What was the top rock song of 2016?

Combining 7 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2016 is "Wow" by Beck, which appeared on 5 of the lists.

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

The best rock songs of 2016

Seven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2016: 91X, Live 105, CD101, SiriusXM Octane, The Current, WFUV and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2016 is “Wow” by Beck, which appeared on five of the seven countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. Six different songs were voted number one somewhere: “WOW” by Beck (2 stations), “Bang, Bang” by Green Day, “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots, “My Name Is Human” by Highly Suspect and “7” by Catfish and the Bottlemen and others. blink-182 was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 8 times across the countdowns.

7countdowns

399songs charted

6different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2016

All 399 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2016 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Wow Beck	421	5	#1	2
2	Ophelia Lumineers	418	5	#2	–
3	Burn The Witch Radiohead	351	5	#11	–
4	HandClap Fitz and the Tantrums	310	4	#5	–
5	Life Itself Glass Animals	297	6	#9	–
6	You Dont Get Me High Anymore Phantogram	281	4	#9	–
7	All We Ever Knew The Head and the Heart	274	5	#6	–
8	Lazarus David Bowie	272	3	#2	–
9	Dark Necessities Red Hot Chili Peppers	267	3	#5	–
10	Bored To Death blink-182	260	4	#7	–
11	Mess Around Cage The Elephant	253	3	#11	–
12	Ghenghis Khan Miike Snow	248	4	#15	–
13	Bang, Bang Green Day	242	3	#1	1
14	The Less I Know the Better Tame Impala	230	3	#16	–
15	River Bishop Briggs	223	4	#4	–
16	Trouble Cage The Elephant	221	3	#7	–
17	Ain't No Man Avett Brothers	203	3	#4	–
18	Way Down We Go Kaleo	203	4	#14	–
19	Heathens Twenty One Pilots	197	2	#1	1
20	Good Grief Bastille	195	3	#8	–
21	7 Catfish and the Bottlemen	190	4	#16	–
22	You Want It Darker Leonard Cohen	180	2	#5	–
23	Casual Party Band of Horses	179	3	#19	–
24	Redbone Childish Gambino	177	2	#5	–
25	Waste a Moment Kings of Leon	173	3	#13	–
26	Rebel Heart The Shelters	171	2	#6	–
27	Shut Up Kiss Me Angel Olsen	171	2	#7	–
28	2AM Bear Hands	169	2	#11	–
29	What Went Down Foals	156	2	#22	–
30	Radio Sylvan Esso	152	2	#12	–
31	Gardenia Iggy Pop	151	2	#11	–
32	Fountain of Youth Local Natives	150	3	#31	–
33	Real Love Baby Father John Misty	143	2	#25	–
34	White Flag Joseph	142	2	#10	–
35	Next Storm Frank Turner	139	2	#17	–
36	Trip Switch Nothing But Thieves	137	2	#24	–
37	Brazil Declan McKenna	135	3	#2	–
38	33 God Bon Iver	134	3	#31	–
39	New Song Warpaint	134	2	#18	–
40	Surrender Under Protest Drive-By Truckers	131	2	#22	–
41	Pretty Pimpin' Kurt Vile	129	2	#3	–
42	On Hold The xx	124	3	#20	–
43	I'm Still Here Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings	122	2	#35	–
44	Soundcheck Catfish and the Bottlemen	121	2	#4	–
45	When the Tequila Runs Out Dawes	121	2	#24	–
46	Stressed Out Twenty One Pilots	113	2	#13	–
47	Something to Believe In Young the Giant	112	2	#17	–
48	Blackstar David Bowie	111	2	#30	–
49	Spirits The Strumbellas	109	2	#22	–
50	High and Low Empire of the Sun	109	4	#19	–
51	Best Kept Secret case/lang/veirs	108	2	#8	–
52	Cleopatra Lumineers	106	2	#43	–
53	Frankie Sinatra The Avalanches	104	2	#28	–
54	King of the World Weezer	103	3	#20	–
55	My Name Is Human Highly Suspect	100	1	#1	1
56	Good as Hell Lizzo	100	1	#1	1
57	Never Be like You Flume	100	1	#1	1
58	Adore Amy Shark	99	1	#2	–
59	She's Out Of Her Mind blink-182	99	1	#2	–
60	Jungle Tash Sultana	98	1	#3	–
61	Still Breathing Green Day	98	2	#10	–
62	Circles Pierce The Veil	98	1	#3	–
63	Love and Hate Michael Kiwanuka	98	1	#3	–
64	1955 Hilltop Hoods	97	1	#4	–
65	Hardwired Metallica	97	1	#2	–
66	Worship Lizzo	97	1	#4	–
67	10,000 Emerald Pools Borns	96	2	#49	–
68	Drunk Drivers Car Seat Headrest	96	1	#5	–
69	Believe (Like a Version) DMA's	95	1	#6	–
70	Older And Taller Regina Spektor	94	1	#6	–
71	Kismet Kill Haley Bonar	94	1	#6	–
72	Cold To See Clear Nada Surf	94	2	#39	–
73	Papercuts Illy	94	1	#7	–
74	Stronger Through Fire	93	1	#3	–
75	Off the Ground The Record Company	93	1	#7	–
76	Hands Down The Greeting Committee	93	1	#8	–
77	Say It Flume	93	1	#8	–
78	Sure and Certain Jimmy Eat World	92	3	#24	–
79	Ride Twenty One Pilots	92	1	#8	–
80	Stranger Peking Duk	92	1	#9	–
81	A 1000 Times Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam	92	2	#45	–
82	Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance) Silversun Pickups	91	1	#10	–
83	Call Off Your Dogs Lake Street Dive	91	1	#9	–
84	Welcome to Your Life Grouplove	91	2	#22	–
85	We the People A Tribe Called Quest	91	1	#9	–
86	Starboy The Weeknd	91	1	#10	–
87	The Sound of Silence Disturbed	90	1	#4	–
88	Wristband Paul Simon	90	1	#10	–
89	Chameleon Pnau	90	1	#11	–
90	I Need Never Get Old Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	89	1	#12	–
91	Cocoon Milky Chance	89	1	#12	–
92	Lovesick Mura Masa	88	1	#13	–
93	Mountain At My Gates Foals	87	1	#14	–
94	Viceroy Violent Soho	87	1	#14	–
95	Black Honey Thrice	87	1	#5	–
96	True Sadness Avett Brothers	87	1	#13	–
97	Angels Chance The Rapper	87	1	#13	–
98	Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces The Jayhawks	86	2	#16	–
99	Wasting Time Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	85	1	#14	–
100	January 26 A.B. Original	85	1	#16	–

Every station’s number one of 2016

Station	Number one song	Countdown
91X	Bang, Bang Green Day	91X Top 91 Songs of 2016
Live 105	Heathens Twenty One Pilots	Live 105 Top 25 Songs of 2016
CD101	WOW Beck	CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2016
SiriusXM Octane	My Name Is Human Highly Suspect	SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2016
The Current	7 Catfish and the Bottlemen	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2016
WFUV	Wow Beck	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2016
Triple J	Never Be like You Flume featuring Kai	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2016

All 2016 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2016 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 2016 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.