# Best #1 Modern/Alternative Rock Song of the Year: 2014 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330 "2015-01-08T16:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **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 8, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/1 "2015-01-08T16:58:14Z")
We’re finally at the end, and it seems to be a whimper rather than a bang. I guess, given the underwhelming choices, I’ll go with Arctic Monkeys. Here’s my list of alternative songs I liked from 2014: Broken Bells - After The Disco Wild Beasts - Wanderlust St. Vincent - Digital Witness Angel Olsen - Forgiven/Forgotten Eagulls - Opaque Real Estate - Talking Backwards Perfect Pussy - Interference Fits The New Pornographers - Dancehall Domine Perfume Genius - Queen Ex Hex - How You Got That Girl Gloom - Kid Wave Wussy - Teenage Wasteland Ty Segall - Susie Thumb Chumped - Old And Tired ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/2 "2015-01-08T17:24:56Z")
Hozier, “Take Me To Church.” ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/3 "2015-01-08T17:30:12Z")
As I mentioned in the last thread, _AM_ is IMO the best alt/rock album from the past several years, so that was an easy slam-vote for me here. I do like the top seven or so songs in the poll (as they’re listed from top to bottom), for various values of poppy, catchy, and generally fun. **woodstockbirdybird** , if you don’t mind me asking now that we’re up to the present, where do you get a lot of your suggestions? Internet radio of any specific variation? I try to check out at least a few of the things you post for each year, and I like some of them, and I dislike some of them, but they’re generally all at least worth a listen and I can always use more music with how concentrated/marginalized alt and rock are on terrestrial radio right now. I guess what I’m saying is that you are way more alternative than alternative and if I want to give that a shot every now and then what’s my best bet? ---
**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 8, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/4 "2015-01-08T18:00:35Z")
Well, I pay a lot of attention to new alternative releases - there are blogs, Pitchfork, I subscribe to the Other Music newsletter, check out KCRW’s lists, and sometimes I’ll just check the weekly iTunes new alternative releases and listen to samples. Also, a lot of people at my work are into indie music, and we share songs with each other. In fact, every year for the past 10 years I’ve put together a disc (really just an mp3 compilation) of the best songs each month, plus a disc of the best reissues for the year, so 13 discs a year in all. I share them with friends via Dropbox, so it gives me an incentive to keep up on new music. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/5 "2015-01-08T18:56:06Z")
I wasn’t sure if Playlist research had their Also-ran list up for 2014, [but they did](http://www.playlistresearch.com/2010s/2014modern.htm). Yay, I guess. If this exercise has taught me anything (and it hasn’t), it’s that Modern Rock is no longer easy to define like in the old days, when Modern Rock/New Wave was just that…and maybe reggae (UB40), and folk (Dexys Midnight Riders) and ska (Madness) and metal (The Cult) and jazz (Joe Jackson) and…ah, heck, it was all over the place back then too. Maybe the term Modern Rock is just too ill-defined, doesn’t seem like Billboard’s done a particularly good job at defining it. New Music eventually becomes old favorites, “hard” Modern Rock song just join the discography of standard Rock, Alternative becomes mainstream, indie rock always sells out in the end (beside, if bands can record their own music and post it on YouTube or future equivalent without any “record” company involvement - isn’t that a real definition of Indie?), genre definitions are mutated as needed. Eh, it’s music, some good, some bad. So, how will everyone who participated in these threads feel in 50 or so years from now when these songs are played Muzak-like in the Assisted Living facilities and Senior Care centers across the nation, much like big-band and crooner-era music is played now :eek:? ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/6 "2015-01-08T19:20:37Z")
Riptide was an easy call for me. It’s what Jack Johnson would do if he had more talent. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/7 "2015-01-08T19:46:28Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > Riptide was an easy call for me. It’s what Jack Johnson would do if he had more talent. It’s hard for me to judge how much talent Jack Johnson has. I’ve never been able to stay awake through one of his songs. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/8 "2015-01-08T21:13:12Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Hozier, “Take Me To Church.” Hozier didn’t top the alternative rock chart - he did make it to #1 on the Adult Alternative chart and the Hot Rock Songs chart (which combines the alternative, mainstream rock, and adult alternative charts), and made it to #2 on the Hot 100 (sadly it looks like he won’t make #1.) I like most of the songs on this list, but I went with “Stolen Dance” for its retro disco-ish sound. “I Wanna Get Better” is a close second, mainly on the basis of that power-pop guitar and piano intro that sounds like something off one of Pete Townshend’s solo albums. May I assume that a best-of-all-time poll is next? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/9 "2015-01-08T21:19:10Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Maybe the term Modern Rock is just too ill-defined, doesn’t seem like Billboard’s done a particularly good job at defining it. The alternative rock chart is based on airplay data from about 80 radio stations nationwide that identify their format as “alternative rock” or some variation on the term (for example, 107.7 The End in Seattle, which was one of the first professionally-run alternative stations in the country, uses the term “new music discovery” to define its format these days.) So really, Billboard _isn’t_ defining the genre - they’re letting the radio industry define it for them. ---
