10 Perfect Rock Songs Of The 2000s

For all of the great rock and roll that came out around this time, you weren't going to find that much of it on the charts any time soon. Unless it had some bulletproof chorus or something, every one of these bands had to dip their toes into pop or even hip hop to actually find some time on the radio. If that brand of rock and roll was on the way out, the era of prog rock should have been buried, right? Well...not exactly.

Around the time that stadium rock started to get more time in the sun, Muse were on the cusp of making something more bombastic than their normal space rock sounds, sending their listeners on a trip through the stars on Knights of Cydonia. Spanning across 6 minutes, not one second of the song feels like it's dragging, from the band setting the tone of the song with the galloping rhythm to the glitched out production that makes you feel like you're on horseback in space. And towards the end, they actually manage to deliver on that strange scenario.

Breaking the song down into just acapella harmonies, the lyrics deal with being part of the extraterrestrial equivalent of the Wild West, where everyone must fight to survive, as Matt Bellamy kicks into one of the greatest riffs of his career. It's not like he was off the mark either. After that final call to action, the back half of this song feels like we're off to the races, with nothing left to trust other than our wits.