%%
%%
%%
%%
%%
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. Just the song title on its own conveys nothing, and neither does saying the song "belongs on this page" with no explanation of why. Remember, this page is for everyone; to assume that everyone who reads this page will see the song title and know why it is awesome without further explanation is FanMyopia.
%%
%%
%%
%%
%%
----
!!Bands with their own pages:

* AwesomeMusic/TheBeachBoys
* AwesomeMusic/TheBeatles
* AwesomeMusic/BrianWilson
* AwesomeMusic/{{Coldplay}}
* AwesomeMusic/DavidBowie
* AwesomeMusic/ElvisPresley
* AwesomeMusic/FooFighters
* AwesomeMusic/{{Gorillaz}}
* AwesomeMusic/TheGratefulDead
* AwesomeMusic/ImagineDragons
* AwesomeMusic/{{Kent}}
* AwesomeMusic/LinkinPark
* AwesomeMusic/{{Muse}}
* AwesomeMusic/{{Nirvana}}
* AwesomeMusic/TheNational
* AwesomeMusic/ThePolice
* AwesomeMusic/TheProclaimers
* AwesomeMusic/QueensOfTheStoneAge
* AwesomeMusic/{{Radiohead}}
* AwesomeMusic/RedHotChiliPeppers
* AwesomeMusic/TheReplacements
* AwesomeMusic/TheSmashingPumpkins
* AwesomeMusic/{{Sparks}}
* AwesomeMusic/TheyMightBeGiants
* AwesomeMusic/TheWho
* AwesomeMusic/PaulWilliams

!!Other entries:

* Music/BobDylan:
** ''Music/TheFreewheelinBobDylan'' is the album that proved he was a songwriting genius. Even Rolling Stone says "the most optimistic Dylan fans underestimated this album."
** "[[Music/Highway61Revisited Like a Rolling Stone]]." A gorgeous song, and a personal revolution for Dylan himself, it doesn't deliver a message but a question that resonates with any sense of confusion you have about who you are and where you're going.
* Music/LedZeppelin:
** From ''Music/PhysicalGraffiti'', [[https://youtu.be/sfR_HWMzgyc "Kashmir"]] just oozes this epic feeling, like a big confrontation is about to go down.
** When the Hammond organ starts and Robert Plant sings the title of "Your Time Is Gonna Come".
** Sure, it's overplayed all to hell and covered by everyone from Rolf Harris to Music/FrankZappa -- but "Stairway to Heaven" is flat-out amazing. EpicRocking at its finest.
** "All of My Love" gets a little emotional, yet it rocks out loud when Robert Plant really picks up on the vocal delivery towards the end.
** Might not be as well known, but [[https://youtu.be/vamReLUOlrA "Trampled Under Foot"]] might be one of their best displays of groove.
** [[https://youtu.be/TFj0rxyNCtc "Good Times, Bad Times"]], the first song off their first album. Catchy as hell, upbeat and an excellent way to start off the career of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. [[https://youtu.be/wpS39jvRr-c Godsmack's cover of it]] is definitely worth listening to as well.
* Cat Stevens. "Father and Son" is one of the most beautiful songs in existence.
** Cat definitely qualifies as awesome, if only because his lyrics are so beautiful. "I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul. I let my music take me where my heart wants to go."
** [[https://youtu.be/1_qo5A_9bYY "Moonshadow"]]. "Yes I'm being followed by a Moonshadow, moonshadow moonshadow."
** "Where Do The Children Play?" "Will you keep on building higher 'til there's no more room up there?"
%%** The CD ''Roadsinger'' is amazing.
* "I always flirt with death, I look ill but I don't care about it! I can face your threats and stand up straight and tall and shout about it! I think I'm on another world with you, with you..." "Another Girl, Another Planet" by the Only Ones. That intro...That guitar solo...The lyrics, hell everything about this song is amazing.
* Tom Waits has quite a few amazingly good songs, but his awesomest would have to be "Goin' Out West" and "Hoist That Rag".
** His crowning moment has to be "On The Nickel." Who thought a song about Skid Row could be so beautiful?
** Take everything off the album ''Rain Dogs''. Insert here. That's just getting you STARTED.
-->"You know there ain't no devil, just God when he's drunk!"
** [[NightmareFuel There's a world, goin' on, UNDERGROUND!]]
* The Goo Goo Dolls have awesome songs like "Sympathy", "Here Is Gone", "Let Love In", "Black Balloon", "Feel the Silence", "Slide", "Stay with You", "Falling Down", "Long Way Down" and more.
** Both "Iris" and "Better Days" are just ''uplifting!''
** "Give a Little Bit", CoveredUp from the already amazing Supertramp.
** "Name" is what propelled the band to huge popularity, and for good reason.
* Music/LizPhair's debut album ''Music/ExileInGuyville'' is one of the most important rock records ever recorded. Intelligent, sexual, lustful, with slinky rhythms and alternately pleading, sneering, and snarling, but always achingly honest lyrics, Phair's debut record was one for the ages.
* Nick Cave's double album ''Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus'' contains a few of these things. "Hiding All Away", "Abattoir Blues", "Carry Me", and "O Children" stand out.
** Nick Cave's "Into My Arms" kicks arse like nothing alive.
** Speaking of Nick Cave, ''Grinderman''. The song "No Pussy Blues" is 4 1/2 minutes of shouting about a mid-life crisis, set to some of the noisiest guitar you'll ever hear.
** ''Grinderman 2'' opens with "Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man," which manages to rock balls-out, and feature some sexy howling.
* The Men They Couldn't Hang have a song called "The Ghosts of Cable Street", about the Battle of Cable Street, when a mob of enraged East-Enders beating the tar out of a parade of {{Black Shirt}}s. The song is appropriately awesome.
* The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets' "Power Up" is as kickass as the name demands.
* [[https://youtu.be/2NQIPVqLMUg "Don't Stop Believin'"]] by Journey is so awesome that it's reached the point of parody due to overuse in Sports Venues and the end of ''Series/TheSopranos''. That does not diminish its awesomeness, however.
** [[https://youtu.be/afHQd-lP4yU "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)"]] is another amazing uplifting song by Journey. Listen to it already.
** [[https://youtu.be/gFC8sDTXlng "Wheel in the Sky"]] is another awesome Journey song.
* Music/{{Oasis}}' "Live Forever" is epic in musical form.
** "Don't Look Back in Anger" has to be one of the best songs to have come out of Britain during the nineties.
** "Champagne Supernova", which forms part of the immaculate "-ver" trilogy with the above mentioned "Live Forever" and the also brilliant "Whatever".
** Most songs out of ''Music/DefinitelyMaybeAlbum'' and ''Music/WhatsTheStoryMorningGlory'' fit. For newer songs, how about [[https://youtu.be/87IQhui_Yy8 "The Shock of the Lightning"]]?
** [[https://youtu.be/oGImSvcgzb8 "Falling Down"]]. This song was so awesome it was used at the opening for ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'' in JAPAN. Not the U.S opening, the Japanese one. Japan liked this song enough to use it. That's how awesome it is.
** "Gas Panic!" is definitely one of the awesomest songs off of ''Standing on the Shoulder of Giants''
** "Songbird" from ''Heathen Chemistry'' manages to combine a guitar, a flute, a violin, Liam's wonderfully slightly-off-key vocals, and some of the sweetest rhymes you'll ever hear into two minutes of SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel.
* Music/SaidTheWhale. [[https://youtu.be/SCRGlfKZNGw "We Are 1980"]]. Even people who hate indie are bound to love it.
* Southern Rock. While most of its famous songs are awesome, [[https://youtu.be/O1mCQKuvzCM "Free Bird"]], by Lynyrd Skynyrd ([[Creator/ConanOBrien Now]] with 100% [[MemeticMutation more cowbell]]!), and [[https://youtu.be/R82OM5tzcrk "Green Grass and High Tides"]], by The Outlaws, take guitar playing to a whole new level with it's gigantic, impressive "something you'll remember forever from the first time you hear them" solos.
* Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand! "Whipping Post", "Ramblin' Man", "Midnight Rider", and the iconic "Jessica".
* "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", a song based on the concept of a ''fiddle duel with Satan himself''. (Both the original version and the cover in ''VideoGame/GuitarHero 3'' count, by the way. Which version you think is more awesome will depend on your personal tastes.) And if the lyrics are any indication, the Devil's intended victim curbstomps him.
