Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 23 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 2023

Q: What was the top rock song of 2023?

Combining 23 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2023 is "Not Strong Enough" by Boygenius, which appeared on 16 of the lists.

23 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2023: CFNY 102.1 The Edge, The Buzz, 102.7 WEQX, 107.1 The Peak, 88.3 The Sting, 90.9 The Bridge, 93.3 WMMR, 93X, Exit 97.7, Impact 89FM, Indie 102.3, KALX 90.7, KXT, Lightning 100, The Current, WBER, WERS 88.9, WFUV, WTMD, WXPN, WYEP, X96 and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2023 is “Not Strong Enough” by Boygenius, which appeared on 16 of the 23 countdowns and was voted number one by six of them. 19 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Lost” by Linkin Park (3 stations), “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius (3 stations), “Blame Brett” by The Beaches, “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan and “Modern Girl” by Bleachers and others. Boygenius was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 36 times across the countdowns.

23countdowns

1,107songs charted

19different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2023

All 1,107 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2023 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Not Strong Enough Boygenius	1,459	16	#1	6
2	Rescued Foo Fighters	1,193	18	#2	–
3	Psychos Jenny Lewis	1,027	13	#3	–
4	Dial Drunk Noah Kahan	1,023	13	#1	1
5	Eat Your Young Hozier	1,002	17	#2	–
6	More Than a Love Song Black Pumas	985	14	#3	–
7	When We Were Close Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	894	11	#4	–
8	Nothing Matters Last Dinner Party	856	14	#3	–
9	Now And Then The Beatles	852	10	#2	–
10	Ghosts Again Depeche Mode	845	12	#2	–
11	Vampire Empire Big Thief	814	10	#3	–
12	Under You Foo Fighters	803	12	#5	–
13	Tropic Morning News The National	803	11	#8	–
14	The Narcissist Blur	767	12	#14	–
15	Kid The Revivalists	758	13	#6	–
16	Evicted Wilco	753	12	#10	–
17	My Love Mine All Mine Mitski	749	12	#2	–
18	Cool About It Boygenius	726	11	#1	1
19	Road To Joy Peter Gabriel	709	10	#5	–
20	Modern Girl Bleachers	704	12	#1	1
21	Angry The Rolling Stones	668	11	#2	–
22	Francesca Hozier	640	10	#5	–
23	Forgiving Ties Deer Tick	637	12	#7	–
24	The American Dream Is Killing Me Green Day	630	11	#2	–
25	Act Natural Margaret Glaspy	603	10	#7	–
26	Say Yes to Heaven Lana Del Rey	603	8	#5	–
27	For Your Soul Josh Ritter	572	10	#1	1
28	Lost Linkin Park	524	6	#1	4
29	Odyssey Beck & Phoenix	524	11	#25	–
30	Days Move Slow Bully	522	10	#3	–
31	Leaving The Light Genesis Owusu	497	8	#2	–
32	Evangeline Stephen Sanchez	491	7	#4	–
33	Lose You Bully	476	10	#10	–
34	New Gold Gorillaz	463	8	#17	–
35	Thinking About You Beck	463	11	#25	–
36	One More Time blink-182	456	7	#3	–
37	Bug Like an Angel Mitski	450	9	#17	–
38	What Now Brittany Howard	450	9	#1	1
39	Go Down River The Heavy Heavy	449	7	#9	–
40	The Alcott The National	440	6	#6	–
41	$20 Boygenius	424	7	#9	–
42	All I Really Wanna Do Devon Gilfillian	422	8	#2	–
43	In Your Love Tyler Childers	422	7	#26	–
44	Weightless Arlo Parks	404	10	#4	–
45	Running Out of Time Paramore	401	6	#7	–
46	Highlands Middle Kids	399	8	#23	–
47	Stick Season Noah Kahan	397	5	#1	1
48	White Horse Chris Stapleton	392	6	#11	–
49	We're All Gonna Die Joy Oladokun	388	8	#12	–
50	Tears Run Dry Abraham Alexander	386	8	#9	–
51	Atomic City U2	383	12	#18	–
52	Honey Samia	382	7	#8	–
53	The Way Manchester Orchestra	380	8	#6	–
54	Good Old Days The Revivalists	379	7	#8	–
55	Vampire Olivia Rodrigo	379	4	#2	–
56	Running Away Thee Sacred Souls	363	5	#10	–
57	Dummy Portugal. The Man	362	5	#15	–
58	Good Time Grace Potter	359	6	#12	–
59	Just Pretend Bad Omens	357	4	#5	–
60	Are You Gonna Run? Low Cut Connie	354	7	#10	–
61	Stay Right Here Allison Russell	349	6	#15	–
62	The Trench Coat Museum Yard Act	343	5	#8	–
63	Death Wish Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	341	6	#10	–
64	Eucalyptus The National	334	6	#33	–
65	Your Side of Town The Killers	333	7	#20	–
66	Paper Machete Queens of the Stone Age	329	7	#20	–
67	Need A Favor Jelly Roll	326	4	#2	–
68	Rescue Me Dirty Heads	318	4	#7	–
69	No More Lies Thundercat and Tame Impala	313	6	#19	–
70	Love Will Get You There Inhaler	307	5	#9	–
71	Float Janelle Monae	305	4	#2	–
72	An Arrow In The Wall Death Cab for Cutie	304	6	#17	–
73	Wolf Yeah Yeah Yeahs	303	5	#22	–
74	Love You Anyway Devon Gilfillian	301	7	#4	–
75	Calling Your Name Jon Batiste	297	8	#21	–
76	Welcome to my Island Caroline Polachek	296	5	#6	–
77	Cherry Baby Jenny Lewis	294	7	#30	–
78	Hollywood Baby 100 Gecs	293	5	#8	–
79	Nothing Left To Lose Everything But The Girl	292	6	#6	–
80	No Reason Sunny War	291	5	#31	–
81	What Was I Made For? Billie Eilish	285	3	#3	–
82	Love From The Other Side Fall Out Boy	284	3	#2	–
83	Just The Once Metric	283	6	#21	–
84	Ready Or Not Shakey Graves	274	5	#14	–
85	Find Your People Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors	271	6	#7	–
86	Talk To Me The Record Company	265	5	#30	–
87	Homesick Noah Kahan	262	4	#14	–
88	A&W Lana Del Rey	262	4	#1	1
89	Pepper Death Cab for Cutie	260	5	#28	–
90	Quarry Wednesday	259	4	#8	–
91	New York Kills	255	5	#15	–
92	Kisses Slowdive	253	6	#16	–
93	Back On 74 Jungle	252	6	#17	–
94	Stuck 30 Seconds to Mars	251	3	#9	–
95	Get Inspired Genesis Owusu	247	4	#16	–
96	Exhausting Lover Ben Folds	243	5	#6	–
97	Salad Blondshell	242	4	#14	–
98	I Remember Everything Zach Bryan	241	4	#11	–
99	Sleepwalking All Time Low	241	3	#12	–
100	Devotion Arlo Parks	240	5	#37	–

