What was the top rock song of 2014?

Combining 7 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2014 is "Take Me To Church" by Hozier, which appeared on 5 of the lists.

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

The best rock songs of 2014

Seven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2014: 91X, CD101, SiriusXM Octane, Studio Brussel, The Current, WFUV and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2014 is “Take Me To Church” by Hozier, which appeared on five of the seven countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. Seven different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Riptide” by Vance Joy, “Take It Or Leave It” by Cage The Elephant, “This Is the Time (Ballast)” by Nothing More, “Strange Entity” by Oscar and the Wolf and “Salad Days” by Mac DeMarco and others. Alt J was the year’s most-charted artist, with three different songs placing 12 times across the countdowns.

7countdowns

402songs charted

7different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2014

All 402 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2014 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Take Me To Church Hozier	464	5	#1	2
2	Left Hand Free Alt J	441	5	#2	–
3	Seasons (Waiting On You) Future Islands	359	5	#4	–
4	Fall In Love Phantogram	344	4	#8	–
5	Stolen Dance Milky Chance	315	4	#4	–
6	Lazaretto Jack White	295	5	#8	–
7	Red Eyes The War On Drugs	287	5	#11	–
8	Do You Spoon	273	4	#16	–
9	Fever The Black Keys	270	4	#11	–
10	Happy Idiot TV on the Radio	265	5	#33	–
11	Gotta Get Away The Black Keys	259	4	#17	–
12	Gooey Glass Animals	258	5	#12	–
13	Under the Pressure The War On Drugs	253	3	#3	–
14	Bad Blood Bastille	239	3	#10	–
15	Yellow Flicker Beat Lorde	231	4	#18	–
16	Riptide Vance Joy	225	3	#1	1
17	West Coast Lana Del Rey	224	4	#21	–
18	Blue Moon Beck	219	3	#6	–
19	Cigarette Daydreams Cage The Elephant	218	3	#4	–
20	King and Cross Asgeir	213	3	#10	–
21	Hunger Of The Pine Alt J	193	4	#19	–
22	All The Rage Back Home Interpol	193	3	#13	–
23	Digital Witness St. Vincent	187	2	#5	–
24	Take It As It Comes J. Roddy Walston and the Business	179	3	#5	–
25	Every Other Freckle Alt J	177	3	#14	–
26	Coffee Sylvan Esso	175	2	#10	–
27	Just One of the Guys Jenny Lewis	175	2	#9	–
28	The Walker Fitz and the Tantrums	175	2	#12	–
29	Stay Gold First Aid Kit	168	2	#6	–
30	Giants Bear Hands	166	2	#3	–
31	Take It Or Leave It Cage The Elephant	165	2	#1	1
32	Gimme Something Good Ryan Adams	163	2	#13	–
33	Beware The Dog Griswolds	162	3	#28	–
34	Dangerous Big Data	159	2	#4	–
35	My Silver Lining First Aid Kit	159	2	#5	–
36	Beggin For Thread Banks	157	4	#27	–
37	Come With Me Now Kongos	154	2	#9	–
38	Violen Shiver Benjamin Booker	154	3	#15	–
39	New York Morning Elbow	152	2	#8	–
40	I Wanna Get Better Bleachers	148	2	#24	–
41	Best Friend Foster The People	147	2	#20	–
42	Shelter Song Temples	146	3	#34	–
43	Back To The Shack Weezer	144	3	#15	–
44	Water Fountain TuneYards	143	2	#10	–
45	Holding On For Life Broken Bells	140	3	#46	–
46	Figure It Out Royal Blood	139	3	#9	–
47	Budapest George Ezra	132	3	#19	–
48	It's About Time Young the Giant	127	2	#17	–
49	Stay with Me Sam Smith	125	2	#22	–
50	Coming Of Age Foster The People	124	2	#37	–
51	Snap Out of It Arctic Monkeys	124	2	#2	–
52	Flaws Bastille	123	2	#26	–
53	Two Weeks FKA twigs	120	3	#43	–
54	Afterlife The Arcade Fire	118	2	#20	–
55	Trainwreck 1979 Death From Above 1979	115	2	#40	–
56	Jackie and Wilson Hozier	109	2	#30	–
57	After The Disco Broken Bells	109	2	#24	–
58	1998 Chet Faker	108	2	#8	–
59	Rainbow Robert Plant	106	2	#40	–
60	New Dorp, New York SBTRKT	105	2	#34	–
61	Something From Nothing Foo Fighters	105	3	#14	–
62	The Writing's On The Wall OK Go	104	2	#22	–
63	This Is the Time (Ballast) Nothing More	100	1	#1	1
64	Strange Entity Oscar and the Wolf	100	1	#1	1
65	Talk Is Cheap Chet Faker	100	1	#1	1
66	Gold Chet Faker	99	2	#7	–
67	Thunder Clatter Wild Cub	99	1	#2	–
68	High Peking Duk	99	1	#2	–
69	You Go Down Smooth Lake Street Dive	99	1	#2	–
70	Let 'Em Say Lizzo and Caroline Smith	99	1	#2	–
71	Cosby Sweater Hilltop Hoods	98	1	#3	–
72	R U Mine? Arctic Monkeys	98	1	#3	–
73	Ghost Jeremy Messersmith	98	2	#16	–
74	The Devil in I Slipknot	97	1	#2	–
75	Avant Gardener Courtney Barnett	97	1	#4	–
76	Home Dotan	96	1	#3	–
77	Take Me Over Peking Duk	96	1	#5	–
78	Agora Bear Hands	96	2	#19	–
79	Uptown Funk Mark Ronson	95	1	#6	–
80	A Sky Full Of Stars Coldplay	95	2	#22	–
81	Dangerous f/Joywave Big Data	95	1	#6	–
82	Home (Leave The Lights On) Field Report	94	1	#6	–
83	Brill Bruisers The New Pornographers	94	2	#31	–
84	Wrong Side of Heaven Five Finger Death Punch	93	1	#3	–
85	Rise Up Singing Trigger Hippy	93	1	#7	–
86	It's Only Dancing Jeremy Messersmith	93	1	#7	–
87	Waves Sleeper Agent	93	1	#8	–
88	Inside Out Spoon	93	2	#26	–
89	Bad Habit The Kooks	92	1	#9	–
90	Bright Life Amongster	92	1	#5	–
91	Chandelier Sia	92	1	#9	–
92	Why'd You Only Call Me When… Arctic Monkeys	90	1	#10	–
93	My Demons Starset	90	1	#4	–
94	Princes Oscar and the Wolf	90	1	#6	–
95	Faded Zhu	90	1	#11	–
96	Mother & Father Broods	89	2	#40	–
97	Perfect Match Triggerfinger	88	1	#7	–
98	Mess Is Mine Vance Joy	88	1	#13	–
99	Cannibal Silversun Pickups	88	2	#50	–
100	Words as Weapons Seether	87	1	#5	–

Every station’s number one of 2014

Station	Number one song	Countdown
91X	Riptide Vance Joy	91X Top 91 Songs of 2014
CD101	Take It Or Leave It Cage The Elephant	CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2014
SiriusXM Octane	This Is the Time (Ballast) Nothing More	SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2014
Studio Brussel	Strange Entity Oscar and the Wolf	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2014
The Current	Salad Days Mac DeMarco	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2014
WFUV	Take Me to Church Hozier	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2014
Triple J	Talk Is Cheap Chet Faker	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2014

All 2014 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2014 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 2014 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.