** [[https://youtu.be/3FRtkek-Et4 The Primus version is also pure distilled awesome]]. Bonus for Tom Waits as the Devil.
** And then there's [[https://youtu.be/kecdNnykdng the Levellers' version]]. Ever wondered what a punk version would sound like?
** Riffing off a similar theme is [[https://youtu.be/und8Xsnjs4E "Tribute"]] by Tenacious D. "All of a sudden,/There shined a shiny demon,/In the middle of the road,/And he said!/'''Play the best song in the world, or I'll eat your souls...'''/Well me and Kyle,/we looked at each other,/And we each said,/'''Okay.'''"
*** That and you have David Grohl of the Foo Fighters (and formerly Nirvana) playing the Devil in the music video.
*** The significant number of parodies of this song should speak for it's awesomeness.
*** Charlie Daniels collaborated with violinist Mark O'Connor on an official sequel, [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7qrz_the-devil-comes-back-to-georgia_music "The Devil Comes Back to Georgia"]], with Music/TravisTritt as the Devil and Marty Stuart as Johnny. Adding to the awesome is the narration by Johnny Cash in full preacher-mode. Oh, and final score; Johnny 2, Satan 0.
* The initial trailer for ''Film/SinCity'' sparked a flood of 'what the hell is that awesome music?' comments; it's a song called [[https://youtu.be/FVsWj4rMaOw "Cells"]] by The Servant, and many were disappointed that it didn't feature in the film.
* [[https://youtu.be/x-64CaD8GXw "I'm Shipping Up To Boston"]] by Dropkick Murphys. When you take cellos, a banjo, and a concertina and make them sound like a world of hurt is about to descend upon some poor bastard, you know you've accomplished something.
** Dropkick Murphys are carrying on the tradition from The Pogues, whose songs like [[https://youtu.be/DrBLqp-s__o "If I Should Fall From Grace With God"]] and [[https://youtu.be/B_giKJLdfqk "Bottle of Smoke"]] are ideal drunken brawl music.
** Speaking of [[https://youtu.be/_iUEwB4ME3I "Shane MacGowan"]], the Dropkick Murphys version of [[https://youtu.be/V7s-Bj-zuO0 "Spancill Hill"]] is a definite CMOA, for when you get to that reflective, melancholy phase of drunkenness.
** [[https://youtu.be/Bq1Zp_gtUEo "Flannigan's Ball"]] and [[https://youtu.be/ebHIxQ_zhNY "The Warrior's Code"]] are pretty awesome.
** If we're talking about Dropkick Murphys, we have to mention [[https://youtu.be/HzF0hHb7xMc "The State of Massachusetts"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/yn7DavxmzkA "Bastards On Parade"]] is worth a listen.
** [[https://youtu.be/zNMDXEdxG9o "Skinhead on the MBTA"]], a cover of 60's country-rockers The Kingston Trio's jab at the MTA's high fees at the time. OI, OI, OI!
** Their version of [[https://youtu.be/JA_ikf-vlWc "Peg O' My Heart"]], with a very [[Music/BruceSpringsteen awesome guest]].
** [[https://youtu.be/KqUYV6eMrEo "Famous For Nothing"]] is another great one.
** [[https://youtu.be/_ZN3weW1udE "Spicy McHaggis Jig"]]. Making bagpipes sound completely awesome is a regular day at the office for DKM.
** [[https://youtu.be/7Yg8MuaWMT0 "Kiss Me I'm @#$%faced]].
* Dead Can Dance's version of Middle-Ages Italian folk song [[https://youtu.be/AcmpBCXOgVI "Saltarello"]]. Their whole career is a CMOA. Lisa's trademark OneWomanWail and Brendan's playing...
* Music/{{Cryoshell}} is an obscure Danish band that originally provided music for ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' commercials, but has since produced music on their own. [[https://youtu.be/Jc73MRZiVuM Here]] [[https://youtu.be/NktqApbI06g are]] [[https://youtu.be/NPbP-63QTjM examples]] of their music.
* [[https://youtu.be/cF9703NMD_c "Invincible"]] by Pat Benatar may just be the ultimate cure-all for any sad, depressed, or hopeless feeling anyone could conceivably feel. ''Ever''.
** The cover of this song by Ayria just adds to the awesomeness of this song. It turns it into a "stand-on-a-tank-and-wave-a-revolutionary-flag" anthem...
** [[https://youtu.be/yRDk5K-u6NI Muse's song by the same name]], though unrelated, has a similar effect, plus makes a mean warm-up song before any sort of competition.
* Music/TheKillers have many. "Read My Mind" is a favorite, but "Mr. Brightside" was once named the ''greatest song ever written'' by a British radio station.
** Just to further back up how good "Mr. Brightside" is -- this song is played at all social events, and everyone, regardless of their musical tastes, knows all the words. That's how big it is, at least over in the UK.
** Then there's [[https://youtu.be/AHaXv0Yu4AU this version of "Human"]]. A great song, epic visuals, and added thematically relevant lyrics? Awesome.
** [[https://youtu.be/sZTpLvsYYHw "All These Things That I've Done"]]. Their [[https://youtu.be/oyrBxpaNVxU performance of it at Oxegen 2005]] is utterly brilliant.
** [[https://youtu.be/0k-v9cp9Fxc "When You Were Young"]] and their Cover of Music/JoyDivision's [[https://youtu.be/HzHE6KpI7i8 "Shadowplay"]]
** [[https://youtu.be/GeVoGD-hzM8 "All the Pretty Faces",]] especially live. The song is just epic.
* Bruce Springsteen's [[https://youtu.be/zylxfXyTefs "Jungleland"]]. Goddamn epic. There's an amazing version on the ''Live in Hyde Park'' DVD. We get to see Clarence Clemons playing his famous saxophone solo against the backdrop of a beautiful summer sunset.
** "Born to Run". The man made riding a [[https://youtu.be/IxuThNgl3YA carnival ride]] sound ''epic''!
** The old stuff is the best. "Rosalita", "No Surrender", "Born in the USA", "Dancing in the Dark", ''Thunder Road.'' It's like he puts his whole soul into it.
--->Hey what else can we do now, except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair?\\
Well, the night's bustin' open these two lanes'll take us anywhere!\\
We got one last chance to make it real, to trade in these wings on some wheels.\\
Climb in back, heaven's waiting on down the tracks.
** This bit in "City of Ruins" in particular hits close to home with New Yorkers:
---> Now, with these hands, with these hands\\
I pray for the faith, Lord\\
I pray for the strength, Lord\\
I pray for Your love, Lord --\\
Come on, Riiiiiiiise up, come on riiiiiiise up....
** From the same album: "The Rising." It is just glorious, especially the "la la la la"s after the chorus.
** His performance of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" at the 2009 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert, though his co-performer Tom Morello's absolutely mind-blowing guitar solo contributes to the awesome. Watch it [[https://youtu.be/mzRbeHyIomk here.]]
*** "Youngstown" from the same album. [[https://youtu.be/4GaFUOQWi9A Folk]] or [[https://youtu.be/P9FgwO1ysNM rock]] version.
** "Incident on 57th Street". Absolutely gorgeous.
** "[[https://youtu.be/U0ExmL4LzCk BADLANDS]]".
---> BAD-LAAAANDS, you gotta live it every day\\
Let the broken hearts stand as the price you gotta pay\\
Keep pushin' til it's understood and these badlands start treatin' us good!
** The other songs off ''Darkness on the Edge of Town'' aren't half bad either -– especially the live radio broadcasted performances from the Darkness Tour. "[[https://youtu.be/IrxKkELQJiQ Racing in the Street]]" has got to be the most poignant song ever about car racing, "[[https://youtu.be/esKch643aYY The Promised Land]]" is a defiant roar in the face of adversity and the live version of "[[https://youtu.be/_Xab-th4ltU Prove It All Night]]" is, as one youtuber put it, "pull me off of the ceiling" euphoric.
** Off of ''Live in New York City'' listen to "Lost in the Flood" one of his lesser known but man that is one killer song.
---> And everybody's wrecked on main street from drinking unholy blood!\\
Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud\\
And I said "Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand, that's quicksand that ain't mud\\
Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood?"
** ''Wrecking Ball'' features the first studio version of "Land of Hope and Dreams", perhaps the defining song of the E-Street reunion tour in 1999. The song features [[TearJerker Clarence Clemons' last recorded performance.]] It is [[https://youtu.be/0x9qc8Xe_Ho unbelievable.]]
** [[https://youtu.be/nAB4vOkL6cE "The River"]] from the eponymous album. Very melancholy but gorgeous regardless.
** Also from ''The River'' is [[https://youtu.be/aQcxrt9-6ZI "Point Blank"]]. Moody, atmospheric, and emotionally devastating.
