What was the top alternative rock song of 2015?

Combining 10 year-end radio countdowns, the top alternative rock song of 2015 is "Dreams" by Beck, which appeared on 9 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · Alternative & Modern Rock · ten countdowns combined

The best alternative rock songs of 2015

Ten radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2015: 91X, Live 105, 89X, CD101, The Buzz, 102.7 WEQX, 88.3 The Sting, Studio Brussel, WBER and Triple J. Combining every list, the top alternative rock song of 2015 is “Dreams” by Beck, which appeared on nine of the ten countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Nine different songs were voted number one somewhere: “SOB” by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (2 stations), “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots, “Renegades” by X Ambassadors, “Tear In My Heart” by Twenty One Pilots and “My Type” by Saint Motel and others. Muse was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 16 times across the countdowns.

10countdowns

516songs charted

9different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2015

All 516 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2015 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Dreams Beck	688	9	#1	1
2	First Cold War Kids	649	7	#2	–
3	Lampshades On Fire Modest Mouse	592	7	#2	–
4	Tear In My Heart Twenty One Pilots	565	6	#1	1
5	Renegades X Ambassadors	534	6	#1	2
6	Dead Inside Muse	528	7	#5	–
7	Black Sun Death Cab for Cutie	485	7	#4	–
8	Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf) AWOLNATION	466	6	#5	–
9	Electric Love Borns	438	6	#4	–
10	Crystals Of Monsters And Men	431	7	#16	–
11	What Kind Of Man Florence And The Machine	413	6	#10	–
12	Stressed Out Twenty One Pilots	412	5	#1	1
13	Mountain At My Gates Foals	404	5	#11	–
14	Ship To Wreck Florence And The Machine	394	6	#3	–
15	The Wolf Mumford & Sons	386	6	#10	–
16	The Ground Walks With Time In A Box Modest Mouse	374	6	#6	–
17	Dont Wanna Fight Alabama Shakes	374	6	#9	–
18	2 Heads Coleman Hell	361	5	#5	–
19	Mercy Muse	359	5	#1	1
20	Little Monster Royal Blood	351	5	#6	–
21	Ex's & Oh's Elle King	348	4	#7	–
22	Believe Mumford & Sons	348	6	#6	–
23	Molecules Atlas Genius	323	6	#7	–
24	S.O.B. Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	320	5	#1	1
25	Mess Is Mine Vance Joy	320	5	#16	–
26	Let It Happen Tame Impala	317	4	#5	–
27	Sedona Houndmouth	313	4	#2	–
28	I Am AWOLNATION	308	5	#14	–
29	Coming For You The Offspring	296	4	#4	–
30	Moaning Lisa Smile Wolf Alice	286	5	#12	–
31	Could Have Been Me The Struts	283	4	#3	–
32	Weight Of Love The Black Keys	282	5	#14	–
33	Long Way Down Robert Delong	282	4	#10	–
34	Leave a Trace CHVRCHES	277	6	#20	–
35	My Type Saint Motel	270	4	#1	1
36	Return To The Moon El Vy	262	4	#18	–
37	Black Mambo Glass Animals	258	4	#8	–
38	Flashed Junk Mind Milky Chance	252	4	#26	–
39	New Americana Halsey	245	3	#5	–
40	Pedestrian At Best Courtney Barnett	244	5	#21	–
41	Get It Matt And Kim	243	4	#17	–
42	Nightlight Silversun Pickups	240	4	#18	–
43	Sorry Meg Myers	239	4	#11	–
44	Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart Chris Cornell	239	4	#27	–
45	Mess Around Cage The Elephant	227	4	#15	–
46	Go The Chemical Brothers	227	3	#5	–
47	Congregation Foo Fighters	221	6	#25	–
48	Cecilia and the Satellite Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness	221	3	#4	–
49	Every Other Freckle Alt J	212	4	#7	–
50	Budapest George Ezra	210	3	#6	–
51	Fire and the Flood Vance Joy	209	5	#16	–
52	The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive Death Cab for Cutie	207	5	#23	–
53	The Shade Metric	207	3	#7	–
54	Next Storm Frank Turner	201	3	#10	–
55	Shots Imagine Dragons	200	4	#14	–
56	Thank God For Girls Weezer	199	5	#25	–
57	Shut Up & Dance Walk the Moon	198	2	#1	1
58	I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) The Dead Weather	192	5	#14	–
59	The Less I Know the Better Tame Impala	189	2	#4	–
60	I Bet My Life Imagine Dragons	185	3	#8	–
61	Everything Is Wrong Interpol	182	4	#42	–
62	Roots Imagine Dragons	180	3	#4	–
63	Cigarette Daydreams Cage The Elephant	180	2	#8	–
64	King Kunta Kendrick Lamar	179	2	#2	–
65	Throne Bring Me the Horizon	176	3	#22	–
66	Dearly Departed Shakey Graves	173	2	#6	–
67	Outta My Mind The Arcs	167	4	#24	–
68	Peaches In the Valley Below	167	3	#37	–
69	Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party Courtney Barnett	166	4	#31	–
70	Absolution Calling Incubus	165	4	#39	–
71	Deep Six Marilyn Manson	165	2	#8	–
72	Outside Foo Fighters	162	4	#31	–
73	Cocoon Catfish and the Bottlemen	161	3	#22	–
74	Get Closer Life in Film	157	4	#34	–
75	Don't Wait Up Robert Delong	155	4	#48	–
76	A New Wave Sleater-Kinney	149	2	#14	–
77	Unsteady X Ambassadors	149	3	#34	–
78	Hallelujah Panic! at the Disco	143	3	#12	–
79	Failure Breaking Benjamin	141	2	#4	–
80	Different Colors Walk the Moon	139	3	#30	–
81	Cream on Chrome Ratatat	138	2	#15	–
82	Hold Back the River James Bay	136	3	#28	–
83	Uma Thurman Fall Out Boy	132	3	#17	–
84	Huarache Lights Hot Chip	131	2	#26	–
85	Nothing Without Love Nate Ruess	131	2	#35	–
86	Magnets Disclosure	129	2	#10	–
87	Till It's Gone Yelawolf	125	2	#7	–
88	Sound Of Change Dirty Heads	123	3	#37	–
89	Big Decisions My Morning Jacket	121	3	#19	–
90	The Feast And The Famine Foo Fighters	119	3	#24	–
91	Help The Front Bottoms	117	2	#33	–
92	Kiss This The Struts	113	3	#33	–
93	Gooey Glass Animals	113	2	#12	–
94	Trouble TV on the Radio	113	2	#34	–
95	Greek Tragedy Wombats	111	3	#29	–
96	Blame It On Me George Ezra	111	2	#33	–
97	West End Kids New Politics	110	2	#42	–
98	Hunger Of The Pine Alt J	110	2	#25	–
99	Heavy Is The Head Zac Brown Band	109	2	#41	–
100	Daffodils Mark Ronson	109	4	#46	–

