Rock music is making its way back onto the charts. Though country and folk are dominating today’s ever-shifting charts, rock music is steadily clawing its way back into the mainstream, despite Billboard’s insistence on labeling Noah Kahan as a rock artist.
People aren’t just listening to old rock bands like the Foo Fighters, whose newest album “Your Favorite Toy” hit third on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart. Rock fans are also uplifting new rock bands.
Hardcore punk rock band Turnstile hit number one on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. The Baltimore-based band breached the top spot with “Never Enough,” the title track of their 2025 album.
More impressively, Turnstile was nominated for eight Grammy’s, and took home two. “Never Enough” earned Best Rock Album and “BIRDS” won Best Metal Performance.
Turnstile’s “Never Enough” was a massive success even among the non-punk-rock population. Their widespread fandom is the result of not only excellent songwriting, but also due to an audience that is actively listening to and engaging with their music.
Turnstile played into their DIY punk roots during their Never Enough Tour — especially when they came to Denver on Sept. 30, 2025. The band played a sold-out show underneath the I-70 bridge to a raucous crowd of punk rockers.
Turnstile isn’t the only rock band that sells. In 2025, Linkin Park grossed $150.6 million across 51 shows, selling 1.3 million tour tickets. And Linkin Park wasn’t even the highest-grossing rock band in 2025 on tour.
Coldplay topped last year’s tour charts. They grossed $464.9 million and sold over 3.5 million tickets in 2025. The British rock band out-grossed Beyoncé by nearly $60 million in 2025, proof that rock is selling tickets.
Global rock outreach doesn’t just stop with big bands on big tours. Streaming music online played a huge role in revitalizing rock music across all seven continents. This rock-streaming boom impacted not only the well-established bands that have been around for decades, but also the up-and-comers that recently rocketed into the rock music scene.
Dexter and The Moonrocks’ “Freakin’ Out” accumulated over 58 million streams on Spotify since its release on March 11, 2026.
The self-defined “western space grunge” band came to notoriety through their strong social media presence. They’ve garnered over one million followers on TikTok and have over four-hundred-thousand followers on Instagram.
On top of that, Dexter and The Moonrocks are fourth on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart.
In January, The Paradox, a pop-punk band from Atlanta, Ga., had the same experience on an even grander scale.The Paradox not only hit number one on the alternative charts with the hit song “Get The Message,” they were also the first all-black band to do so.
The Paradox might have fewer total streams on Spotify than Dexter and The Moonrocks, but their time as the number one spot on the charts is a reminder that rock — even pop-punk — is just as present as ever in modern-day music.
A lot of that has to do with the reinvention of pop-punk in the modern social media landscape. Many pop-punk bands like Scooped Up! and The Paradox have strong, relatable and fun personalities on social media.
Another of such personalities is Utah-based pop-punk/alternative band Riff Wood. The group, who has yet to graduate high school, has already toured the United States and several other countries. A lot of this success is thanks to highly popular social media videos of the band members performing originals and covers in various locations around Utah.
The use of social media and the popularity of rock music coincide with each other. As rock songs and artists became more established and known on social media, their streaming numbers increased significantly. The explosions of Riff Wood and The Paradox through social media show that this increase in popularity is even applicable to less-popular rock sub-genres like hardcore and pop-punk.
Rock is back baby, and everyone knows it. Though pop and country music might currently top the charts, rock is slowly but surely showing up on everyone’s playlists once again. The genre had 5.1 trillion streams in 2025, a 9.6% increase from the year prior. This sudden increase in rock music caused it to be the highest growing genre of music in 2025 — beating latin and country music in the category.