** "I'm on Fire", one of the starkest (and probably sexiest) songs about desire ever recorded. Helped by its minimalism: it's barely two and a half minutes long and has very sparse instrumentation.
* Leonard Cohen's [[https://youtu.be/GUfS8LyeUyM "Everybody Knows"]]. Quite possibly the single best song ever recorded.
** Hallelujah", his most famous work. "The Faith", his last song, is so perfect that once he wrote it, there was nothing more to be said.
* Music/FrankZappa's ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' is more than qualified to be on this list. The solos on this album really bring it to CMOA, particularly the ones on "Dirty Love" and the second one on "Fifty-Fifty".
** Also, "Billy the Mountain" from ''Music/JustAnotherBandFromLA'', quite possibly the greatest absurdist rock opera ever. The only way to make it better is to do it a cappella... [[https://youtu.be/3QZa2uhtZDg and here it is]]. Dweezil even signed off on how awesome it is.
** [[https://youtu.be/M-6U0ccc_Hg "Muffin Man"]] and its utterly epic guitar solo.
* "Bela Lugosi's Dead", by Music/{{Bauhaus}}. No, seriously. The parts when he sings "Ooohh, Bela" can raise hairs.
* Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}. We know, it's only rock and roll, but we like it, we like it, yes we do!
** [[https://youtu.be/e9XKVTNs1g4 "Jumpin' Jack Flash"]], their most-played song, [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic and for good reason, too]]. [[https://youtu.be/ga9YAMLGr6E Now get a load of the EBA cover]].
** [[EpicRiff The opening notes to "Satisfaction"]]. The song that kick-started their career and it was only the demo.
** "Gimme Shelter" from ''Music/LetItBleed''. What other song creates such a perfect mood. That meandering opening riff will give you chills.
*** Did someone mention an EpicRiff [[https://youtu.be/ZzlgJ-SfKYE in the context of a discussion on The Rolling Stones...?]]
** "Miss You" from ''Music/SomeGirls'' has one of the catchiest riffs in rock history, ''ever''.
%%** You can't always get what you want, but if you try some time, you just might find... you get what you ne-eed!
%%** [[SympathyForTheDevil Please allow me to introduce myself...]]
%%** Hell, all of ''Music/{{Aftermath|Album}}'' and ''Music/ExileOnMainSt'' and ''Music/StickyFingers'' and ''Music/BlackAndBlue'' and ''Music/LetItBleed'' and ''Music/BeggarsBanquet'' and ''Music/SomeGirls''.
* Music/DireStraits' contributions to awesome music begin with Mark Knopfler's unforgettable guitar sound and carry on from there.
** Their 1985 album ''Music/{{Brothers in Arms|Album}}'' was the first million-selling CD. It's not hard to see why; there's hardly a weak song on the whole record.
*** The guitar riff that opens the plaintive [[https://youtu.be/2AA64eCt2zs "So Far Away"]] gets the album off to a great start, with Knopfler in fine form as both guitarist and vocalist.
*** "[[https://youtu.be/iwDDswGsJ60 Money for Nothing]]" is more than just a memorable early use of CGI in music videos. Anchored, like so many Dire Straits songs, by a killer guitar riff, and with special guest backing vocalist [[Music/ThePolice Sting]] using the tune from the verses of the Police's 1980 hit "Don't Stand So Close to Me" for the "I want my MTV" chants, it remains one of the most enduring tracks on the album.[[note]] When one sets aside the ValuesDissonance in some of the lyrics, anyway.[[/note]]
*** [[https://youtu.be/k9_VOy7VipQ "Walk of Life"]] opens with a catchy organ riff that will make almost any listener want to get up and dance.
*** The sax solo from [[https://youtu.be/QvupYWA8Pg4 "Your Latest Trick"]] is so well-known that if someone walks into a music store with the intent of buying a saxophone, chances are this is what they'll play to test it.[[note]] Well, that or "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty.[[/note]]
*** The haunting [[https://youtu.be/h4T1MQGTV9U "Ride Across the River"]] is awesome enough in the studio version, the "panpipes" (rendered by a synth) and drums really conveying the atmosphere of a soldier of fortune deep in the jungle ready to give his life if need be. Live, however, [[https://youtu.be/4hHfCMh-G-s complete with extended guitar and flute solo,]] it reaches whole new levels of epic.
*** The angsty [[https://youtu.be/WI01DDseJEM "One World"]] may be one of the most overlooked tracks on the album, but Mark's outstanding guitar work and the catchy guitar/synth hook make it a winner.
*** If you can listen to the album's closer, the heart-rending title track "[[https://youtu.be/oC-Ox4eSzlw Brothers in Arms]]" (often said to complete a story arc beginning with the soldier of fortune in "Ride Across the River" who then becomes a tyrant in "The Man's Too Strong" but meets a tragic end in "Brothers in Arms"), without being moved, you make the StrawVulcan look emotional.
** [[https://youtu.be/GrDK0UoAkfY "Tunnel of Love"]]. One of the best guitar solos ''ever''. [[https://youtu.be/gjJzlIedCuo "Telegraph Road"]] ain't half bad either, being ''the'' best driving song ever, especially if it's raining.
** [[https://youtu.be/2jH74e3Qo9k "Sultans of Swing"]] is already an outstanding ''tour de force'' for Mark as both guitarist and singer in the studio version. But in the [[https://youtu.be/8Pa9x9fZBtY live version]] from ''Alchemy'', where the closing guitar solo is expanded from thirty seconds to over five minutes (which finally ends by returning to where it began), it becomes one of the greatest displays of guitar virtuosity Knopfler ever gave.
** "Romeo and Juliet". They took one of the most cliched, over-used allusions in history, and they made one of the best, most emotional songs ever written out of it.
* Jason Mraz is the veritable walking example of this trope. The proof lies in [[https://youtu.be/sH44eOiUC_8 "The Remedy"]], [[https://youtu.be/Bi8cRehfrxA "You and I Both"]], [[https://youtu.be/JyAdIG-j3MU "WordPlay"]], [[https://youtu.be/sfi_PQEUQ-c "Geek in the Pink"]], [[https://youtu.be/jcTLAlYuVWM "Lucky"]], [[https://youtu.be/X5GxUeerBfg "Make It Mine"]] ([[https://youtu.be/SfyLt_tsW1s here's another version]]), and [[https://youtu.be/TKGmR0Z1Unc "The Beauty in Ugly"]] from the OST to ''Series/UglyBetty''.
** "The Remedy" doubles as Heartwarming Music when you realize [[https://youtu.be/-QC1gWVyV2o the true story behind this song.]]
** [[https://youtu.be/gYwoDL8rDuQ "I'm Yours"]] was immensely successful in the U.S. on the Billboard charts. It spent 76 weeks on the Hot 100, breaking the record for most weeks on the chart. It is currently the eighth-best selling digital song of all time in the U.S., selling in excess of 6 million downloads.
%%** [[https://youtu.be/NVKjlQ0_WWo "Song.]] [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments For. A.]] [[TearJerker Friend"]].
%%* Damon Albarn. ''The Good the Bad and the Queen'' and ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' are some of the best.
%%** Blur. [[https://youtu.be/936oRZXcAsw "Song 2"]], people, "Song 2"!
%%** "Girls who want boys, who like boys to be girls..."
%%** The chorus of "Tender" deserves a mention.
* Music/TheBeachBoys were the undisputed masters of applying the RuleOfFun to music. Examples being [[https://youtu.be/K5jZiPd2Y48 "Good Vibrations"]], [[https://youtu.be/2wbMqRO6lnc "Barbara Ann"]], [[https://youtu.be/iz9c5b72KJ4 "Fun, Fun, Fun"]], and [[https://youtu.be/6cJOevhjS20 "I Get Around"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/H_KY_d9MQv8 "Sloop John B."]], with its copious LyricalDissonance is damn fun.
** [[https://youtu.be/CWPo5SC3zik "God only knows what I'd be without you."]]
* ''Music/{{Smile|TheBeachBoys}}''. Music/BrianWilson again faces a project which was the source of painful personal issues, had a massive reputation to live up to, was conceived as a studio work but was put together as a live show, and ended up with one of the most acclaimed albums of recent times.
** Brian Wilson? Awesome. Brian Wilson completing an unfinished Gershwin song? [[https://youtu.be/a6P_FNQyDSY Magical]].
* Music/NineInchNails. Try "Closer". Or "Hurt".
