3	#2	–
25	Oh Love Green Day	213	4	#14	–
26	Youth Without Youth Metric	205	3	#7	–
27	Trojans Atlas Genius	201	4	#5	–
28	R U Mine? Arctic Monkeys	197	3	#1	1
29	Freedom At 21 Jack White	193	3	#20	–
30	Get Free Major Lazer	193	2	#2	–
31	Love Interruption Jack White	188	5	#37	–
32	Same Love Macklemore & Ryan Lewis	185	2	#2	–
33	Sixteen Saltines Jack White	183	4	#23	–
34	We Are Young f/Janelle Monae fun.	183	2	#5	–
35	Disparate Youth Santigold	183	4	#12	–
36	California Delta Spirit	181	3	#30	–
37	Lost Frank Ocean	178	2	#8	–
38	Kill Your Heroes AWOLNATION	171	3	#13	–
39	Breathing Underwater Metric	164	4	#21	–
40	These Days Foo Fighters	163	3	#12	–
41	Shake It Out Florence + The Machine	154	3	#21	–
42	Days Go By The Offspring	148	3	#23	–
43	Don't Stop (Color On The Walls Foster The People	146	3	#21	–
44	Paradise Coldplay	146	2	#16	–
45	Thrift Shop Macklemore & Ryan Lewis	144	2	#1	1
46	Would That Not Be Nice Divine Fits	140	2	#27	–
47	Days Are Forgotten Kasabian	132	2	#32	–
48	Top Of The World Slightly Stoopid	130	2	#10	–
49	Reunion M83	130	2	#33	–
50	The House That Heaven Built Japandroids	127	3	#29	–
51	Breezeblocks Alt J	126	2	#3	–
52	Satellite Rise Against	125	2	#17	–
53	Itchin' On A Photograph Grouplove	123	3	#38	–
54	Chained The xx	121	3	#23	–
55	Mountain Sound Of Monsters And Men	112	5	#47	–
56	We Come Running Youngblood Hawke	110	3	#34	–
57	Spread Too Thin Dirty Heads	105	2	#26	–
58	Octopus Bloc Party	104	2	#21	–
59	Tessellate Alt J	103	2	#31	–
60	Sleep Alone Two Door Cinema Club	103	4	#28	–
61	Jump Into The Fog Wombats	101	2	#10	–
62	Elephant Tame Impala	100	2	#7	–
63	Not Your Fault AWOLNATION	99	3	#44	–
64	Home Again Michael Kiwanuka	98	2	#7	–
65	Thinkin Bout You Frank Ocean	98	2	#43	–
66	Adventures Of Rain Dance… Red Hot Chili Peppers	98	1	#3	–
67	All The Rowboats Regina Spektor	98	2	#29	–
68	Holdin On Flume	97	1	#4	–
69	This Head I Hold Electric Guest	97	2	#16	–
70	Emmylou First Aid Kit	96	1	#5	–
71	Keep You Close dEUS	95	1	#3	–
72	Alone Trampled by Turtles	93	1	#7	–
73	Warpaint School is Cool	93	1	#4	–
74	Feels Like We Only Go Backwards Tame Impala	92	1	#9	–
75	My Gun The Rubens	91	1	#10	–
76	Sweet Nothing Calvin Harris	90	1	#11	–
77	Live and Die Avett Brothers	90	1	#10	–
78	Wait For Me Rise Against	89	2	#27	–
79	Strange Attractor Animal Kingdom	89	1	#12	–
80	Lost In Forever P.O.D.	89	1	#11	–
81	Sleepless Flume	89	1	#12	–
82	Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings Father John Misty	89	1	#11	–
83	I Love It Icona Pop	87	1	#14	–
84	Man On Fire Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros	87	1	#13	–
85	Not Giving In Rudimental	85	1	#16	–
86	Headlights Morning Parade	84	1	#17	–
87	Clair de Lune Flight Facilities	84	1	#17	–
88	The Only Place Best Coast	84	2	#55	–
89	Wandering Star Polica	83	1	#16	–
90	HyperParadise (Flume Remix) Hermitude	83	1	#18	–
91	Crazy Sufferin' Style Selah Sue	83	1	#8	–
92	Stubborn Love Lumineers	82	1	#17	–
93	Angels The xx	82	1	#19	–
94	How It Starts The Features	82	1	#20	–
95	Feel the Love Rudimental	81	1	#20	–
96	Fitzpleasure Alt J	81	1	#18	–
97	Fire Escape Civil Twilight	81	1	#21	–
98	Dark Horses Switchfoot	80	1	#19	–
99	Latch Disclosure	80	1	#21	–
100	Myth Beach House	80	1	#19	–

Every station’s number one of 2012

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	We Are Young Fun.	KROQ Top 50 Songs of 2012
91X	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	91X Top 91 Songs of 2012
CD101	Little Talks Of Monsters And Men	CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2012
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	102.1 The Edge Top 50 New Rock Songs of 2012
Studio Brussel	R U Mine ? Arctic Monkeys	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2012
The Current	Old Friend Sea Wolf	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2012
Triple J	Thrift Shop Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2012

All 2012 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2012 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 2012 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 seven qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.