Foo Fighters, Bring Me the Horizon, Maneskin Top Billboard’s 2021 Year-End Rock Charts

As the year winds down, Billboard is revealing how artists across all genres fared on their wide array of charts, and it turned out to be a very good year for Foo Fighters, Maneskin and Bring Me the Horizon who each ended up topping some of the charts.

Foo Fighters probably enjoyed the most success of any rock outfit this year, with the group topping the Rock Airplay Artists Chart that was mostly filled with alt-rock leaning acts. Twenty One Pilots, Weezer, Machine Gun Kelly, Rise Against and Royal Blood all made the Top 10 for Rock Airplay as well. The Foos also placed two songs in the Top 10 of the Rock Airplay Songs Chart with "Shame Shame" coming in at No. 6 for the year, while "Waiting on a War" claimed the No. 9 spot. Imagine Dragons' "Follow You"  took the top overall spot on the Rock Airplay Songs Chart.

Foo Fighters also topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Artists Chart, finishing just ahead of up-and-comers Ayron Jones and Mammoth WVH for the title. Once again, they placed two songs in the Mainstream Rock Songs Top 10 for the year with "Shame Shame" coming in at No. 6 and "Making a Fire" settling in at No. 10. The chart-topper for Mainstream Rock Songs was Bring Me the Horizon's "Teardrops," followed by Mammoth WVH's "Don't Back Down" and Zero 9:36's "Adrenaline."

It was also a solid year for Eurovision Song Contest winners Maneskin who channeled that victory into a worldwide breakout. The band tops Billboard's Top New Rock Artists Chart for the year, and they also placed their music in several other categories.

One other trend of note in the rock world over the past year actually carries over a bit from 2020. Classic rock acts with legendary albums or hits collection drove a lot of record sales in 2021. Queen topped the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart with their Greatest Hits set, and also sat atop the Top Rock Albums Chart with the same collection. Veteran acts such as AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Fleetwood Mac, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty and more placed years-old releases among the top sellers of the year.

On the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart, AC/DC's 2020 set Power Up at No. 11 was the first newer entry to crack the chart, with Greta Van Fleet's The Battle at Garden's Gate arriving at No. 19 and Foo Fighters' Medicine at Midnight grabbing the No. 23 spot for the year. Iron Maiden's Senjutsu was the top metal album on the chart arriving at No. 28 for the year.

On the Top Rock Albums Chart, something similar occurred. 2020 holdover Machine Gun Kelly's Tickets to My Downfall did place No. 2, but you drop down to Miley Cyrus' Plastic Hearts at No. 12 for the next more recent album. AC/DC's Power Up arrives at No. 34 and Twenty One Pilots' Scaled and Icy landed at No. 47. It's not until you hit Greta Van Fleet's The Battle at Garden's Gate at No. 54 that a 2021 harder rock album made an impact.

Check out some of Billboard's Year End Rock charts below and see all their charts from all different genres here.

Mainstream Rock Artists

1. Foo Fighters
2. Ayron Jones
3. Mammoth WVH
4. Greta Van Fleet
5. Five Finger Death Punch
6. Pop Evil
7. Chevelle
8. Seether
9. Royal Blood
10. AC/DC

Mainstream Rock Songs

1. Bring Me the Horizon – Teardrops
2. Mammoth WVH – Don't Back Down
3. Zero 9:36 – Adrenaline
4. Rise Against – Nowhere Generation
5. Pop Evil – Breathe Again
6. Foo Fighters – Shame Shame
7. Royal Blood – Trouble's Coming
8. Seether – Bruised and Bloodied
9. The Pretty Reckless featuring Tom Morello – And So It Went
10. Foo Fighters – Making a Fire

Top New Rock Artists

1. Maneskin
2. Surf Curse
3. Nessa Barrett
4. Sueco
5. Beach Bunny

Top Rock Artists

1. Glass Animals
2. Machine Gun Kelly
3. Imagine Dragons
4. Fleetwood Mac
5. AJR
6. The Beatles
7. Queen
8. Twenty One Pilots
9. Maneskin
10. AC/DC
15. Foo Fighters

Top Rock Albums

1. Queen – Greatest Hits
2. Machine Gun Kelly – Tickets to My Downfall
3. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
4. Elton John – Diamonds
5. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle The 20 Greatest Hits
6. Journey – Greatest Hits
7. AC/DC – Back in Black
8. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits
9. Glass Animals – Dreamland
10. Beatles – 1
12. Miley Cyrus – Plastic Hearts
13. Metallica – The Black Album
14. Nirvana – Nevermind
34. AC/DC – Power Up
47. Twenty One Pilots – Scaled and Icy
54. Greta Van Fleet – The Battle at Garden's Gate
56. Foo Fighters – Medicine at Midnight
58. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
59. Maneskin – Chosen
76. The Black Keys – Delta Kream
86. Mammoth WVH – Mammoth WVH
92. Rob Zombie – The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy
93. Evanescence – The Bitter Truth
94. Chevelle – Niratias
96. The Killers – Pressure Machine
97. Gojira – Fortitude
98. Ice Nine Kills – Welcome to Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2
100. A Day to Remember – You're Welcome

Top Hard Rock Artists

1. AC/DC
2. Queen
3. Five Finger Death Punch
4. Foo Fighters
5. Greta Van Fleet
6. Maneskin
7. Linkin Park
8. Guns N' Roses
9. Bring Me the Horizon
10. Metallica

Top Hard Rock Albums

1. Queen – Greatest Hits
2. AC/DC – Back in Black
3. Metallica – The Black Album
4. Guns N' Roses – Greatest Hits
5. Bon Jovi – The Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection
6. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
7. Five Finger Death Punch – A Decade of Destruction
8. Nickelback – The Best of Nickelback: Vol. 1
9. Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits
10. Motley Crue – Greatest Hits
11. AC/DC – Power Up
19. Greta Van Fleet – The Battle at Garden's Gate
23. Foo Fighters – Medicine at Midnight
28. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu

Rock Airplay Artists

1. Foo Fighters
2. Imagine Dragons
3. Twenty One Pilots
4. All Time Low
5. Weezer
6. Machine Gun Kelly
7. blackbear
8. Billie Eilish
9. Rise Against
10. Royal Blood

Rock Airplay Songs

1. Imagine Dragons – "Follow You"
2. Machine Gun Kelly X blackbear – "My Ex's Best Friend"
3. All Time Low featuring blackbear – "Monsters"
4. Weezer – "All My Favorite Songs"
5. Rise Against – "Nowhere Generation"
6. Foo Fighters – "Shame Shame"
7. Twenty One Pilots – "Shy Away"
8. Cage the Elephant – "Skin and Bones"
9. Foo Fighters – "Waiting on a War"
10. Billie Eilish – "Therefore I Am"