** If you think "Hurt" is epic, just listen to [[TearJerker Johnny Cash's cover.]] As Trent Reznor famously said, "that song isn't mine anymore."
** [[https://youtu.be/baNHAUegGiU "Just Like You Imagined"]] requires at least a ''little'' awesome to be used in the trailer for ''Film/ThreeHundred''. What clinches it is the rising scream at the climax.
%%** "Right Where it Belongs"
%%** "The Hand That Feeds", "Heresy", "Only", and "Every Day Is Exactly The Same" are all awesome too.
* Acid Folk Rock band Music/JeffersonAirplane's "We Can Be Together" is a fairly easy-going song... it's not even epic in length. However, it does have its own crowning moment, in which the vocalists harmonize to sing the line, "Up against the wall, [[PrecisionFStrike motherfucker]], tear down the wall!" The song sparked a good bit of controversy when it was performed, uncensored on ''The Dick Cavett Show'' in 1969, and the performance is often noted for being one of the first times "fuck" was ever said on national television. The fact that this song is more well-known than its A-Side ("Volunteers") is something astounding, as well.
** For the record, the lyrics also quote, word-for-word, the philosophies on a leaflet written by a member of an anarchic group called the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Against_the_Wall_Motherfuckers Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.]][[note]]They tore down the fences at {{Film/Woodstock}} and very likely torched the overpriced cult-run Food for Love concession.[[/note]] The song helped the phrase, normally used by police arresting civil rights activists and war protesters, rise in popularity as a rallying cry. Not bad, considering the song was originally released as a B-Side.
** Grace Slick's mind-blowing vocals in...well, every song she sings, but [[https://youtu.be/5Jj3wZVc7nw "Somebody to Love"]] is worthy of a special mention.
** "[[https://youtu.be/c3nbYr8NKGQ White Rabbit]]" is a surreal classic with some slick bass playing.
* Jefferson Airplane's follow-up band, Music/JeffersonStarship, had some rather awesome music too -- cheesy, but awesome. The most (in)famous was "We Built This City", but "[[https://youtu.be/UUW_Y0wYNMs Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now]]" is a high point.
* [[https://youtu.be/oBBp2GUjT88 "Sturmnacht"]] by the German Medieval Rock band Music/{{Schandmaul}}. Translates to "Storm Night". Despite the name it doesn't have any connection to ThoseWackyNazis. It's purely instrumental and pure awesome.
* The album ''Alaska'' by Between the Buried and Me is epic in its entirety, but [[https://youtu.be/19UZd_DKs2Q "Selkies: The Endless Obsession"]] takes the cake. [[https://youtu.be/ApNSnzQciTQ "White]] [[https://youtu.be/yrU2Upud518 Walls"]] too. Specifically the the intro, the White Walls and "We will remembered for this" roars, and the incredibly amazing ending solo.
%%* Music/{{Goldfrapp}}'s "Strict Machine" is brilliant, as is "Number 1" and "Black Cherry".
%%** [[https://youtu.be/qs6F1KwzGwE "Human"]] and [[https://youtu.be/U0aCt--Y_SU "Pilots"]].
%%* The Music/PetShopBoys' "Brits Medley". GO WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST.
* Music/{{REM}}. Their BreakthroughHit [[https://youtu.be/gteuTLhO7N0 "The One I Love"]], [[https://youtu.be/uS21CbjOYIU "Me in Honey"]], [[https://youtu.be/-fxfDRYGtjw "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"]], and -- on a completely different level -- the [[https://youtu.be/zlYCqi9G66g eleventh untitled song]] from ''Green'' are all utterly triumphant moments in the history of music.
** Even though most people think it's a flop and the band [[CreatorBacklash disowned it]], "Shiny Happy People" is brilliant.
** "[[https://youtu.be/KjjxH9O_PjA It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)]]". '''[[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein LEONARD BERNSTEIN!!!]]'''
** They score at least one every album. Since three have been covered, we'll just add "Wolves, Lower", "Perfect Circle", "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", "Green Grow the Rushes", "The Flowers of Guatemala", every single song on ''Automatic for the People'', "Electrolite", "Diminished", "Beat a Drum", and most of ''Accelerate''.
** [[https://youtu.be/Yyi7jaB1u1Y "Orange Crush"]] Follow me, don't follow me. I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush. Collar me, don't collar me!
** "Nightswimming" is haunting and lets Michael Stipe's voice shine. So beautiful.
** "The Great Beyond" may just reach "Nightswimming" levels of haunting beauty.
** "Drive" sounds like the sort of song that would play over the opening credits of an old western, and "Find the River" ''will'' make you cry, period.
** Their early output is also rife with these. Special mention goes to practically all of [[FirstInstallmentWins their debut album]] ''Music/{{Murmur}}''.
** "[[https://youtu.be/ADFJGENj92E Harborcoat]]", from 1984's ''Reckoning''. Great album opener, and truly underrated overall.
** "[[https://youtu.be/8WESAoBjPEM A Month of Saturdays]]", "[[https://youtu.be/kpwd1YLgDaM We All Go Back to Where We Belong]]", and "[[https://youtu.be/bgjRABK9lgU Hallelujah]]", the last three songs on their ''Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011'' compilation album, and the last three songs they recorded together before their breakup.
** [[https://youtu.be/Z4VfQBDoX6E This unbelievable performance of "Country Feedback"]] from the Bridge School fundraiser concert in '98. That's Music/NeilYoung behind him.
* Santana, the band and the man, have been fountains of awesome music for over forty years.
** ''Music/{{Abraxas|Album}}'', one of the records that really put Music/{{Santana}} on the map, is a whole album of awesome.
*** The cover of "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" by, respectively, Music/FleetwoodMac and Gábor Szabó is a particular highlight. The distorted guitar hook from the original version of "Black Magic Woman" is replaced by an almost circular organ riff that draws the audience in from the very start, and then the tempo and energy suddenly shift into high gear for "Gypsy Queen".
*** The cover of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" holds its own very well against the original, the interplay between flutes and saxophones from the original being re-scored for Gregg Rolie on organ and Carlos Santana himself on guitar.
*** For a legendary song that can cheer you right up, try "Samba Pa Ti". As with the cover of "Gypsy Queen", things really shift into high gear in the latter half of the song.
** ''Supernatural'' was the big winner at the 1999 Grammies, and deservedly so. The album's centrepiece, "Smooth" (with special guest vocalist Rob Thomas of Music/MatchboxTwenty), is truly brilliant.
** [[https://youtu.be/EK0ORP8Zm9s "Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana)"]]. The vocal part of the song has a great groove to it, but wait until 4:24. If you're familiar with the song, you know what this is getting at...and if you don't, be prepared for an ending that just melts in your ears.
** [[https://youtu.be/XnamP4-M9ko "Soul Sacrifice"]], from freakin' Woodstock. Possibly the best drum solo ''ever'', and by a 19 year old kid. Check out 3:48 especially.
** Try not to enjoy this 1-2 punch of Clapton and Santana, known as [[https://youtu.be/ryR9riRqNC0 "The Calling"]].
** The entire ''Shaman'' album. 75 minutes of pure musical magic that has unmatched variety and a little something for almost everybody. Examples:
*** ''Everybody'' has heard [[https://youtu.be/YkWHzP4XLDw "The Game of Love"]]. It's one of Carlos' most popular songs for a reason; it's uplifting and can easily put you in a good mood.
*** [[https://youtu.be/nXUi1v-Q4I8 America]] is Santana's take on heavy metal, backed by none other than Music/{{POD}}, and it ''will'' get you banging your head. And that fucking ''solo''.
*** His collaboration with Macy Gray, [[https://youtu.be/Sde-wveFriM Amore (Sexo)]], is just ''begging'' to be played at a beach party.
*** The opera song [[https://youtu.be/X_LFhcVLYSQ Novus]] is something that really shouldn't work, but somehow ''does''. Doubles as a TearJerker. Carlos couldn't have picked a better song to close out the album.
*** The instrumental [[https://youtu.be/CEmlgeXY-0g Victory Is Won]] is ''incredible''.
** Who can forget "Evil Ways"? One of the definitive Santana jams that managed to outdo the original.
** [[https://youtu.be/fFjC4oIwKpA "Into the Night"]] is absolutely infectious. With [[Music/{{Nickelback}} Chad Kroeger]] on vocals, no less. (It's SugarWiki/BetterThanItSounds.)
%%** "Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)."