Every station’s number one of 2015

Station	Number one song	Countdown
91X	Stressed Out Twenty One Pilots	91X Top 91 Songs of 2015
Live 105	Renegades X Ambassadors	Live 105 Top 25 Songs of 2015
89X	Tear In My Heart Twenty One Pilots	89X Top 89 Songs of 2015
CD101	My Type Saint Motel	CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2015
The Buzz	SOB Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2015
102.7 WEQX	S.O.B. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2015
88.3 The Sting	Gold Chet Faker	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2015
Studio Brussel	Mercy Muse	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2015
WBER	Dreams Beck	WBER Listener Countdown 2015
Triple J	Hoops The Rubens	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2015

All 2015 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2015 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 2015 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 ten qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the alternative results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.

Most-charted artists of 2015

1Muse16 entries · 5 songs
2Twenty One Pilots11 entries · 2 songs
3Modest Mouse13 entries · 2 songs
4Death Cab for Cutie15 entries · 5 songs
5Florence And The Machine14 entries · 4 songs
6AWOLNATION12 entries · 3 songs
7Mumford & Sons14 entries · 3 songs
8Beck10 entries · 2 songs
9X Ambassadors9 entries · 2 songs
10Cold War Kids7 entries · 1 songs

The 2010s

Best alternative rock songs of the '10s →

Embed this on your site

Shows the top 10 with a link to the full list.

<iframe src="https://www.rocklists.com/embed/years/2015/" title="The best alternative songs of 2015" width="100%" height="520" style="border:0;max-width:480px" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Preview