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

The best rock songs of 2018

Q: What was the top rock song of 2018?

Combining 5 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2018 is "This is America" by Childish Gambino, which appeared on 3 of the lists.

Five radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2018: 91X, SiriusXM Octane, The Current, WFUV and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2018 is “This is America” by Childish Gambino, which appeared on three of the five countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Five different songs were voted number one somewhere: “If You Want It” by Slightly Stoopid, “Zombie” by Bad Wolves, “Hymnostic” by Big Red Machine, “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier and “Confidence” by Ocean Alley. Brandi Carlile was the year’s most-charted artist, with three different songs placing 5 times across the countdowns.

5countdowns

339songs charted

5different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2018

All 339 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2018 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	This is America Childish Gambino	295	3	#1	1
2	Gold Rush Death Cab for Cutie	227	3	#16	–
3	You Should See Me In A Crown Billie Eilish	214	3	#13	–
4	You Worry Me Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	208	3	#23	–
5	The Joke Brandi Carlile	197	2	#2	–
6	Make Me Feel Janelle Monae	194	2	#2	–
7	Mr. Tillman Father John Misty	191	2	#4	–
8	Beyond Leon Bridges	189	2	#5	–
9	Nina Cried Power Hozier	183	3	#1	1
10	Good Kisser Lake Street Dive	181	2	#7	–
11	Nobody Mitski	171	2	#10	–
12	Everybody Wants To Be Famous Superorganism	165	2	#16	–
13	Bad Bad News Leon Bridges	163	2	#8	–
14	Severed The Decemberists	161	2	#15	–
15	Four Out Of Five Arctic Monkeys	158	3	#10	–
16	Lottery Jade Bird	153	2	#14	–
17	Nameless, Faceless Courtney Barnett	150	2	#20	–
18	New Birth in New England Phosphorescent	148	2	#6	–
19	Wait By The River Lord Huron	144	3	#34	–
20	Loading Zones Kurt Vile	142	2	#11	–
21	Hunger Florence + The Machine	141	2	#24	–
22	The Mother Brandi Carlile	139	2	#4	–
23	Mantra Bring Me the Horizon	136	2	#7	–
24	All The Stars Kendrick Lamar & SZA	135	2	#28	–
25	Bad Luck Neko Case	133	2	#21	–
26	Miracle CHVRCHES	132	3	#40	–
27	Get Out CHVRCHES	132	2	#14	–
28	Bite The Hand Boygenius	123	2	#19	–
29	Beverly Low Cut Connie	121	2	#24	–
30	Colors Beck	117	2	#21	–
31	Uh-huh Jade Bird	117	2	#32	–
32	Saturday Sun Vance Joy	116	2	#29	–
33	Mistake Middle Kids	110	2	#25	–
34	Connected By Love Jack White	104	2	#29	–
35	If You Want It Slightly Stoopid	100	1	#1	1
36	Zombie Bad Wolves	100	1	#1	1
37	Confidence Ocean Alley	100	1	#1	1
38	Losing It Fisher	99	1	#2	–
39	Sit Next To Me Foster The People	99	1	#2	–
40	Light On Maggie Rogers	98	2	#43	–
41	Sicko Mode Travis Scott	98	1	#3	–
42	Run For Cover The Killers	98	1	#3	–
43	Broken LovelyTheBand	97	1	#4	–
44	Alone in a Room Asking Alexandria	97	1	#2	–
45	I Said Hi Amy Shark	96	1	#5	–
46	She's Kerosene The Interrupters	96	1	#5	–
47	Be Alright Dean Lewis	95	1	#6	–
48	The Night We Met Lord Huron	95	1	#6	–
49	Groceries Mallrat	94	1	#7	–
50	Hunger Florence And The Machine	94	2	#24	–
51	Everybody's Coming To My House David Byrne	94	2	#28	–
52	House On Fire Rise Against	93	1	#7	–
53	Bulletproof Godsmack	93	1	#3	–
54	when the party's over Billie Eilish	93	1	#8	–
55	Live In The Moment The Man	92	1	#8	–
56	Twentytwo Sunflower Bean	92	1	#8	–
57	Bambi Hippo Campus	92	2	#10	–
58	Dinosaurs Ruby Fields	92	1	#9	–
59	Guiding Light Mumford & Sons	91	2	#25	–
60	Natural Imagine Dragons	91	1	#9	–
61	Summer's End John Prine	91	1	#9	–
62	Fireworks First Aid Kit	91	1	#9	–
63	Knees Ocean Alley	91	1	#10	–
64	Are You Ready Disturbed	90	1	#4	–
65	Up in the Clouds Skegss	90	1	#11	–
66	PARAD(w/m)E Sylvan Esso	89	2	#47	–
67	Jumpsuit Twenty One Pilots	89	1	#11	–
68	Turn Wombats	89	1	#12	–
69	Hold Out Your Hand Brandi Carlile	89	1	#11	–
70	Praise the Lord (Da Shine) A$AP Rocky	88	1	#13	–
71	High Hopes Panic! at the Disco	88	1	#12	–
72	Boys Lizzo	88	1	#12	–
73	I'm Good Wafia	87	1	#14	–
74	Thought Contagion Muse	87	1	#13	–
75	1950 King Princess	87	2	#34	–
76	Devil Shinedown	87	1	#5	–
77	Jeannie Becomes a Mom Caroline Rose	87	1	#13	–
78	Just Friends Hayden James	86	1	#15	–
79	Heat Wave Snail Mail	86	2	#47	–
80	My Blood Twenty One Pilots	86	1	#14	–
81	Baby Come Back (Like a Version) Ocean Alley	85	1	#16	–
82	The Sky Is A Neighborhood Foo Fighters	85	1	#15	–
83	Casanova Rayland Baxter	84	1	#15	–
84	Lovely Billie Eilish & Khalid	84	1	#17	–
85	Hey Mama Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	84	2	#48	–
86	A Grave Mistake Ice Nine Kills	83	1	#6	–
87	I Was a Fool Sunflower Bean	83	1	#16	–
88	Join the Club Hockey Dad	83	1	#18	–
89	Say Amen (Saturday Night) Panic! at the Disco	82	1	#17	–
90	Pynk Janelle Monae	82	1	#17	–
91	Peach Broods	82	1	#19	–
92	Happier Bastille	81	1	#18	–
93	Charity Courtney Barnett	81	1	#18	–
94	Waiting Kian	81	1	#20	–
95	Body Talks The Struts	80	1	#19	–
96	Woman Cat Power	80	1	#19	–
97	Never Ever The Rubens	80	1	#21	–
98	Creature Comfort The Arcade Fire	79	1	#20	–
99	Underwater Rüfüs Du Sol	79	1	#22	–
100	Nothing Gets Me High Bad Bad Hats	79	1	#20	–

Every station’s number one of 2018

Station	Number one song	Countdown
91X	If You Want It Slightly Stoopid	91X Top 91 Songs of 2018
SiriusXM Octane	Zombie Bad Wolves	SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2018
The Current	Hymnostic Big Red Machine	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2018
WFUV	Nina Cried Power Hozier	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2018
Triple J	Confidence Ocean Alley	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2018

All 2018 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2018 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 2018 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 five qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.