# Best #1 Modern/Alternative Rock Song of the Year 2002 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063 "2014-12-01T20:42:07Z")\ **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:** [December 1, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/1 "2014-12-01T20:42:07Z")
Another (mostly) bum year, but at least there’s one I can vote for here without choosing the lesser of 10 evils. ---
**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:** [December 1, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/2 "2014-12-01T21:28:56Z")
Nirvana, though I do get a kick out of System of a Down. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/3 "2014-12-01T22:22:51Z")
I went with System of a Down, but RHCP’s By the Way was a close second… ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/4 "2014-12-02T03:04:26Z")
Went with “Hero” by Chad Kroeger, it was very appropriate for that era considering that 9/11 attacks occurred less than a year prior. There were better songs out this time period, I like “California Here We Come” by Phantom Planets, soundtrack for the “OC”. I do like some of these songs and others that did not make it to #1. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/5 "2014-12-02T03:10:46Z")
I voted for “Youth of the Nation.” “Hero” with that Nickelback asswipe finishes dead-ass last. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/6 "2014-12-02T12:49:29Z")
By The Way (since I voted for In The End last time) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/7 "2014-12-02T16:57:24Z")
I’ll be the first to own up to voting for Jimmy Eat World. I have a hard time regarding it as modern or alternative; it just seems like a better-than-average mainstream pop song. I know it’s fashionable to dump on this song, but what they hey, I like it. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/8 "2014-12-02T18:09:58Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’ll be the first to own up to voting for Jimmy Eat World. I have a hard time regarding it as modern or alternative; it just seems like a better-than-average mainstream pop song. I know it’s fashionable to dump on this song, but what they hey, I like it. I admit, it’s a nice little pop song. Nothing wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/9 "2014-12-02T18:15:52Z")
All junk except the last 3, IMO. Of those three, it’s hard…damn hard. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/10 "2014-12-02T18:23:42Z")
All My Life is my favorite Foo song, so I had to throw my vote that way. Jimmy Eats World is a close second, though. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/11 "2014-12-02T18:27:52Z")
I went with “Hero” this time, just to cheese people off. Here’s the 2002 also-rans from [Playlist Research](http://www.playlistresearch.com/2000s/2002modern.htm) - what I didn’t mention in the 2001 thread when a number of people complained that the White Stripes “Fell In Love With A Girl” didn’t make the #1 spot…well, one reason was that song wasn’t released as a single till 2002 (with the [half-a-brain CD cover](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fell_in_Love_with_a_Girl#mediaviewer/File:Fellinlovewithagirlnew.jpg)), so it wouldn’t have been eligible anyway. In the event, the highest rank it reached on the US charts was #12, so it really wasn’t that close as well-known modern rock songs go… Slightly amusing anecdote: sometime in 2002 I was parked on the side of the street waiting to give a friend a lift, listening to the White Stripes CD with my car window wide open. Another car with a youngish couple inside (woman driving) stops alongside waiting for the traffic light to change, just as “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” comes on. Guy in that car sits up, yells “White Stripes”, and starts maniacally stabbing at the radio to tune in that song, all the while the woman asks “what’s wrong?”. They drove away before I could tell him it was a CD…oh well :p. No rocker for my second tier pick this time - “COLDPLAY - Clocks” ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/12 "2014-12-02T18:30:54Z")
I’m going with “You Know You’re Right” but I’d be happy with “The Middle” or “By The Way”. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/13 "2014-12-02T18:41:16Z")
As always, alternative songs from '02 I liked that didn’t make the list: Billy Bragg - St. Monday Apples In Stereo - Please Camera Obscura - Happy New Year Badly Drawn Boy - Something To Talk About Sleater-Kinney - Oh! The Coral - Dreaming Of You Bob Mould - SoundOnSound ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/14 "2014-12-04T00:52:32Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > As always, alternative songs from '02 I liked that didn’t make the list: > > Billy Bragg - St. Monday > Apples In Stereo - Please > Camera Obscura - Happy New Year > Badly Drawn Boy - Something To Talk About > Sleater-Kinney - Oh! > The Coral - Dreaming Of You > Bob Mould - SoundOnSound Good options. I’d add almost any song from Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2002/706063/15 "2014-12-04T02:04:13Z")
Went with Nirvana because it was the only one that stayed with me years later. When I looked up a lot of the others, I realized I knew them and enjoyed listening to them…but just had never thought of them at all in the years since. And I’ve sort of forgotten them all now a few minutes later. So Nirvana it is.