I grew up on WHFS, one of the greatest alternative stations of all time, and there's not much like it around anymore, at least not in this region. DC101 just barely plays any new music. The Triple A station I listen to, WTMD, plays more new music, so I've heard this year's singles by Lord Huron or Lucy Dacus on the radio more than some #1 alternative hits. So these lists always feel a little more theoretical than my other genre lists, I'm not talking about songs I've heard on the radio as much as songs I've seen on Billboard's airplay charts.
1. Balu Brigada - "So Cold"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #7 Rock & Alternative Airplay
New Zealand alt rock has had a notable year, with a masterpiece from The Beths a new album from The Bats, a collection of unreleased recordings from The Chills, and these two brothers from Auckland who toured with Twenty One Pilots and scored a #1 song before they'd released their debut album.
2. Lola Young - "Messy"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #1 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #14 Hot 100
Lola Young kind of had a Chappell Roan sort of breakthrough, with her 2024 album belatedly becoming a hit after "Messy" went viral, and it's just a stunning record, I heard it so much this yeat without ever feeling like I'd had my fill of it and could change the station when it came on. The follow-up album she just released is excellent too, it's a shame American radio hasn't really touched it, "Messy" is kind of singular bit she's got loads of songs that are just as good.
3. Wolf Alice - "Bloom Baby Bloom"
#19 Alternative Airplay, #36 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I remember reading that Wolf Alice's new single was some kind of departure from the fuzzy guitar-heavy sound of their great first three albums, but I was still thrown for a loop when I Shazam'd this cool piano-driven song on WTMD. Then it made perfect sense when I learned that Greg Kurstin produced it, I put him on the Max Martin level of genius modern hitmakers who can make something great with almost anybody.
4. Turnstile - "Never Enough"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #7 Rock & Alternative Airplay
The top 3 here are all artists from other countries, so appropriately the top American song is the first #1 hit by arguably the best band in the U.S. right now and the pride of Baltimore (not even the only #1 from a Baltimore band this year -- All Time Low's "The Weather" is currently at the top of the chart).
5. Nine Inch Nails - "As Alive As You Need Me To Be"
#2 Alternative Airplay, #2 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #2 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I'm fond of saying that no '90s rock icon has made more great music in the 21st century than Trent Reznor, and I would believe that just based on his NIN output (and that Halsey album), but obviously his dozens of film scores with Atticus Ross are what truly put him in the lead. And it was fun to finally see Reznor mix those two things together with NIN's Tron: Ares soundtrack, which features a handful of vocal songs and the band's biggest radio hit since 2007.
6. Sombr - "Back To Friends"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #2 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #10 Hot 100
It's rare for a new artist to have two breakthrough singles blow up simultaneously. But for several months, Sombr's "Back To Friends," which I really like, was in a Hot 100 horse race with "Undressed," a song I don't care for at all. So I felt mildly relieved when "Back" decisively pulled ahead by the end of the year. 'Sombr' is a deeply embarrassing stage name and Shane Michael Boose, who just turned 20, makes me cringe every time he gives an interview or performs on TV. But he's pretty talented, there aren't a lot of self-produced one-man-band types at his age and his level of fame making guitar-driven music so he cuts a unique figure.
7. Role Model - "Sally, When The Wine Runs Out"
#3 Alternative Airplay, #7 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Another alternapop solo-guy-with-a-band name who has an extremely embarrassing vibe but won me over with his big single.
8. Sam Fender - "People Watching"
#25 Alternative Airplay, #28 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Another Brit who I wish was as big in America as he is at home, I love Sam Fender's voice and his whole 'if Springsteen was from North Shields' thing.
9. Almost Monday - "Can't Slow Down"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #8 Rock & Alternative Airplay
This San Diego band had a few minor radio hits going back to 2019 before this one went all the way and surprised me by crossing over to pop radio as well. That weird wheezing synth sound is such a fun instrumental hook.
10. Yellowcard - "Better Days"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #5 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I started doing more interviews for Spin this year and ended up talking to some pretty big rock stars, including
Yellowcard, not long after they got their first #1 alternative hit ever, as weird as it is to realize "Ocean Avenue" never hit #1.