* The John Butler Trio's song "Caroline" can make you want to jump up and down and scream the last verse, where the string instruments kick in and the music just gets that much more awesome.
-->And if birds could fly high over their troubles
-->She gonna find some of her own wings and fly
-->And no one could convince or pay her double
-->Or tell her she was too young to die! Oh, Caroline, Caroline!
** Both [[https://youtu.be/tq_tQPnp8nw Devil Running]] and [[https://youtu.be/rDabD-HOccw Mist]] are pretty good too.
* Cake:
** "Reluctantly crouched, at the starting line/Engines pumping, and thumping in time... HE'S GOING [[https://youtu.be/F_HoMkkRHv8 THE DISTANCE]]!" *riff*
** Their cover of [[https://youtu.be/nMPrpG09u90 "War Pigs"]].
** Their cover of [[https://youtu.be/BStgfLhN-wA "I Will Survive"]]. I Will Survive, sung in that funky, halting Cake style, with trumpet solos, and a few lyrical tweaks, the most badass of which being,
--->"And so you're back from outer space; I just walked in to find you here without that look upon your face. '''I should've changed that fucking lock'''; I would've made you leave your key, if I'd have known for just one second you'd be back to bother me."
*** [[https://youtu.be/xgJJ4quoCZ4 Have a look at what Turner Classic Movies did with this version.]]
%%** "Short Skirt/Long Jacket", "Race Car Ya-Ya's", and "Satan Is My Motor."
%%** "Arco Arena" and "Long Line of Cars."
%%** "Opera Singer" is fantastic.
%%** Their cover of "The Guitar Man".
* L. Udo's rock opera, ''The Broken Bride.'' Especially the chorus: "I crashed before the birth of Christ / Pterodactyls swarming / You died in nineteen eighty-nine / I want to get back to that morning in May --"
* Music/NeilYoung. Dude's entire carrier is one great, big, [[https://youtu.be/PdiCJUysIT0 "Rockin' in the Free World"]] CMOA.
* A bit indie, but nevertheless serious SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://youtu.be/_exh76zsfak "Headlights Look Like Diamonds"]] by Music/ArcadeFire. Like all the painful joy and joyous pain in the world condensed into a song. Catch them in a smaller venue singing balls out and the glory of the thing hits you in the face like a ton of bricks.
** If that doesn't get you, try [[https://youtu.be/NNfWC4Sgkcs "Rebellion (Lies)"]].
** As well as [[https://youtu.be/9zdNdjF-htY "Wake Up"]].
*** Furthermore: [[https://youtu.be/1-wEBmLht5g "Wake Up"]] WITH DAVID EFFING BOWIE.
** [[https://youtu.be/8Wq917ucGaE "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"]].
** What about [[https://youtu.be/rH_7_XRfTMs "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"]]?
** The first few notes of "Neighborhood #1 (7 Tunnels)" never fail to cause goosebumps. It's an awesome way to start an album.
** Also, "(Antichrist Telivision Blues)". Try to keep a straight face. Try not to get affected by the lyrics.
** [[https://youtu.be/NHHLISaLe44 "The Suburbs"]] is just an amazingly melancholic song.
** And so is [[https://youtu.be/P77GfpzqDvQ "No Cars Go".]]
* Another indie CMOA: [[https://youtu.be/5hxTwwhdMFw "Light and Day"]] by the Polyphonic Spree.
* [[https://youtu.be/K57szVmdVac The live performance of "Maps"]] by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the MTV Music Awards, especially when they hit that last note.
* [[https://youtu.be/6QqVt7UAEqk "Flowers"]] by Music/{{Hurt}}.
** "[[MemeticMutation KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!]]" Though seriously. "House Carpenter", anyone?
** [[https://youtu.be/gGlhTotwaeM "Fighting Tao"]]. Also [[https://youtu.be/v-NLa1K7Dj8 "Rapture"]]. And if we need something from ''Vol. II'', how about [[https://youtu.be/nqTaws60EH0 "Summers Lost"]]?
* What's that you say? [[MundaneMadeAwesome Acoustic instrumental post-rock isn't awesome?]] Do Make Say Think says otherwise, creating goose-bump inducingly beautiful songs. [[https://youtu.be/EYRwE9HPgpM "A Tender History in Rust"]], [[https://youtu.be/gx2LYaHNlWk "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"]], and [[https://youtu.be/M6XIKCmZw44 "In Mind"]] are amazing.
* Go to a B-52s concert. Just do it. If you don't have the urge to get up and dance at least once, then you just might be a robot. Besides, you might get the chance to realize the place where it sounds like they use a theremin is ''Kate Pierson singing''. Your mind will be blown clear into the next county.
* "Take me home, country roads..." One of John Denver's finest. The cover version on ''Anime/WhisperOfTheHeart'' is pretty fine too.
* Approximately 70% of everything ever performed by Cold Chisel.
** [[https://youtu.be/Rb5h6z4NCqA "Khe Sanh"]]. Whenever an Australian radio station does a "greatest songs of all time" countdown, it's guaranteed to be at least in the top 5, and probably number one.
* Music/{{Chicago}}'s early years, particularly ''The Chicago Transit Authority'' (their first album) and ''Chicago (II)''. These guys brought together blues-rock, jazz, and the early prog-rock movement together into one big package (literally; their first three studio outputs were all double albums, and the Carnegie Hall release was four vinyls long). Need to be convinced that Chicago had more than one good rocking song besides "25 or 6 to 4"? Try these: [[https://youtu.be/psHpgomSisg "Poem 58"]], [[https://youtu.be/lghDG9vYfRQ "South California Purples"]], an early live version of [[https://youtu.be/yeOwFyxZNoI "It Better End Soon"]] (the studio version is even better), and from the same concert, [[https://youtu.be/4BZxa0P_BR4 "Introduction"]].
** Also consider [[https://youtu.be/e-wHixgp2RE "Feelin' Stronger Everyday"]] and [[https://youtu.be/YildA2nBE8c "Saturday in the Park"]]. Those songs ''always'' make for good moods.
** How about [[https://youtu.be/hcuE_Qzj9aY this version of "25 or 6 to 4"]], performed live with Earth, Wind & Fire? The best part about that song is how meta it is. It's not about drugs, or gambling, or any of the other random interpretations. It's about... writing "25 or 6 to 4". The title refers to how the band had writer's block early in the morning.
* Possibly Oscar did a cover of "Dead Again". [[https://youtu.be/AaPeDWPr-e4 There were no survivors.]]
* "Mandelbrot Set" by Music/JonathanCoulton. The fact that it's an awesome song about ''fractals'' is enough.
** One may prefer his awesome renditions of "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions." Also, "Re: Your Brains."
** "Code Monkey" will rank highly for anyone taking AP Computer Science.
* Possibly the best driving song, "Radar Love" by Golden Earring.
** [[https://youtu.be/AwKw6BsrlZM "Twilight Zone"]]. Three words: Epic Bass Riff.
%%** Of course, there's always "Vanilla Queen."
* If you don't get a cold shiver to [[http://www.deezer.com/track/188815 Pentangles rendition of "My Lagan Love"]] then... Can't think right now, too beautiful...
* Try sitting still while Farin Urlaub of Die Ärzte fame performs [[https://youtu.be/8mHWv7QpIWI "Zehn"]]. "I want to see you jump" indeed. Also, Bonus points for the female drummer and guitarists.
** Similarly, [[https://youtu.be/XzZTEQZ_cBQ "Unrockbar"]] (un-rockable) by Die Ärzte is a song about his rock-hating girlfriend. The last third deserves special mention for being objectively epic.
* "Break Me Down" by Red. [[https://youtu.be/gqHRcGBUvzA As AMV'ed here]].
** "Lost" + "Death of Me" = GOD!!!!
** ''Everything'' RED has EVER done. From the distraught, torn "Gave It All Away" to the hate-filled [[HarshVocals "Death of Me," and "Feed the Machine"]] and from the sweeping cover of [[Music/DuranDuran "Ordinary World"]], to the quiet, melancholy hope of [[TearJerker "Pie]][[LonelyPianoPiece ces,"]] RED is full of passion and [[LyricalDissonance feeling]], and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the ability to express it all.]]
* "Turn! Turn! Turn!" manages to be super-awesome in its simplicity despite being [[TheMoralSubstitute a series]] [[Literature/TheBible of Bible quotations from Ecclesiastes]]. The fact that it was set to music by Pete Seeger in the 1950s (although not released until 1962), a time where Cold War paranoia was gripping much of the world makes its "world peace" subject an {{anvil|icious}} that really, really needed to be dropped.
