Billboard Modern Rock #1 Hits of 2016

This is so easily Foals

Surprised that Coldplay continues to chart here.. and hit #1, no less.

considering i heard the alt station playing it all thruout its very extended (and just-now cresting) crossover period i am surprised x ambassadors' "unsteady" did not make it to the top. (it only reached #4 apparently, tho its dogshit predecessor "renegades" of course went #1.)

that woulda been my vote but alas. just a simple, oddly affecting song.

not sure what i would pick from this lot tbh.

have not heard any of these

surprised foals ever charted here, what

more foal you then

I unironically love Heathens and haven't heard any of the other songs on this list

of the ones i've heard, "bored to death"

which is v much blink 182 writing a 5 seconds of summer song but i'm into it still even though it is exhausting

I have a soft spot for Ophelia.

The Peppers song is junk.

For good measure..

#2 Hits
Bastille - Good Grief
*Judah & the Lion - Take it all Back

#3 Hits
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
Bishop Briggs - River
*Blink 182 - She's out of Her Mind

#4 Hits
Silversun Pickups - Nightlight
Vance Joy - Fire & the Flood
X Ambassadors - Unsteady
*Green Day - Still Breathing

#5 Hits
Fitz & the Tantrums - Handclap
Grouplove - Welcome to your Life

*still climbing

Heathens for damn sure

That 21 Pilots tune "Ride" has 332 million views. The one from Suicide Squad has over 513 million views. Holy yeesh, those dudes must be pretty popular.

The tune by the Foals was the best one on the list. The video was really trippy too. The rest of the list was pretty brutal, all that cutesy vocal stuff with the 'whoahs' 'ooohs' and 'ohhs' in modern pop/rock is so way overdone.

I don't think a band has had three #1's in the same year since Linkin Park

Oh, fucking hell, none of these.

yikes

21 pilots are awful. sublime without the hooks, late period chili peppers without the charm.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Jesus, what a sorry collection of songs

As crappy as this is, it's better than the past few years...

Why you gotta be so rude??

man "rude" is excellent compared to those twenty one pilots songs

^entirely believable

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I can't even imagine the amount of head trauma I would have to have to change my perception/outlook enough to say anything positive about "Rude"

That "I'll Be Needing Stitches" song didn't hit number one? I swear I've heard it every day on my local rock station.

that dude is a straight up youtube born teenybopper

didn't chart on alternative at all

Rude did, but way down at #19

DJP, youre right, in that Ride is a much better modern-rock reggae song than Rude

I've heard neither these songs nor the ones that peaked #2 thru #5. How is this format remotely profitable?

my city now has two alt rock-formatted stations: one is a glossy new iheartmedia-owned station while the other is rougher-around-the-edges, owned by another company, has been around for ages (tho with declining listenership). both now play a very high proportion of alternative 'greatest hits' from the 90s, especially those that crossed over to pop radio back in the day. the number of such tracks on the playlist is so high that i imagine the programmers do not believe the format would remain profitable if it solely played current hits. i have not seen any specific data to back this up (wonder if it's out there somewhere in the avalanche of data generated by and for the radio industry), but i would guess that the most-played classic hits ("golds" as the radio people sometimes call them) on alternative radio now amass as many if not more spins than the biggest currents.

in that sense the format is amusingly but not surprisingly becoming more reminiscent of formats like adult contemporary. i could definitely see it becoming the next incarnation (90s- rather than 70s-centered) of the stalwart classic rock format, which has basically played the same selection of music for the past 40 years + a small and continuously diminishing proportion of currents.

Driving back home Friday evening and scanning the radio dial I came across a show called 2Hours with Matt Pinfield that was just starting, so I checked out this show just to see what it would push. It's pretty much an X-radio show that has 'current hits' and then classics tracks (like this week's Nirvana "About a Girl"). Their play list was pretty much some of these tunes on this list as I heard one of those 21 Pilots songs from above.

What kind of struck me about many of these tunes is how 'unrock' and not very distinctive. It's produced like that Kelly Clarkston or pop singer music where the voice is real high in the mix and many tunes use this candy three note style melodies and a bunch of whoa whoa oh oh vocals. By comparison when a Coldplay tune came into the playlist, it really stood out as at least the singer was somewhat distinctive by comparison and it didn't sound like something put together like Tetris in a daw. While there was a never Green Day tune which was totally de-fanged and kinda sounded like some of the other stuff in the playlist. There was one track with a female singer that had a gnarly Betty Boop type voice that was pretty cool, but I never could find a play list to remember who it was. That tune was pretty decent.