Rolling Stone names top 200 rock songs of the century!

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Ciara Kelly (0:28)

That's fieldmaps.ie The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Shane Coleman (0:40)

Now Rolling Stone has named this century's 200 greatest rock songs. So it's the 21st century's 200 greatest rock songs. Two Irish bands have made the cut. U2's Beautiful Day comes in at a surprisingly high number 22, but that's just my opinion. While Fontaine's DC's Starbuster takes 61st place.

Plenty still to fuel an argument over the playlist. And who better to talk us through it than Claire Beck, DJ and Today FM presenter. Claire, thanks for coming in to us. Before we get kind of to the meat of it, the top 10, the two Irish entries, I suppose, isn't a bad old return?

Claire Beck (1:13)

It's not a bad old return, but also it's probably, I would say, if they were to run this list again in five years time, even two years time, there would be a lot more Irish representation because there's a lot of Irish bands blowing up kind of overseas at the moment. We've got the likes of Fontaine's are kind of on that cusp of cracking the US and that kind of a thing.

But I was very glad to see Starburster in there. It's a fabulous tune.

Shane Coleman (1:38)

It is a really good song.

Let's go to the top 10 We'll run through them really quickly. Number 10, Wilco Impossible Germany, a song I do have a soft spot for. The Arctic Monkeys, I bet you look good on the dance floor. Jay-Z, 99 Problems, The Strokes, Last Night. Phoebe Bridgers, I Know The End. Is that a rock song?

Claire Beck (1:59)

I mean, there's a lot of howling, very kind of desolate sounding guitars and it's a very cathartic moment in her live shows. So I would say, yeah. Okay. Yeah, you rock out to that one.

Shane Coleman (2:09)

Radiohead, the national anthem. Olivia Rodrigo, good for you.

Claire Beck (2:14)

That's absolutely a rock song.

Shane Coleman (2:16)

Is it the fourth best rock song of the?

Claire Beck (2:18)

We'll ask Robert Smith from The Cure, who is her biggest fan and goes on stage with her.

Shane Coleman (2:23)

Okay. The killer is Mr. Brightside, number three, The White Stripes, Seven Nation Army. I kind of thought it would be number one, but it's number two and the number one song. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that Ciara Kelly didn't even know this song existed.

Ciara Kelly (2:37)

Oh, hello.

Shane Coleman (2:38)

Right back at you, Pot. I didn't either.

Ciara Kelly (2:41)

And half the team didn't either.

Shane Coleman (2:43)

Yeah, yeah, yes. Maps.

Claire Beck (2:46)

Absolutely beautiful song. One of my favorite songs of all time.

Incredible video as well. A little fun fact about the video. She's crying in the video, and it's because her horrible boyfriend went on tour and left her without saying goodbye. So the tears in the video are real. But no, I think it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written. So I hope if anything, if there's lots of people that haven't heard it before, that they'll go and listen to it and then dig into the AAS back catalog, because amazing stuff there.

Shane Coleman (3:14)

Now, we should stress these are rock songs, not pop songs. And it's the 21st century. So in case you're wondering, you know, why isn't such and such a song by Queen there or something?

Claire Beck (3:24)

Yeah, exactly. So it's from the 1st of January, 2000 to whenever they conducted this poll. I think they got the results back last month sometime and put it together.

So there's an interesting thing that has happened in the age of the Internet and the age of social media is that, you know, traditionally, like maybe when you were, you're saying you're a pop fan, Shane, like would you have got like into, would you have had beef with the hip hop kids or the rock kids? Cause you liked pop and that was it. You were staying in your lane. I'm a pop man. Okay. Whereas now everything is all side by side on your feet. And that is how people are consuming music, popular culture, film, everything. So the idea of you, you know, dressing a certain way, because you like a certain type of music and only listening and seeking out a certain type of music and your friends do the same, that's all kind of in the bin as well. So you can argue what makes rock, you know, I mean, Jay-Z 99 Problems is in there. Probably is a bit of a rage bait, to be honest, because there'll be people, hip hop purists going nuts that that's in there, and then rock purists going nuts that that's in there.