What was the top rock song of 2013?

Combining 24 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2013 is "Royals" by Lorde, which appeared on 19 of the lists.

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

The best rock songs of 2013

24 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2013: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, CD101, The Buzz, 102.7 WEQX, 107.1 The Peak, 88.3 The Sting, 92.3 WTTS, 94.3 WCYY, 94.5 The Buzz, 97X, ALT 104.5, Impact 89FM, Lightning 100, SiriusXM Octane, Studio Brussel, The Current, WBER, WFPK, WFUV, WTMD, WXPN and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2013 is “Royals” by Lorde, which appeared on 19 of the 24 countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. 20 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons (3 stations), “Out Of My League” by Fitz & The Tantrums (2 stations), “Pompeii” by Bastille (2 stations), “Royals” by Lorde and “Berzerk” by Eminem and others. Vampire Weekend was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 41 times across the countdowns.

24countdowns

934songs charted

20different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2013

All 934 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2013 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Royals Lorde	1,688	19	#1	2
2	Do I Wanna Know Arctic Monkeys	1,346	17	#1	1
3	Out of my League Fitz and the Tantrums	1,294	16	#1	2
4	Pompeii Bastille	1,234	16	#1	3
5	Safe and Sound Capital Cities	1,224	15	#1	1
6	Reflektor The Arcade Fire	1,203	18	#3	–
7	Diane Young Vampire Weekend	1,196	18	#6	–
8	Get Lucky Daft Punk	1,141	14	#1	2
9	Sweater Weather Neighbourhood	1,130	13	#2	–
10	Demons Imagine Dragons	996	12	#1	1
11	Radioactive Imagine Dragons	984	11	#1	4
12	Unbelievers Vampire Weekend	962	15	#3	–
13	Come A Little Closer Cage The Elephant	954	15	#9	–
14	Sirens Pearl Jam	942	16	#6	–
15	Super Soaker Kings of Leon	859	17	#3	–
16	Harlem New Politics	809	11	#5	–
17	Trojans Atlas Genius	795	10	#3	–
18	Ways to Go Grouplove	737	12	#14	–
19	Recovery Frank Turner	656	10	#4	–
20	San Francisco Mowgli's	652	8	#4	–
21	Lover of the Light Mumford & Sons	635	13	#9	–
22	Breezeblocks Alt J	625	10	#2	–
23	Elephant Tame Impala	608	10	#6	–
24	Panic Station Muse	594	9	#9	–
25	Mountain Sound Of Monsters And Men	594	7	#3	–
26	Madness Muse	584	8	#2	–
27	Song for Zula Phosphorescent	577	7	#1	1
28	Shake The Head and the Heart	574	9	#8	–
29	Another is Waiting Avett Brothers	564	9	#5	–
30	Team Lorde	554	11	#15	–
31	The Wire Haim	531	8	#6	–
32	If So Atlas Genius	520	11	#4	–
33	From a Window Seat Dawes	513	7	#5	–
34	Hero Family Of The Year	498	8	#3	–
35	Most People Dawes	490	8	#4	–
36	Trying to be Cool Phoenix	486	12	#19	–
37	Hurricane Ms Mr	484	10	#8	–
38	Stubborn Love Lumineers	479	9	#13	–
39	The Mother we Share CHVRCHES	477	11	#5	–
40	My Songs Know What you Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) Fall Out Boy	468	6	#7	–
41	Carry On fun.	467	8	#12	–
42	Up in the Air 30 Seconds to Mars	463	9	#11	–
43	My Number Foals	459	8	#5	–
44	Lightning Bolt Jake Bugg	457	9	#2	–
45	Don't Swallow The Cap The National	456	8	#16	–
46	Head On Man Man	448	8	#5	–
47	Shot At The Night The Killers	432	7	#4	–
48	Right Action Franz Ferdinand	415	8	#17	–
49	Wake Me Up Avicii	404	8	#9	–
50	I sat by the Ocean Queens of the Stone Age	403	9	#17	–
51	My God is the Sun Queens of the Stone Age	402	10	#13	–
52	Babel Mumford & Sons	401	7	#19	–
53	Heavy Bells J. Roddy Walston and the Business	394	7	#1	1
54	Heartbeat Kopecky Family Band	387	7	#13	–
55	Entertainment Phoenix	384	9	#21	–
56	Mind Your Manners Pearl Jam	380	12	#15	–
57	Afraid Neighbourhood	379	10	#27	–
58	Thrift Shop Macklemore & Ryan Lewis	374	5	#7	–
59	Graceless The National	373	7	#21	–
60	Little Black Submarines The Black Keys	371	5	#3	–
61	The Ceiling Wild Feathers	371	7	#4	–
62	Two Fingers Jake Bugg	367	7	#8	–
63	This Disorder The Features	366	6	#9	–
64	Harper Lee Little Green Cars	363	7	#22	–
65	Came Back Haunted Nine Inch Nails	360	7	#11	–
66	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	358	6	#9	–
67	Miracle Mile Cold War Kids	351	7	#3	–
68	The Man Who Wants You Amos Lee	349	7	#10	–
69	Ho Hey Lumineers	348	6	#8	–
70	High School Lover Cayucas	346	6	#15	–
71	Broken Heart Dr. Dog	345	5	#3	–
72	The Pit Silversun Pickups	345	6	#6	–
73	Man Neko Case	344	5	#17	–
74	King and Lionheart Of Monsters And Men	340	8	#25	–
75	Red Hands Walk Off the Earth	329	5	#12	–
76	Miss Jackson Panic! at the Disco	322	7	#19	–
77	Cabin by the Sea Dirty Heads	310	5	#22	–
78	Holding On To You Twenty One Pilots	309	5	#3	–
79	You Never Need Nobody Lone Bellow	305	5	#3	–
80	City of Angels 30 Seconds to Mars	300	6	#33	–
81	Purple, Yellow, Red, and Blue Portugal. The Man	295	8	#23	–
82	Grace For Saints and Ramblers Iron and Wine	292	4	#27	–
83	Tessellate Alt J	287	6	#12	–
84	Wild Child Brett Dennen	286	6	#19	–
85	The One That Got Away The Civil Wars	282	5	#1	1
86	Carried Away Passion Pit	282	5	#14	–
87	Better Days Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros	276	5	#28	–
88	Heavy Feet Local Natives	269	5	#11	–
89	Take A Walk Passion Pit	268	5	#24	–
90	It's Time Imagine Dragons	264	4	#20	–
91	Retrograde James Blake	262	4	#13	–
92	Temple Kings of Leon	260	6	#42	–
93	The John Wayne Little Green Cars	259	6	#29	–
94	Doin' It Right Daft Punk	259	5	#8	–
95	Little Talks Of Monsters And Men	258	4	#15	–
96	Hail to the King Avenged Sevenfold	258	4	#8	–
97	The Woodpile Frightened Rabbit	256	6	#13	–
98	Sacrilege Yeah Yeah Yeahs	256	6	#30	–
99	Bleeding Out Lone Bellow	255	5	#28	–
100	Instant Crush Daft Punk	253	4	#2	–