* Music/{{Buckethead}}. [[https://youtu.be/OTcg9JybEp8 "Jordan"]] is a classic, as are [[https://youtu.be/QeEFgVCC1w8 "Nottingham Lace"]] and [[https://youtu.be/dgmf0iSWflA "King James"]]. [[https://youtu.be/adV8-_hgL4g "Soothsayer"]] can be both this and a TearJerker at the same time. There's just something about listening to someone with a near-complete mastery of the guitar that's incredible -- even if said person is an insanely creepy, impossibly tall man with a KFC bucket on his head.
* Gogol Bordello. Unusual and gimmicky, but their music is more loud and energetic than possibly anything else in the world. Also, they have an impossibly cool-looking fiddle. For example, "Mishto!" [[https://youtu.be/nMtYzF9b6hA Here's]] a live performance.
** "Dogs Were Barking" is reserved on wedding playlists for a reason.
** Pure happiness streaming from speakers. [[https://youtu.be/sM1Ahn0Osjo "Start Wearing Purple"]], [[https://youtu.be/FkwHcIQ3m-E "Not a Crime"]], and [[https://youtu.be/vi9yVjurZjc "Baro Foro"]], which includes fiddle-induced orgasming.]]
** [[https://youtu.be/elyQ4ShVw-Y "Wonderlust King"]]. Try not to turn it up when the chorus kicks in. "'''''BUT I'M A WONDERLUST KING'''''!!!"
* Heading Mary My Hope's [[https://youtu.be/yFufY0_w6-c "Communion"]] ''once'' will make you buy the entire album. It's just that good.
%%* Side one of Music/TheSistersofMercy's ''Floodland'' consists entirely of SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.
%%** Everything on ''Vision Thing''. ''A Slight Case of Overbombing'' isn't half bad either.
* Yes, Music/TheProtomen are based off of ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', but the music is original and ''extremely'' awesome. Words cannot express how great this band is.
** [[https://youtu.be/mBcDoZnN8ac "The Hounds"]], an epic VillainSong, [[https://youtu.be/YUpIg9ZFsd4 "The Stand"]], another epic VillainSong and [[https://youtu.be/8R8MkEsgf-I "Keep Quiet"]], the only song to beat up assassin robots too.
** [[https://youtu.be/UpSHC1dqX1o LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!]]
** Let's face it, pretty much every song they've put out count, but [[https://youtu.be/HP2NePWJ2pQ "The Good Doctor"]] and [[https://youtu.be/72dNF9LEhDE "The State Vs. Thomas Light"]] ''deserve'' mention. That's raw emotion there, ladies and gentlemen.
** [[https://youtu.be/ncVTPuU7CBY "Breaking Out"]]. The ultimate LaResistance theme.
* Now, consider Music/{{Phish}}'s "Divided Sky," as well as "Guyute" and "Harry Hood."
** Their versatility is just stunning. [[https://youtu.be/ousFDjPrh58 Here's]] a good example. Have you ever heard a Zeppelin cover rock so hard and sound so joyous? As an added bonus, that song that they segue into at the end -- one of their originals called "Tweezer Reprise" -- is in a completely different key than they normally play it in (E instead of D). They never rehearsed that or anything. It just ''happened''.
** Trey Anastasio is just a stunning guitarist. Check out [[https://youtu.be/S7jpd4dSyls him sitting in with Dave Matthews Band]]. There has never been a finer long-form guitar solo.
* Mark Knopfler. Not only is he perfectly able to put out good material with a variety of genres, but he's a downright ''masterful'' writer when it comes to lyrics.
** [[https://youtu.be/uSdQ3Ze2VOM= "What it is"]] is the perfect combination of rhythm, lyrics, and [[https://youtu.be/k5JkHBC5lDs storytelling]] that will capture the hearts of everyone and anyone that listens to them.
** "Boom, Like That" is a song about Ray Kroc, the founder of [=McDonald's=] and it is ''badass.''
** "Postcards from Panama", which takes a story about a criminal skipping town towards the titular country after attracting too much attention, a cheerful, almost-danceable tune, and combines them perfectly.
** "Don't Crash the Ambulance" sets some playful political commentary to a relaxing, almost Latin-esque groove.
* [[Music/TheSmiths Morrissey's]] [[https://youtu.be/FMefojdIL4Q "Jack the Ripper"]], which more makes up for every bad or mediocre song that he's ever written, and is so objectively awesome that even people who hate Morrissey have to admit that it's good.
* My Dying Bride. If [[https://youtu.be/EQJUUDsfRek "The Cry Of Mankind"]] is not awesome enough, there's the [[https://youtu.be/vaI7eBa5430 opening song]] of the 2004 album ''Songs Of Darkness'', "Words Of Light". They even did an ''awesome'' [[https://youtu.be/_bVO5DduK98 Portishead cover]] (and the Youtube video is a Tim Burton-esque uncanny / [[NightmareFuel horrifying]]/Narm clip).
* Flogging Molly's "Requiem for a Dying Song".
** [[https://youtu.be/Gdlkx_cIqtE "Rebels of the Sacred Heart"]]. While definitely not their best song, it deserves a CMOA for the first chorus. "Oh yeah, some psuedo-protest song, nice flute playing, but it's not really pun-WOAH WHAT THE FUCK AWESOME!"
%%** Also, "What's Left of the Flag", and "Drunken Lullabies".
%%** "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" deserves a mention as well.
* Hoobastank's [[https://youtu.be/QdW9pU_S09w "Born to Lead"]] should be on here. Quite a driving, heart pumping song for those of us who love a good positive song we seem to be lacking nowadays. The music video is also fairly trippy and cool as well.
%%** Another Hoobastank song that's pretty good as well is the the one they'll forever be best known for: the title track of ''The Reason''.
* Even haters of Music/MyChemicalRomance love [[https://youtu.be/fqUJ8nB18sQ "Welcome to the Black Parade"]]. It's just... listen to it. Read the lyrics, too. And don't get discouraged by the slow opening or the band it's by. Looks can be deceiving.
** All of ''Music/TheBlackParade'' is Awesome Music (just check out the album page) Also, their version of "Desolation Row" definitely qualifies.
*** [[https://youtu.be/QXAujry_DSM "House of Wolves"]] and [[https://youtu.be/aGEf8NoD2wE "Mother"]]
*** The B-sides from ''The Black Parade'' are pretty good too: the absurdly catchy "Where Is My Mind?" soundalike [[https://youtu.be/RfqZ7suQ0_I "Kill All Your Friends"]] and slightly epic [[https://youtu.be/apktvOsFxaY "Heaven Help Us"]].
** "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" just for the lyrics.
** Their single [[https://youtu.be/egG7fiE89IU "Na Na Na"]] counts as this too, and not only because that's Creator/GrantMorrison at the beginning there.
** Holy ''crap'', [[https://youtu.be/P3L6T0dfHa0 "Vampire Money"]] has to be the catchiest TakeThat to ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' EVER.
*** Bonus points for being much more rock n' roll than their usual output. There's even a shout-out to "Ballroom Blitz" by The Sweet at the beginning.
** From ''Danger Days'', special mention must go to: [[https://youtu.be/m4xq9_9QKJY "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W"]] for being a NightmareFuel MindScrew, and [[https://youtu.be/zBBDuIpct5o "Planetary (GO!)"]] for having the most romantic line ''ever''. ''"Let's ruin EVERYTHING!"''
** "Bulletproof Heart" has one of the greatest lyrics of all time. ''"I have a Bulletproof Heart, you have a Hollowpoint smile"''
** All of "Sing" is amazing, but the best part has to be the bridge. Just using the word "epic" can't describe how awesome the bridge is:
--> Cleaned-up corporation progress,
--> Dying in the process,
--> Children that can talk about it
--> Living on the railways,
--> People moving sideways,
--> Sell it 'til your last days,
--> Buy yourself the motivation
--> Generation nothing!
--> Nothing but a dead scene!
--> Product of a white dream!
--> I am not the singer that you wanted, but a DANCER!!
--> I REFUSE TO ANSWER!!!!! TALK ABOUT THE PAST, SIR!!
--> Wrote it for the ones who wanna get away!
--> [Keep runnin'.]
** [[https://youtu.be/k6EQAOmJrbw Teenagers, my good sir.]]
** [[https://youtu.be/W3TACZW6aig "The Sharpest Lives"]].
--->There's a place in the dark where the animals go;
--->You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow.
--->Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands;
--->Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo.
