The 28 Biggest Alternative Classics on Spotify
The second in a series on the most-played Classics on Spotify during 2024-2025
This one’s going to be tough for us Gen X.
Along with Hip Hop and Winona Ryder, we Xers truly believe our greatest contribution to mankind is Alternative music. When examining the 28 Alternative Classics Spotify users play most, you won’t find our Smashing Pumpkins or Soundgarden. You won’t find our pre-grunge pioneers such as R.E.M. or The Smiths. You won’t find Oasis or Blur, Sheryl Crow or Alanis Morissette.
Nowadays, you won’t even find Nirvana.
The key here is what we’re measuring; Spotify plays. Specifically, I’m examining those Alternative Classics that reached the Spotify 200 in the U.S. for the weeks of January 2024 through February 2025. As the leading music streaming service in the U.S., Spotify does have users of all ages nowadays—-but people under age 35 still comprise 55% of its users. That’s Millennials and Generation Z. Only 27% are 35- to 54-year-olds, which includes the oldest Millennials and most Xers.
These Alternative Classics reflect the PS2 and Xbox babies, not us Atari and Nintendo kids.
These 28 songs are largely the second wave of artists and songs that Millennials now find fondly nostalgic, along with those artists Generation Z has retroactively discovered on TikTok.
12 of the 28 songs come from just five artists with multiple songs on this list.
#1: Arctic Monkeys
The Indie band from England is oft cited as one of the first artists to gain fame online, although exposure on BBC radio arguably helped the band more in their formative years in the early 2000s. They were among the first significant artists to sell an album almost exclusively on iTunes.
“505” was originally an obscure album cut in 2007, but was rediscovered in the early 2020s and surged in 2022 on TikTok.
The song reached new heights in the fall of 2024.
“I Wanna Be Yours,” was originally from John Cooper Clarke in 1982, but Arctic Monkeys made it famous. It’s the only love song I know that references a vacuum cleaner.
Unlike “505”, streams for “I Wanna Be Yours” peaked in 2023 and have tapered in 2024. It’s still among the most-played Alternative Classics on Spotify.
“Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High,” was a hit in the U.S,. in its own time on Alternative radio. Spotify streams for the song also peaked before “505” blew up on TikTok in 2022, which introduced Arctic Monkeys to a new audience.
“Why You Only Call me When You’re High” hasn’t bee among Spotify’s 200 most-streamed songs in the U.S. since January 2024.
#2: Coldplay
Is Coldplay the new U2? Bono is insulted at the notion (although he’s actually more complementary to Chris Martin’s band than it sounds.) Frankly, as music critic Tom Breihan notes, Coldplay didn’t want this fate, either.
Their biggest song on Spotify this past year is also their biggest hit in the U.S.: “Viva La Vida” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was also #1 in the U.K.
Much like the Oldies in my previous post, “Viva La Vida” receives the most plays during the summer, suggesting at least some fans consider it a “feel good favorite,” despite—or perhaps due to—the musical complexity Brian Eno gave the track as producer.
“Yellow” was relegated to Alternative radio in the U.S., but was a big Pop hit in the U.K.
Streaming for “Yellow” increased this past fall.
Originally a deep cut, “Sparks” is now among their best, according to Billboard and other critics:
#3: Linkin Park
When they released their 2024 album From Zero, Linkin Park also renewed interest in their classics:
“Numb” received the most overall streams, steadily among Spotify’s top 200 titles for almost three months.
More fans played “In The End” alongside the new album, too.
However, “In The End' also occasionally appeared in the Spotify 200 before From Zero dropped.
Finally, “Faint” also made the Spotify 200…
… albeit for only two weeks.
#4: Hozier
Another artist whose past hits benefited from a new hit. With “Too Sweet” being among 2024’s biggest hits on both Pop and Alternative Radio, their signature song “Take Me To Church” also saw its streams increase.
It’s been among the most-played songs on Spotify for over nine months.
2014’s “Work Song” also got a boost from their new material in 2024.
#5: Red Hot Chili Peppers
In another blow to Gen X’s ego, it’s not “Under The Bridge” “Give It Away, or “Higher Ground,” from our early 1990s heyday that fans play most on Spotify: It’s 1999’s “Scar Tissue” and 2002’s “Can’t Stop.”