**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 8, 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/10 "2015-01-08T21:32:51Z")
Easy choice for me, with the Arctic Monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/11 "2015-01-08T22:07:37Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The alternative rock chart is based on airplay data from about 80 radio stations nationwide that identify their format as “alternative rock” or some variation on the term (for example, 107.7 The End in Seattle, which was one of the first professionally-run alternative stations in the country, uses the term “new music discovery” to define its format these days.) So really, Billboard _isn’t_ defining the genre - they’re letting the radio industry define it for them. Yes, I did remember that from a different thread (probably from one of your top songs of 19XX threads, which I think led to Woodstockbirdy creating this Modern Rock poll series), but I was just being a bit snarky. Sorry about that - but it still seems almost a “it’s whatever we decide it is” definition. While I’m overthinking it - for the heck of it, the [Wiki entry on “Alternative Rock”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_rock) > [@](#): > > The “alternative” definition refers to the genre’s distinction from mainstream rock music, expressed primarily in a distorted guitar sound, subversive and/or transgressive lyrics and generally a nonchalant, defiant attitude. Well, back in the day that could well have been said about the Door’s “Peace Frog”, Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child”, and yes, even Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” - seems they were the alternative/modern rock of their day. However, as I stated several polls ago, it seems Modern Rock simply becomes Rock over time. Hands up those who think early REM, U2, Police et. al aren’t really just rock songs nowadays (not including the ballads of course)? Hands up if you think Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, RHCP, Muse, et. al aren’t Rock. Also from the Wiki article on Alternative Music: > [@](#): > > By 2010, in the United States the term alternative rock fell out of common usage. Most references to modern rock music are to the indie rock genre, a term that had previously limited usage on alternative rock channels and media.[15] While there have been conflicting opinions on the relevance of alternative rock to mainstream audiences beyond 2010… That will teach me to pay more attention to trends around me. What I cut off from that wiki cite - “Dave Grohl commented on an article from the New York Daily News stating that rock is dead: speak for yourself… Rock seems pretty alive to me.” Seems someone once said something similar back in the early 1970s… _Rock is dead they say. Long live rock_ See you on the big all-time summary poll thread… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/12 "2015-01-08T22:17:31Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Well, back in the day that could well have been said about the Door’s “Peace Frog”, Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child”, and yes, even Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” - seems they were the alternative/modern rock of their day. You wouldn’t be the first to compare the Velvets to alternative - my favorite way of saying it has always been that they were alternative before there was anything to be the alternative to in the first place. 🙂 An honorable mention would also have to go to Neil Young, who in 1977 saw the death of Elvis and the rise of punk rock coincide with his own early mid-life crisis and fear of becoming an irrelevant dinosaur, and rose to the occasion by [inventing grunge about 10 years ahead of schedule.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQhEvfeJocM) ---
**Author:** ![dream-scraper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@dream-scraper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dream-scraper)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/13 "2015-01-09T01:21:39Z")
Imagine Dragons - Demons Capital Cities - Safe & Sound New Politics - Harlem Foster The People - Coming of Age Group love - Shark Attack Neon Trees - Sleeping With A Friend Vampire Weekend - Step Morning Parade - Alienation Bleachers - I Wanna Get Better Big Data w/ Joywave - Dangerous Royal Blood - Out of the Black ---
**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 9, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/14 "2015-01-09T02:50:09Z")
I’m voting for “Riptide,” but if you asked me to vote again tomorrow, I may come up with a different answer. I easily could have voted for “Come with Me Now” or “The Walker.” It’s so tight that a song’s gain or loss of a few hundredths of a point in the world-famous **Ponch8 Music Rating System** could change my vote. As for the Arctic Monkeys, they’re OK, but I don’t hear what’s so great about them. I could have seen them at Lollapalooza last year, but they were up against Eminem, and there’s maybe one or two performers in the world I’d rather hear than Eminem. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/15 "2015-01-09T14:49:20Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Well, I pay a lot of attention to new alternative releases - there are blogs, Pitchfork, I subscribe to the Other Music newsletter, check out KCRW’s lists, and sometimes I’ll just check the weekly iTunes new alternative releases and listen to samples. Also, a lot of people at my work are into indie music, and we share songs with each other. In fact, every year for the past 10 years I’ve put together a disc (really just an mp3 compilation) of the best songs each month, plus a disc of the best reissues for the year, so 13 discs a year in all. I share them with friends via Dropbox, so it gives me an incentive to keep up on new music. So… put the amount of effort into music that I generally put into movies or games. That makes a shocking amount of sense. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/16 "2015-01-13T19:20:49Z")
Not a bad list but I went with Milky Chance, nice chorus that won me over. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-2014/709330/17 "2015-01-13T19:23:42Z")
> [@dream-scraper](#): > > Imagine Dragons - Demons > Capital Cities - Safe & Sound > New Politics - Harlem > Foster The People - Coming of Age > Group love - Shark Attack > Neon Trees - Sleeping With A Friend > Vampire Weekend - Step > Morning Parade - Alienation > Bleachers - I Wanna Get Better > Big Data w/ Joywave - Dangerous > Royal Blood - Out of the Black Foster the People have nice song called “Nevermind” from their new album. Worth a listen .