** "Desert Song" from their first DVD "Life On The Murder Scene." The lyrics are a somber look inside Gerard's head through all the bad that he and the band have been through to that point.
* [[https://youtu.be/qN1ec9sBp8U "Astro and Mary"]] is definitely worth a listen. Great lyrics, great voice and a sweet guitar solo.
* Cream. "White Room", "Badge", and "As You Said" are just magnificent.
** [[https://youtu.be/Cqh54rSzheg "Sunshine Of Your Love"]] starts with an instantly memorable guitar/bass riff and just gets better from there.
** [[https://youtu.be/YdwVVI4B3oY "Crossroads"]], which contains one of the most awesome guitar solos of all time by Music/EricClapton.
* Great Big Sea's version of "John Barbour". Starts out as your basic ballad, then subtly builds until after the final line it swells until it makes a tin whistle sound badass. Cool enough on the album, but live it more than deserves this title.
** Another GBS example -- "Gallows Pole", specifically [[https://youtu.be/8s1r_ksv2Qk the performance]] at the 2009 Junos. Sean [=McCann=] was singing this with a lung infection.
* [[https://youtu.be/_EBMo8xHGNs "Vehicle"]] by Ides of March.
* Music/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor. Their pieces always take a while to get into stride, but the wait's always worth it. They treat every single song like it's a symphony, taking as long as they need to run the full gamut of emotions. It's impossible to list individual standout tracks, but for a start, there's all of ''F#A#infinity'' and ''Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven''.
%%** Particularly great tracks from them include 'Storm', 'East Hastings', 'Static', 'The Dead Flag Blues', and 'Mladic'.
* The Australian band Bridezilla's song, "Chainwork". Bloody brilliant. They should win an ARIA for that.
** Another brilliant Australian group: Dead Letter Circus. [[https://youtu.be/j2GAW87Jmw0 They]] [[https://youtu.be/qBPqjkle6U8 epitomize]] [[https://youtu.be/jnrvBHDZjzE the term]] [[https://youtu.be/WdmnMlWokRs "epic",]] and they've only released one album and two extended plays so far!
* [[https://youtu.be/f9bxbq9A9ls "Field of Daggers"]] by House of Heroes. The title may sound like a ''Naruto'' attack, but just wait until the song gets to 1:06, at which point the epic begins.
* "Telstar", originally by the Tornados, is almost an anthem to human achievement. It has an extensive CoverVersion record for that reason. Here's [[https://youtu.be/x9rJTZbJ8ks the Shadows's version]].
* "Bleed It Out" by Music/LinkinPark. Yes, the song follows the same done-to-death "rapped verses, screamed everything else" formula that they've been doing since they formed, but eschewing nu-metal in favor of alternative/RapMetal and the fact that Mike and Chester sound so pissed off just makes the song work better than any of their previous attempts.
** It's also [[MediumAwareness a song about how hard it is to write songs]]. So that's awesome too.
** [[https://youtu.be/ysSxxIqKNN0 "New Divide", good sir]]. "New Divide". Possibly one of the best music videos ever.
** The whole Jay-Z mashup album was genius, but especially [[https://youtu.be/6Op6v6nJ9_8 "Numb/Encore"]]. ''Far'' better than the sum of its parts. [[https://youtu.be/ypdvapjgmdc This remix]] also counts, replacing most of Jay-Z's Encore with parts from Eminem's song of the same name.
** Props to Mike for turning [[https://youtu.be/Gd9OhYroLN0 this Grammy-winning turd]] into [[https://youtu.be/rqLdbQWd8Wk this jaw-dropping piece of excellence]]. That and the entire band reworking [[https://youtu.be/YP2OKqTc04o "High Voltage"]] into [[https://youtu.be/ZAcPHtgN9TY one of the most cataclysmic b-sides in recent memory]].
*** ''Reanimation'' is an entire Album of Awesome. Even people who hated ''Hybrid Theory'' or hate Linkin Park in general would find themselves drawn to ''Reanimation'', because of the quality of the music. To name two songs off the top of my head, [[https://youtu.be/TDleM19_RtE "P5hng Me A* wy"]] (which is definitely better than the original, and is the version they perform live) and [[https://youtu.be/iU8vCyf8pyQ "1Stp Klosr"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/5-EmcOli28U "The Little Things Give You Away"]]. Over 6 minutes (!) of distilled awesome. Doubles as FridgeHorror and a TearJerker when you realize the song is about Hurricane Katrina. It isn't difficult to figure out, but it hits hard.
** [[https://youtu.be/51iquRYKPbs "The Catalyst"]]. That ending is auditory bliss in its purest form.
** [[https://youtu.be/yoRqeYgAGuI "Don't Stay"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/xLYiIBCN9ec "Iridescent"]] and [[https://youtu.be/kh_YCSW5lPc "Burning In The Skies"]]
%%** "Breaking the Habit".
%%** "Numb." Or "Blackout" for that matter.
%%** "One Step Closer", "Points Of Authority", "Runaway", "Crawling", "Papercut", "In The End", "By Myself", "With You", "Easier To Run", "Hit The Floor", "Faint", "Lying From You", and "Somewhere I Belong" are all great as well.
%%** As are "Castle of Glass", "Lost in the Echo" and "In My Remains".
* "Can't Win" by Richard Thompson, especially on the ''Ducknapped!'' live recording. It is the ''angriest fucking thing''.
** [[https://youtu.be/xpf1-VUyOa4 "Awaking the Centuries"]] and arguably any other song by Haggard.
** Richard Thompson. Elvis Costello. [[https://youtu.be/GJKnk09YuQU "Shoot Out The Lights"]].
* Music/ToriAmos, Music/KateBush, and Music/{{Bjork}}, a.k.a. the eccentric female musician trio.
** Kate's "Wuthering Heights" will make any listener misty-eyed. And "The Dreaming" is one of the creepiest (in a good way!) albums ever made.
* PJ Harvey's "50 Foot Queenie" from ''Music/RidOfMe'' is a fucking MONSTER song.
** As is "Down by the Water" from ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'' and "This Mess We're In" from ''Music/StoriesFromTheCityStoriesFromTheSea'', the latter featuring guest vocals from none other than [[Music/{{Radiohead}} Thom Yorke]]!
* [[http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search/songs/?query=almost%20cut%20my%20hair "Almost Cut My Hair"]]. THE Sixties counterculture song.
* "Halfway Home" by TV on the Radio starts off high, but at the "Is it not me" bridge around 2:00 it takes off into the stratosphere.
** Their ''Dear Science'' album is one big example, really. There's a reason Rolling Stone named it the best album of 2008.
%%** "Dancing Choose".
* The Stone Roses in general: "This Is The One", "Waterfall", "She Bangs The Drums", "I Am The Resurrection", "I Wanna Be Adored", "Made Of Stone" in particular.
** "Elephant Stone" has the most epic drum beat since Keith Moon.
** And carrying on from there, The Seahorses with "Love Is The Law" (the opening riff is awesome and the lyrics are quite funny in places) and "Blinded By The Sun".
* The live version of Music/TheSmashingPumpkins song [[https://youtu.be/o6LQvDbCRH8 "silverfuck"]] is made of this trope. With a "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" tease, an extended middle section and the ending which usually detoriates in to mess of feedback makes it a prime example of this trope!
** "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" shows that no matter how well you can control yourself, we are all just animals underneath. Put it on your car stereo and crank it to 11.
** That moment in "Soma" when the wall of fuzz guitar erupts out of silence.
** "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" [[https://youtu.be/E4blSrZvPhU set to the theatrical trailer for Watchmen]]. Just watch it.
** Probably the most unexpected example is [[https://youtu.be/ZoaZ3PAHjmg Quasar]], which opens the first album in years that just about all Pumpkin fans can agree is pretty great. And it's not even the best song on it.
** The solo in "Geek USA" (especially in Music/BetweenTheBuriedAndMe's cover version).
** The Smashing Pumpkins are basically a band made up of this trope, as far as most of their fans are concerned.
* Music/ChuckBerry's "Johnny B. Goode." Good luck finding an individual song, other than ''maybe'' "Like a Rolling Stone," with a greater influence than this one, which apparently convinced Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} to get serious, was the subject of [[https://youtu.be/6TAlVQgtkuM one of the earliest Beatles demos]], and practically invented the EpicRiff and RockstarSong as we know them. Go, Johnny, go.
