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

The best rock songs of 2023

Q: What was the top rock song of 2023?

Combining 5 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2023 is "Not Strong Enough" by Boygenius, which appeared on 4 of the lists.

Five radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2023: CFNY 102.1 The Edge, KXT, The Current, WFUV and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2023 is “Not Strong Enough” by Boygenius, which appeared on four of the five countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. Five different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Blame Brett” by The Beaches, “Good Old Days” by The Revivalists, “Stop The Bleeding” by Baby Rose, “Cool About It” by boygenius and “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat. Boygenius was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 11 times across the countdowns.

5countdowns

293songs charted

5different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2023

All 293 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	370	4	#1	2
2	Now And Then The Beatles	275	3	#2	–
3	Vampire Empire Big Thief	267	3	#4	–
4	When We Were Close Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	264	3	#5	–
5	Nothing Matters Last Dinner Party	264	4	#4	–
6	Psychos Jenny Lewis	252	3	#3	–
7	More Than a Love Song Black Pumas	231	4	#9	–
8	Rescued Foo Fighters	219	4	#2	–
9	My Love Mine All Mine Mitski	204	3	#21	–
10	Cool About It Boygenius	196	3	#1	1
11	Leaving The Light Genesis Owusu	192	3	#19	–
12	What Was I Made For? Billie Eilish	192	2	#3	–
13	Vampire Olivia Rodrigo	189	2	#2	–
14	In Your Love Tyler Childers	180	3	#30	–
15	Death Wish Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	178	3	#14	–
16	Eat Your Young Hozier	175	4	#22	–
17	Angry The Rolling Stones	175	3	#23	–
18	Act Natural Margaret Glaspy	166	3	#29	–
19	Road To Joy Peter Gabriel	166	2	#14	–
20	The American Dream Is Killing Me Green Day	164	2	#3	–
21	Ghosts Again Depeche Mode	164	3	#7	–
22	Back On 74 Jungle	162	2	#17	–
23	Modern Girl Bleachers	161	2	#16	–
24	I Remember Everything Zach Bryan	160	2	#11	–
25	bad idea right? Olivia Rodrigo	159	2	#10	–
26	From The Start Laufey	156	3	#17	–
27	Kill Bill SZA	153	2	#13	–
28	For Your Soul Josh Ritter	150	2	#23	–
29	Running Away Thee Sacred Souls	148	2	#22	–
30	Say Yes to Heaven Lana Del Rey	146	2	#24	–
31	Honey Samia	145	2	#8	–
32	Days Move Slow Bully	141	3	#28	–
33	Francesca Hozier	137	2	#10	–
34	Under You Foo Fighters	135	2	#18	–
35	Tropic Morning News The National	135	2	#13	–
36	Bug Like an Angel Mitski	128	2	#17	–
37	Get Inspired Genesis Owusu	127	2	#16	–
38	Nothing Left To Lose Everything But The Girl	125	2	#6	–
39	Odyssey Beck & Phoenix	121	3	#25	–
40	Eucalyptus The National	119	2	#33	–
41	The Narcissist Blur	119	3	#14	–
42	Float Janelle Monae	119	2	#4	–
43	Tears Run Dry Abraham Alexander	117	2	#9	–
44	Evicted Wilco	115	2	#15	–
45	Welcome to my Island Caroline Polachek	114	2	#29	–
46	Evangeline Stephen Sanchez	112	2	#5	–
47	Thinking About You Beck	112	2	#36	–
48	$20 Boygenius	110	2	#30	–
49	Lose You Bully	109	3	#40	–
50	Be More Stephen Sanchez	101	2	#40	–
51	Blame Brett The Beaches	100	1	#1	1
52	Paint the Town Red Doja Cat	100	1	#1	1
53	The Worst Person Alive G Flip	99	1	#2	–
54	Saving Up Dom Dolla	98	1	#3	–
55	Rhyme Dust MK and Dom Dolla	97	1	#4	–
56	Prada Cassö, Raye and D-Block Europe	96	1	#5	–
57	Forgiving Ties Deer Tick	96	2	#26	–
58	Hurricane Party Dessa	96	1	#5	–
59	Adore U Fred Again and Obongjayar	95	1	#6	–
60	New York Kills	95	2	#15	–
61	The Alcott The National and Taylor Swift	94	1	#6	–
62	Coming of Age Durry	94	1	#6	–
63	Rush Troye Sivan	93	1	#8	–
64	White Horse Chris Stapleton	93	2	#49	–
65	Buy You A New Attitude Tianna Esperanza	92	1	#8	–
66	Lovin on Me Jack Harlow	92	1	#9	–
67	Superspreader Ber	91	1	#9	–
68	Chemical Post Malone	91	1	#10	–
69	Really Really Light The New Pornographers	90	2	#34	–
70	Honey Lone Bellow	90	1	#10	–
71	Where My Wild Things Are Ryan Bingham	89	1	#11	–
72	Rumble Skrillex, Fred Again and Flowdan	89	1	#12	–
73	Quarry Wednesday	88	1	#12	–
74	Little Bit of Sun Semisonic	88	1	#12	–
75	Atmosphere Fisher and Kita Alexander	87	1	#14	–
76	Landmines Sum 41	87	1	#4	–
77	Hunter Jess Williamson	87	1	#13	–
78	Boys Who Kiss You In Their Car Ber	87	1	#13	–
79	(It Goes Like) Nanana Peggy Gou	86	1	#15	–
80	Kisses Slowdive	86	2	#16	–
81	Sprinter Dave and Central Cee	85	1	#16	–
82	Stay Right Here Allison Russell	85	2	#46	–
83	The Trench Coat Museum Yard Act	84	1	#15	–
84	Eat Your Man Dom Dolla and Nelly Furtado	83	1	#18	–
85	One More Time blink-182	83	1	#5	–
86	New Gold Gorillaz	82	1	#17	–
87	Therapy Budjerah	82	1	#19	–
88	Sole Obsession Nation of Language	81	1	#18	–
89	Sorry Instead Spacey Jane	81	1	#20	–
90	Descending To Nowhere Rodrigo y Gabriela	81	3	#49	–
91	Greedy Tate McRae	80	1	#21	–
92	Paper Machete Queens of the Stone Age	79	1	#20	–
93	Be Your Man G Flip	79	1	#22	–
94	Crumble The National	79	1	#20	–
95	Somebody Else Aysanabee	78	1	#6	–
96	Take It Off Fisher and Aatig	78	1	#23	–
97	Good Enough G Flip	77	1	#24	–
98	Worth It RAYE	77	2	#34	–
99	Rich Baby Daddy Drake	76	1	#25	–
100	Eddie My Love Brigitte Calls Me Baby	75	1	#23	–

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
KXT	Good Old Days The Revivalists	KXT Top 91 Songs of 2023
The Current	Stop The Bleeding Baby Rose	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2023
WFUV	Cool About It boygenius	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2023
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 five qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.