We’ll now dive into the remaining Alternative Classics, for which only one song from each artist made the Spotify 200. But first…
The 2010’s Classics
Next, we have six Alternative Classics from the previous decade that have either re-emerged this decade or never went away. Cage The Elephant’s “Cigarette Daydreams” was a #1 Alternative hit in its day and saw renewed interest in 2021 thanks to TikTok.
Nowadays, it fairly consistently makes the Spotify 200 each week.
Vance Joy’s “Riptide” also began appearing among Spotify’s 200 biggest songs again in 2021, with a further boost in January 2024.
Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met” regained provenance when 13 Reasons Why featured the song in a pivotal scene. That re-emergence led to TikTok, making the song even more popular in 2023.
“The Night We Met” fell out of the Spotify 200 in early Summer 2024, but rejoined it in August for every week excluding the holiday season.
“The Less I Know The Better” from Tame Impala never really went away: It remained a steady presence among Spotify’s biggest songs from 2019 through 2022.
It re-emerged on early 2024, but fell back out of the Spotify 200 for the second half of the year.
“Foster The People’s horrifyingly cheerful tale of school violence—a subject all too familiar to today’s students—rejoined the Spotify 200 for the first time in 2024, albeit only for a few weeks.
It’s appeared in the Spotify 200 since 2016, but The Lumineers’ “Ophelia” only made it for one week in 2024.
The 2000’s Classics
Three Alternative Classics emerge from the Bush Administration era: It’s easy to forget that The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” was originally purely an Alternative hit. Nowadays, it’s among the pantheon of songs that get white people turnt. It first re-emerged among the Spotify 200 in 2020 and has been a permanent resident since 2021.
The only time “Mr. Brightside” wasn’t among the Spotify 200 last year was Christmas.
The White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army” reappeared late last spring, albeit for only a few weeks.
Finally, Creed’s reunion spawned renewed interest in “One Last Breath” last Fall.
The 1990’s Classics
Finally, we reach the six Alternative Classics from Gen X’s favorite decade. However, the classics Millennials and Generation Z stream most from that era aren’t what many our age would expect:
The Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” was the last song drummer Taylor Hawkins performed live before his death in March 2022, which brought the track onto fans’ radars.
The band’s 2024 tour further boosted interest in May 2024, but the track fell out of the Spotify 200 in September.
The Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” became a single again in 2022 to commemorate its 25th anniversary.
Originally on the City of Angels soundtrack, “Iris” rejoined the Spotify 200 thanks to syncs in Deadpool and Wolverine
Many minor factors brought The Cranberries’ “Linger” back to relevance in 2024, including the song’s timeless reliability.
“Linger” mostly did so in the Spotify 200 during the summer, falling out of the chart by the holiday season.
Radiohead’s “Creep” first emerged among Spotify’s most-played track in 2023, then rejoined the chart in late summer 2024.
Vulture had the nerve to say Mazzy Star’s "Fade into You" is the most overused song in film and television back in 2013. They cite CSI, Gilmore Girls, The Following and Starship Troopers, plus numerous films, as culprits. The most famous Shoegaze song didn’t begin regularly appearing in the Spotify 200 until the fall of 2024, however.
Finally, Green Day’s “Brain Strew” only made the Spotify 200 for one week. What’s more surprising is that none of their 2000’s titles which were huge hits during Millennials’ formative years made the list.
When do fans play Alternative Classics?
Unlike the Oldies I analyzed in my previous post, fans play their old Alternative favorites year round, with last fall seeing the most streaming for these songs.
What’s missing?
The most shocking absence might be Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Today’s teens won’t deny it’s a classic. Painfully, they consider it “Classic Rock.”
However, the ultimate grunge hit hasn’t made the Spotify 200 in over two years.
My next post in this series will examine the biggest Pop hits of Millennials’ formative years that fans still massively stream today. Despite the hype about 2K nostalgia, far fewer songs make the cut than you’d think.
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Date source for this post:
Spotify Charts (weeks of 1/3/2019 through 2/28/2025 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us