Every station’s number one of 2023

Station	Number one song	Countdown
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	Blame Brett The Beaches	102.1 The Edge The Top 23 of 2023
The Buzz	Lost Linkin Park	The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2023
102.7 WEQX	Stick Season Noah Kahan	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2023
107.1 The Peak	Modern Girl Bleachers	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2023
88.3 The Sting	Nice Work If You Can Get It Sloan	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2023
90.9 The Bridge	Not Strong Enough boygenius	90.9 The Bridge Top 90 Songs of 2023
93.3 WMMR	Why Won't You Call Me Back The Hooters	WMMR Top 25 Songs of 2023
93X	Lost Linkin Park	93X Top 23 Songs of 2023
Exit 97.7	For Your Soul Josh Ritter	WEXT Top 106 of 2023
Impact 89FM	A&W Lana Del Rey	Impact 89FM Top 89 Songs of 2023
Indie 102.3	Welcome To My Island Caroline Polachek	Indie 102.3 Top 102.3 Songs of 2023
KALX 90.7	Running Snõõper	KALX 200 Most Played New Songs in 2023
KXT	Good Old Days The Revivalists	KXT Top 91 Songs of 2023
Lightning 100	Pages White Reaper	Lightning 100 Top 200 Songs of 2023
The Current	Stop The Bleeding Baby Rose	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2023
WBER	My Love Florence + The Machine	WBER Listener Countdown 2023
WERS 88.9	Not Strong Enough boygenius	WERS Top 88 Songs of 2023
WFUV	Cool About It boygenius	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2023
WTMD	Richard Pryor Satellite & the Hapoonist	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2023
WXPN	Sideways Skull The Hold Steady	WXPN Top 100 Most Played Songs of 2023
WYEP	Not Strong Enough boygenius	WYEP Top 91 Songs of 2023
X96	Lost Linkin Park	X96 Music Quorum 2023 Top 50 Songs
Triple J	Paint the Town Red Doja Cat	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2023

All 2023 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2023 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 2023 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 23 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.