Modern Rock
Modern rock is a US radio format name for alternative rock, which Spotify also uses as a genre tag.
A few American stations, such as KROQ in Los Angeles, played the format in the 1980s and used the name to set themselves apart from classic rock. It became an established format in 1988, when Billboard launched its Modern Rock Tracks chart. It is an umbrella term rather than one sound: grunge, pop punk, post-grunge and radio-friendly indie rock have all fitted under it.
- Family
- Alternative & Indie
- On Spotify
- No longer returned by Spotify’s API
- What it is
- A use, not a style
- From
- United States, 1980s
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 42%
About 35,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have modern rock among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Modern Rock artists
Arctic Monkeys
The Neighbourhood
Weezer
Twenty One Pilots
The 1975
The Strokes
Panic! At The Disco
Fontaines D.C.
Fall Out Boy
Muse
The modern rock artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.