Every station’s number one of 2013

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Radioactive Imagine Dragons	KROQ Top 50 Songs of 2013
91X	Radioactive Imagine Dragons	91X Top 91 Songs of 2013
Live 105	Royals Lorde	Live 105 Top Songs of 2013
CD101	Out Of My League Fitz & The Tantrums	CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2013
The Buzz	Berzerk Eminem	The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2013
102.7 WEQX	Pompeii Bastille	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2013
107.1 The Peak	Out Of My League Fitz & The Tantrums	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2013
88.3 The Sting	Little Games The Colourist	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2013
92.3 WTTS	Spotlight Leagues	WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2013
94.3 WCYY	Radioactive Imagine Dragons	WCYY Year End Top 50 of 2013
94.5 The Buzz	Safe and Sound Capital Cities	94.5 The Buzz Top 94 of 2013
97X	Atlas Coldplay	97X Top 97 of 2013
ALT 104.5	Entertainment Phoenix	Radio 104.5 Top 50.5 Songs of 2013
Impact 89FM	Twin Size Mattress The Front Bottoms	Impact 89FM Top 89 Songs of 2013
Lightning 100	The One That Got Away Civil Wars	Lightning 100 Top 100.1 Songs of 2013
SiriusXM Octane	Lift Me Up Five Finger Death Punch featuring Rob Halford	SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2013
Studio Brussel	Pompeii Bastille	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2013
The Current	Sirens Pearl Jam	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2013
WBER	Off To The Races Lana Del Rey	WBER Listener Countdown 2013
WFPK	Sleep Allen Stone	WFPK Top 100 Songs of 2013
WFUV	Song For Zula Phosphorescent	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2013
WTMD	Heavy Bells J. Roddy Walston & The Business	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2013
WXPN	Get Lucky Daft Punk	WXPN Year in Review: Top 200 Songs of 2013
Triple J	Riptide Vance Joy	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2013

All 2013 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2013 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 2013 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.