10 Amazing Rock Songs That Are Ridiculously Short

It should come as no surprise that some of the greatest short rock songs come from the punk genre. From the minute that we heard the Ramones, the ethos behind the genre was to say your piece and get to the point as fast as you possibly could. While the Sex Pistols may have been going on about nihilism, The Clash had the lyrics to back themselves up on White Riot.

Looking through the back catalog of the Clash, almost any of their songs could have made for a great political statement, but White Riot seems to get to the meat of what they were all about. In light of the recent racially motivated riots that were happening across the country, Joe Strummer wrote this song almost as a satire of what white punks wanted to get into, looking to start fights instead of actually trying to say anything meaningful. As questionable as this may have seemed at the time, this was the beginning of a new breed of punk rock on the horizon.

In the wake of the Clash's debut, fans across the world were starting to put their personal beliefs into their songs, with Tom Morello even saying that he keeps lyrics from this song framed on his refrigerator every single day. The song may have been over in just under 2 minutes, but it's not about how long your song is. It was about what you actually had to say, and The Only Band That Mattered didn't need any flashy solos to stir something deep in your soul.