100 Most Popular Rock Bands of All Time

Journey was founded as a jazz-rock group in San Francisco, and among its original members was former Santana guitarist Neal Schon. The band believed it needed a stronger and more charismatic vocalist and added Steve Perry in 1977. From that point on, the band’s fortunes soared. The group placed six songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10, including “Open Arms” at No. 2, and the anthemic “Don’t Stop Believin'” at No. 9. Their album success was even better. Eight LPs broke into the Billboard 200 Top 10, with “Escape” topping the charts in 1981. That record was one of 11 Journey LPs to go platinum.

The band formed by high school friends from Columbus, Ohio, in 2009 combined elements of rock, rap, and emo-pop and built a following by constant touring and shrewd use of social media. Twenty One Pilots has posted three platinum albums and 11 singles also went platinum. Their single “Stressed Out,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, won a Grammy in 2016 and is an eight-time platinum record. Two of their albums were Top 10 hits on the Billboard 200, and one, “Blurryface,” topped the chart.

The fertile rock and roll soil of Seattle also produced Foo Fighters, led by power drummer and Nirvana alum Dave Grohl, who wrote all the material for their debut album. The Foo Fighters filled arenas with a melodic sound founded on classic guitar rock. The group has notched two No. 1 albums — “Wasting Light” and “Concrete and Gold.” Five singles have been certified platinum, including “The Pretender,” “Best of You,” and “Everlong,” all three of which went platinum twice.

While Maroon 5 has been a mainstay on the Billboard 200 throughout their career — their 2007 sophomore album “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” and the polished 2014 pop effort “V” both peaked at No. 1 — the L.A. group’s best-selling effort remains “Songs About Jane.” According to data from the RIAA, the debut album has sold 4 million units in the U.S. to date.

Imagine Dragons, out of Las Vegas and Utah, grabbed audiences with hooky tunes that filled stadiums and arenas. They won their first Grammy Award in 2013 for the diamond-certified global blockbuster “Radioactive” (10-time platinum) from their debut album, “Night Visions,” one of three LPs to go platinum. Four of their albums reached the Billboard 200 Top 10, with “Smoke + Mirrors” topping the chart in March 2015. They became the first performers to occupy the top four spots on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart in August of 2018.

Fusing elements of metal, hip-hop, and electronica, Linkin Park first gained international fame in 2000 with the release of their debut album, “Hybrid Theory,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 11 million albums in the U.S. to date. The band’s 2003 followup, “Meteora,” peaked at No. 1 on the charts and went on to sell 7 million albums domestically. Following singer Chester Bennington’s suicide in 2017, the band has been on an indefinite hiatus.

The spokesmen for their generation, who once said they hoped to die before they got old, are still touring in their 70s — and they released their first album in 13 years this past November. The Who blazed new music trails with the rock operas “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia.” The latter album and the record “Who Are You” rose to No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Among their 12 platinum albums is “Who’s Next,” considered one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded.

Through a career spanning more than 50 years, the Beach Boys released more than two dozen studio albums. Through a mix of vocal harmony, reverb, and idyllic, surf-inspired lyrics the group is credited for the emergence of what has come to be known as the “California Sound.” While none of the band’s studio albums topped the Billboard 200, “Endless Summer,” a compilation album released in 1974, reached No. 1 in October of that year and has since sold over 3 million copies in the United States.

The British heavy metal maestros, who appropriated their name from a Boris Karloff movie, took the genre in a more ghoulish direction. They released their self-titled debut record (almost fully recorded in one day) on a Friday the 13th in 1970, launching the career of one of rock’s most colorful characters, Ozzy Osbourne. They were disregarded by critics at first, but the fans hardly cared. Two of their albums reached the Billboard 200 Top 10, and their LP “13” topped the chart in 2013. Eight albums have gone platinum, and the LP “Paranoid” has sold more than 4 million copies.

Throughout their 50-year history, Fleetwood Mac has gone through more than a dozen lineup changes, survived numerous in-band romantic affairs, and released four No. 1 albums. The band’s best-selling album, “Rumours,” was released in 1977, and it has since sold more than 20 million units in the United States alone.