The chart where the canon keeps winning
Every other chart on this site is a snapshot of this week. The rock chart is something stranger and more wonderful: a hall of fame that refuses to stay in its frame. Rock is the catalog genre — its audience streams the classics with the same hunger other genres save for new releases — so its chart reads like a family reunion where the grandparents keep out-dancing everyone. Guitars may not rule the pop mainstream anymore, but rock's back catalog has become a permanent second chart, running underneath all the others.
This week's list proves it in the most delightful way possible. At No. 1 sits Cab Calloway — a swing bandleader who first recorded “St. James Infirmary” generations before rock existed — followed by Springsteen, Tears for Fears, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Fleetwood Mac, Guns N' Roses, The Clash, Van Halen, and Def Leppard. That is not a chart; it's a jukebox in the best bar in town. New rock still breaks through here, but it has to earn its seat next to songs that have already survived forty years of being everybody's favorite.
Top 10 this week
The head of the rock chart, at a glance. The full hundred, playable top to bottom, is just below — and it refreshes itself from the live chart every time this page loads.
- St. James Infirmary — Cab Calloway
- Dancing In the Dark — Bruce Springsteen
- Everybody Wants To Rule The World — Tears For Fears
- You Shook Me All Night Long — AC/DC
- Livin' On A Prayer — Bon Jovi
- Everywhere (2017 Remaster) — Fleetwood Mac
- Sweet Child O' Mine — Guns N' Roses
- Should I Stay or Should I Go (Remastered) — The Clash
- Jump (2015 Remaster) — Van Halen
- Pour Some Sugar On Me — Def Leppard
The full Rock chart
Rock's second life
Streaming was supposed to be rock's funeral; instead it's been its resurrection. Freed from radio's formats and the album cycle, the great catalog just keeps accumulating plays — a teenager discovers Fleetwood Mac from a skateboarding video, a film placement sends a Clash song back up the chart, a whole generation adopts Springsteen as a birthright. Rock songs were built to be replayed for decades, and for the first time the technology rewards exactly that.
So treat this chart differently from the others. It's not a forecast; it's a census of what's immortal so far. Press Play All and hear the riffs that have outlived every format thrown at them — vinyl, cassette, CD, download, stream. The guitar keeps being declared dead. The chart keeps declining to attend the funeral.
Looking for a riff that isn't here?
The chart is only the front door. On the main site you can search millions of songs by artist, album, track, or genre — and every one of them plays the same free 30-second preview.
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