Classic Rock Music: The Year in Review

As 2025 winds down and we get ready for a new year it seems like a good time to look at the music being played in the Classic Rock format to see if there are any valuable lessons to be learned for the year ahead.

Thanks to Mediabase I was able to pull year-to-date statistics for Classic Rock airplay. I decided to look at which artists are receiving the most attention at the format. I also pulled archived numbers for last year, 2020 (5 years ago), 2015 (10 years ago) and 2000 (25 years ago). Here’s what stood out to me.

Consistency Since 2015

When you compare the top artists to last year the best words to describe the results would be incredibly consistent. Aerosmith is still the most-played artist with, in order, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin trading spots to take second and third this year. In fact, while there is some jockeying for position, every one of the top twenty five most-played artists from this year were in the top twenty five last year.

It’s worth noting that the three true Mount Rushmore acts, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd have ranked in the top five for twenty five years. However, five more artists, AC/DC, Queen, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Journey have taken up residence in the top 10 but, as the chart below shows, haven’t always been there.

The Next Generation

Going deeper to look over the entirety of the one hundred most-played artists from last year to this year, there aren’t a lot of big changes in rank, though the ones that did occur tell a story.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers took the biggest jump inside the top thirty going up four spots to twenty-eight. In addition, The Offspring are up nine spots to sixty-three, Linkin Park up twelve spots to seventy and Smashing Pumpkins up eight spots eighty while 3 Doors Down and Sublime debuted in the top one hundred for the first time at 86 and 94, respectively. In addition, here is how several other nineties artists have ranked over time. The chart illustrates how the format adopted these acts but also how their growth has slowed significantly leaving them unable to reach true core artist status.

Conversely, the biggest losers include John Mellencamp down seven spots to thirty-five, Jimi Hendrix down eight spots to fifty, Kansas off five spots to sixty-two, Dire Straits and Phil Collins both off six spots to 69 and 76 respectively while Eric Clapton was also off five spots coming in at 89. To further illustrate how the format is changing, here are some other artists who were once considered staples if not Mount Rushmore type acts that have slid down the ranker.

The new guard is slowly supplanting the old guard, but evolution is a slow process. Meanwhile these charts also show how the overall sound of the format is getting a little harder due to the changes as softer sounds are falling out of favor.

After a short holiday break, I’ll be back to look under the hood and see what trends are happening in the world of Classic Hits. Hope you have a great holiday season.

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Mike Stern

Mike Stern is a Classic Rock columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. He has been with Jacobs Media consulting stations in the Classic Rock, Rock, Alternative and AAA world for more than a decade. Prior to that he programmed stations in Chicago, Detroit, Denver Las Vegas and other markets. He also worked as News/Talk Editor for Radio and Records, wrote about Top 40 Radio for Billboard Magazine and had his own radio talent coaching business called Talent Mechanic.