Classic rock’s biggest stars have found it harder than ever to earn No. 1 albums in recent decades.
As you can see in the gallery below, only 28 albums by acts best associated with the genre and popular radio format have topped Billboard‘s Top 200 albums chart since 2000. What’s more, those albums were released by a little over a dozen different acts.
Bruce Springsteen is the clear leader of the pack here, having scored six different chart-topping albums between 2002 and 2014. Although he remains a powerful commercial power, his last two albums of original music – 2019’s Western Stars and 2020’s Letter to You – peaked at No. 2, kept off the top spot by Madonna and Luke Combs, respectively.
To date, the most recent undeniably classic rock artist to hit the top spot was AC/DC with 2020’s Power Up.
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Of course with any list of this type, judgment calls must be made.
As proof that rock isn’t completely dead on the charts yet, below the gallery of classic rock acts who hit No. 1 you will find a list of other rock acts who have topped the album charts since 2000.
The 28 Classic Rock Albums To Hit No. 1 Since 2000
Classic rock’s biggest stars have struggled to hit the top of the charts in recent years.
Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
Other Rock Albums That Have Topped the Charts Since 2000:
2000:
Radiohead, Kid A
Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
2001:
Dave Matthews Band, Everyday
Tool, Lateralus
Staind, Break the Cycle
System of a Down, Toxicity
Creed, Weathered
2002:
Creed, Weathered (again)
Dave Matthews Band, Busted Stuff
2003:
Linkin Park, Meteora
Godsmack, Faceless
Marilyn Manson, The Golden Age of Grotesque
Staind, 14 Shades of Grey
2004:
Green Day, American Idiot
Jay Z / Linkin Park, Collision Course
2005:
Green Day, American Idiot (again)
3 Doors Down, Seventeen Days
Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth
Dave Matthews Band, Stand Up
System of a Down, Mezmerize
Audioslave, Out of Exile
Staind, Chapter V
Disturbed, Ten Thousand Fists
System of a Down, Hypnotize
2006:
Godsmack, IV
Tool, 10,000 Days
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium
Johnny Cash, American V: A Hundred Highways
2007:
Fall Out Boy, Infinity on High
Daughtry, Daughtry
Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Linkin Park, Minutes to Midnight
Kid Rock, Rock and Roll Jesus
2008:
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Jack Johnson, Sleep Through the Static
Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark
Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
3 Doors Down, 3 Doors Down
Disturbed, Indestructible
Slipknot, All Hope is Gone
2009:
Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown
Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King
Daughtry, Leave This Town
Pearl Jam, Backspacer
2010:
Vampire Weekend, Contra
Godsmack, The Oracle
Jack Johnson, To the Sea
Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare
Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Distubed, Asylum
Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns
2011:
Foo Fighters, Wasting Light
Evanescence, Evanescence
2012:
Jack White, Blunderbuss
Matchbox Twenty, North
Dave Matthews Band, Away From the World
2013:
Fall Out Boy, Save Rock and Roll
Queens of the Stone Age, …Like Clockwork
Avenged Sevenfold, Hail to the King
Pearl Jam, Lightning Bolt
Arcade Fire, Reflektor
2014:
Black Keys, Turn Blue
Jack White, Lazaretto
Maroon 5, V
Slipknot, .5 the Gray Chapter
2015:
Fall Out Boy, American Beauty / American Psycho
2016:
Kings of Leon, Walls
2017:
Linkin Park, One More Light
Foo Fighters, Concrete and Gold
The Killers, Wonderful Wonderful
2018:
Jack White, Boarding House Reach
Dave Matthews Band, Come Tomorrow
2019:
The Raconteurs, Help Us Stranger
Slipknot, We Are Not Your Kind
Tool, Fear Inoculum
2020, 2021:
None
2022:
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Unlimited Love
2023, 2024:
None
Every Rock + Metal Album That Went No. 1 in the ’90s
Here is every rock and metal album that reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in the 1990s.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