11. Rise Against - "I Want It All"
#38 Alternative Airplay, #18 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #47 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I also got to
interview Rise Against's Tim McIlrath, and really enjoyed talking to him about retooling the band’s sound with producer Catherine Marks (Boygenius, Manchester Orchestra).
Ricochet got the least radio play of any Rise Against album in 20 years, but I respect the way they knowingly took a risk of challenging their fanbase, it's a cool record.
12. Sleep Theory - "Stuck In My Head"
#31 Alternative Airplay, #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #11 Rock & Alternative Airplay
The biggest hit from this Memphis band's Epitaph Records debut really blew me away, it's always fun to hear hard rock with a really soulful lead vocal and lead singer Cullen Moore puts a nice little R&B undertone on an otherwise really heavy song.
13. Sleep Token - "Caramel"
#17 Alternative Airplay, #2 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #14 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #34 Hot 100
While I was getting into Sleep Theory, much of the rest of the world was becoming obsessed with Sleep Token, including my wife (her Spotify top 5 for the year included 4 Sleep Token songs), and New York Times critic Jon Caramanica, who named "Caramel" his top song of 2025. Beneath the masks and mythology, Sleep Token feel to me like a British equivalent of Linkin Park or Twenty One Pilots, an extremely nerdy but charismatic collision of rap and several styles of rock.
14. Limp Bizkit - "Making Love To Morgan Wallen"
#23 Alternative Airplay, #9 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #9 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I genuinely think Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water is a great album, and found Bizkit's last couple albums enjoyable. But it still blew me away that a band that is so tied to defining a specific bygone era just game out of nowhere with an absurdist track for a video game soundtrack and made their best and most successful single in over 20 years. That made it even more sad that bassist Sam Rivers died mere weeks after the song's release.
15. Winona Fighter - "You Look Like A Drunk Phoebe Bridgers"
#33 Alternative Airplay
I was only familiar with the Nashville band Winona Fighter because my brother Zac is a huge fan who's seen them live several times and posts their music a lot. So I had no idea that they were on a trajectory to get some mainstream radio airplay, and they did it with one of their many tracks that has a memorably ridiculous title.
16. Mk.gee - "Rockman"
#25 Alternative Airplay, #30 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I didn't know much about Mk.gee when his debut album got a lot of buzz last year and he performed on SNL. But after his work on Dijon and Justin Bieber's great 2025 albums, I'm fully on board with his weird fuzzed out sound, and this non-album single became his first radio hit.
17. Blue October - "Hot Stuff"
#17 Alternative Airplay, #34 Rock & Alternative Airplay
If you're a midlevel mainstream band who's been around for 20 years, sometimes charting and sometimes not, I suppose you can do worse than writing a totally uncharacteristic '80s ZZ Top-type song and tossing it out into the world.
18. Goose -"Give It Time"
#41 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I gotta say, I prefer Goose over Geese.
19. Djo - "Basic Being Basic"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #15 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Stranger Things feels weirdly ubiquitous in the music industry, from putting old Kate Bush and Metallica songs on the charts to at least three of its young actors releasing albums, and another cast member infamously becoming the subject of Lily Allen's new album. Joe Keery is the most successful of the show's actor/musicians, and he also had a very funny, very entertaiming performance in the recent film Pavements, where he plays himself playing Steven Malkmus in the film-within-a-film Pavement biopic. And now Keery has a couple Djo tracks that have gone further on alt-rock radio than "Cut Yr Hair" ever got.
20. Billy Morrison f/ Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Stevens - "Gods of Rock N Roll"
#8 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #17 Rock & Alternative Airplay
This was pretty much the last Ozzy track released before he passed away this year, and it feels like a fitting sendoff.
The 10 Worst Rock/Alternative Radio Hits of 2025
1. Jonah Kagen - "God Needs the Devil"
2. Falling In Reverse f/ Saraya - "Bad Guy"
3. Royel Otis - "Moody"
4. A Day To Remember - "All My Friends"
5. Shinedown - "Three Six Five"
6. Three Days Grace - "Mayday"
7. The Smashing Pumpkins - "Who Goes There"
8. Pierce The Veil - "So Far So Fake"
9. Tame Impala - "Dracula"
10. Lorde - "What Was That"
Previously: The 20 Best Rock/Alternative Radio Hits of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
