# Best #1 Modern/Alternative Rock Song of the 2000s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849 "2015-01-14T20:53:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/1 "2015-01-14T20:53:07Z")
Not a great list, but a couple songs I can vote for with a clear conscience. It’ll be interesting to see what gets the most votes. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/2 "2015-01-14T22:12:26Z")
7NA was a pretty easy vote for me. Some other good ones, some I’ve become completely sick of, and some I never could stand. But the White Stripes just scratch an itch… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/3 "2015-01-14T22:20:06Z")
“Seven Nation Army,” for me as well. I’m actually a little surprised that after nine votes there’s none for “Float On” yet. I would have bet that would be either #1 or #2. The song doesn’t really do anything for me, but it seemed to be _the_ mid-2000s indie anthem. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/4 "2015-01-14T22:50:50Z")
“Seven Nation Army” is a skosh better than “Float On” and wins my vote. “Viva La Vida” is dead-ass last, and not only because it stole its title from Ricky Martin. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/5 "2015-01-14T23:19:52Z")
Lots of “pretty cool” songs here. Even the two I don’t particularly like, Float On and Viva la Vida, are probably my two favorites from the respective bands. I went with Smooth Criminal, in part to be just a tiny bit ornery, in part because I was pretty sure Seven Nation Army would win even before seeing the votes or reading the posts, and in part because even a decade plus later it’s still a freaking cool version of that song. On seeing the votes, I do kind of wish I had gone for Feel Good Inc just so we could show a strong secondary contender. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/6 "2015-01-14T23:24:57Z")
Float On is the best song in any of this series of polls bar none. It’s one of my favorite songs from the decade. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/7 "2015-01-15T00:44:44Z")
Lot of good tunes on that list. I went with **Gorillaz** _Feel Good_, but could have easily went with **White Stripes** _Icky Thump_ or \*7 Nation Army \*. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/8 "2015-01-15T01:21:42Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > “Seven Nation Army” is a skosh better than “Float On” and wins my vote. > > “Viva La Vida” is dead-ass last, and not only because it stole its title from Ricky Martin. When not paying attention it looks like “Livin La Vida Loca”, so you are not alone. Coldplay has better songs though. But I voted for Alien Ant Farm. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/9 "2015-01-15T02:11:53Z")
> [@Nema98](#): > > When not paying attention it looks like “Livin La Vida Loca”, so you are not alone. > > Coldplay has better songs though. But I voted for Alien Ant Farm. Who the fuck is Ricky Martin? (I keed) > [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Not a great list, but a couple songs I can vote for with a clear conscience. Darn any to heck who disapprove of my vote for Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”. Of the songs in the list, it’s clearly the greatest. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/10 "2015-01-15T09:25:08Z")
**Gorillaz** for me without hesitation (shit, how can Blur-meets-De La Soul _not_ be great), although I think it’s a sad state of affairs that there are _3_ Jack White numbers on there… ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/11 "2015-01-15T10:06:39Z")
Seven Nation Army, hands down. Runners up: Californication and Icky Thump. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/12 "2015-01-15T10:44:52Z")
**Gorillaz** - _Feel Good Inc_ ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/13 "2015-01-15T20:50:32Z")
I’m sure I’m going to draw some wrath with this, but to me Seven Nation Army (now that I’ve YouTubed it to remind me of which song it was, of those I never knew the name of) is practically interchangeable with Blur’s Song 2. As I was listening to 7NA, I kept on waiting to hear certain lines from Song 2, and when I got to the end and they weren’t there, I was going, “huh?” so I had to Google them to find out which song _that_ was. Anyhow, none of Jack White’s bands/projects have ever done much for me. (Which takes out three of the ten songs on the list right there.) Modest Mouse it is. It does kinda perplex me to see Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” on this list. Mainstream pop in the last decade must’ve been a strange place to not include this song, because it sure sounds to me like it’s about as mainstream-pop as you can get. That isn’t a criticism - I like the song - but it seems out of place in the ‘alternative’ category. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/14 "2015-01-15T21:24:26Z")
Only 10 to choose from!?! I voted for RHCP. I can’t hear any more Seven Nation Army now that it’s at every single sporting event. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-2000s/709849/15 "2015-01-16T01:43:31Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > It does kinda perplex me to see Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” on this list. Mainstream pop in the last decade must’ve been a strange place to not include this song, because it sure sounds to me like it’s about as mainstream-pop as you can get. That isn’t a criticism - I like the song - but it seems out of place in the ‘alternative’ category. It crossed over, like a lot of songs that first become “hits” on genre charts, I presume because (for whatever reason) the band/act is considered “alternative.” FWIW, I find a lot of the recent new acts and songs to breakthrough on alternative radio to be straight up pop, and I guess the genre classification depends on whatever is trendy at the time. Like, I guess an 80s-sounding dance song released in 2014 doesn’t fit the Clear Channel pop mold, so it has to depend on “alternative” outlets to be tastemakers.