* Music/{{Weezer}}. Say what you will about them now, but they have had so many good songs, including [[https://youtu.be/ENXvZ9YRjbo "Undone - The Sweater Song",]] [[https://youtu.be/LHQqqM5sr7g "Island in the Sun",]] [[https://youtu.be/0C3zgYW_FAM "Say It Ain't So",]] [[https://youtu.be/_9BGLtqqkVI "Hash Pipe".]]
** [[https://youtu.be/aPZCGleqh7M "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived"]] is made of awesome.
** Whatever you think of Weezer or the song, it's near impossible not to sing along to the chorus of "Beverly Hills".
** Continuing with the above, no matter what you think of their later work, ''Pinkerton'' is absolutely brilliant from start to finish. "Across The Sea" has to be one of the most simultaneously heartfelt and creepy statements in music history.
* "One" by Music/{{U 2}} is one of the most beautiful songs ever.
** Their album ''No Line on the Horizon'' has no shortage of awesome, as evidenced by "Magnificent", and "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight".
** ''Music/TheJoshuaTree'', from start to finish. (How the HELL do you choose between the opening to "Where The Streets Have No Name" or that anguished shriek in Bono's voice at the end of "One Tree Hill" or....).
** ''Music/AchtungBaby'' is this trope personified. The transition from the idealistic, ethereal "Joshua Tree" into a rather dark, yet powerfully anthemic and emotional album's worth of awesome is done so brilliantly.
** And of course, [[https://youtu.be/sHnXOSxka1Q "Bad"]] at Live Aid, which epically coincides with a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Seriously, the whole thing feels like it's ripped out of a movie.
** The version of "Love is Blindness" from their Zoo TV Live in Sydney concert. There's no U2 like live U2.
** [[https://youtu.be/EM4vblG6BVQ This song is NOT a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday.]] Especially [[http://youtu.be/gGTbAa-7GTM the version on the Rattle & Hum film]], recorded at a concert on the night of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing Enniskillen remembrance day bombing]]. The anguish and desperation is obvious, certainly a tearjearker...
%%** "New Years Day".
* Music/EricClapton. The man who brought us "Layla", "Tears in Heaven", and more!
%%* Music/RodStewart. Especially "Maggie May."
* Andrew WK:
** [[https://youtu.be/WccfbPQNMbg "Party Hard"]]. So much fun energy that in the 2000s [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/party-hard everyone]] had to get in on the action.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlu1ZfYr6vA Ready to Die]]." Listen with caution, because this song will make you feel like you can take on an army -- no, a ''planet'' singlehanded.
* Silversun Pickups, the best indie band of this DECADE! "Future Foe Scenarios", "Well Thought Out Twinkles", and.... scratch that, the entirety of "Carnavas" was awesome!
** ''Swoon'' has some of the most effective uses of strings in modern rock ever.
* Chiodos' [[https://youtu.be/J3blK9KpDmw "The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge is Unquenchable"]]. Emo never sounded this epic before.
* Then there is Music/VelvetUnderground. Their level of influence could very well be on the same level as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, acting as the leaders of the proto-punk movement of the late 60s/early 70s and taking rock music to new, artistic heights. Some of their most famous songs include [[https://youtu.be/2rkVQgX6mC8 "Venus in Furs"]], [[https://youtu.be/ffr0opfm6I4 "Heroin"]], [[https://youtu.be/62ckXALWn1M "White Light/White Heat"]], and [[https://youtu.be/MOmZimH00oo "I'm Waiting for the Man"]].
** There's a persistent urban legend that ''everyone'' who bought their first album, ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'', when it came out was inspired to form their own band.
** [[https://youtu.be/Nir4BnNIFmg "Pale Blue Eyes."]]
* Anything by Music/{{Sublime}}, but especially their self-titled album, which went quintuple platinum, despite the band being unable to tour, due to [[LeadSingerPlaysLeadGuitar lead singer/lead guitarist]] Bradley Nowell's tragic overdose, weeks before the album came out.
%%* The Breeders' "Cannonball".
* Everything and anything by INXS. It's no wonder the death of Michael Hutchence is regarded a national tragedy in Australia. Which song is most awesome? Take your pick: [[https://youtu.be/gkLL7JdnIk0 "Need You Tonight"]], [[https://youtu.be/Imr8GLO9uNQ "Never Tear Us Apart"]], [[https://youtu.be/vSME53nL8tg "What You Need"]], or [[https://youtu.be/0FRI5Eatbas "Suicide Blonde"]], to name but a few.
** "Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain)" is another epic song.
** While they fell out of favor in America after a while, they deserve a shout out to their later songs "The Stairs", "Beautiful Girl", "The Gift", and "I'm Just A Man." And as for their post-Hutchence album ''Switch'', there's "Pretty Vegas" which honestly lead to a well-earned (but brief) comeback and made their stupid reality show worthwhile..
* Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" is the perfect anthem for people who refuse to be pushed around by the world and for people whom the world is constantly dragging down.
* Music/DuranDuran. From [[https://youtu.be/W1N19zOBKCE "Careless Memories"]] to [[https://youtu.be/NjdmZUevIbI "Hold Back the Rain"]] to [[https://youtu.be/n6p5Q6_JBes "Union of the Snake"]], [[https://youtu.be/lFQhkluZOn4 "Hold Me"]], [[https://youtu.be/Nn0D1RfBrrw "I Don't Want Your Love"]], [[https://youtu.be/pPuctyYSLFA "First Impression"]], [[https://youtu.be/2kn5cLZIaDc "Love Voodoo"]], [[https://youtu.be/Mg9NEZbzUfY "Big Bang Generation"]], [[https://youtu.be/S9wfBHdxEi8 "Playing With Uranium"]], and quintessentially [[https://youtu.be/e3W6yf6c-FA "Rio"]]... and that's not even scratching the surface! Almost their entire CAREER is SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.
%%* Music/TheBirthdayMassacre. "Blue", "Looking Glass", "Under the Stairs", "Goodnight", "Walking With Strangers", "Movie", "Lovers End", "Happy Birthday" and "Play Dead" are only a few of their awesome songs.
%%** "Red Stars" and "In The Dark" are amazing.
* The Dresden Dolls. "Coin-Operated Boy", "Backstabber", "Girl Anachronism"... Amanda Palmer's pounding piano and heartfelt vocals combine with Brian Viglione's awe-inspiring drum work to create punk-cabaret-rock. And it is AWESOME.
%%** More songs of theirs which are amazing include "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page-Turner", "Shores of California" and "Mandy Goes to Med School".
%%* Everything off of Music/ThemCrookedVultures' debut could count, but particular mentions have to go to "No One Loves Me And Neither Do I", "Mind Eraser (No Chaser)", "New Fang" and "Gunman".
* The King himself, Music/ElvisPresley had some of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time! "Jailhouse Rock", "Hound Dog" and "Heartbreak Hotel" are some of his greatest works. Some of his later work like "Suspiscious Minds" and "Burning Love" also deserve to be on here.
** Elvis' ''other'' CMOA can be found on his [[https://youtu.be/oSSNCJRBrRY '68 Comeback Special]]. Elvis is playing the ''lead'' guitar, too.
** "Blue Suede Shoes" stars off rockabilly, but his soft gentle love songs like "Love Me Tender" also qualify. For the ultimate in awesome, listen to "If I Can Dream" from the '68 Comeback Special.
* Music/{{Incubus}} had a hit in 2001 with [[https://youtu.be/fgT9zGkiLig "Drive"]], an acoustic rock song with inspirational lyrics about embracing new experiences, good or bad, and deciding for yourself what to make of them.
* A lot of songs by the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers. To name one, [[https://youtu.be/JnfyjwChuNU "By The Way"]], which has the most [[EpicRiff epic]] bass riff ever.
** Also "Hard to Concentrate", "Throw Away Your Television", "Torture Me", "This Velvet Glove", "This is the Place", "Hey", "Road Trippin'"... Flea himself says "Hey" was his best.
** [[https://youtu.be/bPTBq18shxo "Venice Queen"]] doesn't get nearly enough love.
** [[https://youtu.be/1KJ5S-ruX9U "Don't Forget Me".]]
%%** How about their cover of Music/StevieWonder's "Higher Ground?"
* Music/JimiHendrix:
** "Purple Haze" is a rock classic and it inspired at least [[Music/JoeSatriani three]] [[Music/YngwieMalmsteen great]] [[Music/SteveVai guitarists]].
** His bombastic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" caps both the Woodstock festival and the incredible documentary that recorded the event.
** His debut album ''Music/AreYouExperienced?'' (along with its follow-up ''Music/ElectricLadyland'') is routinely at the top of any Greatest Album lists.
** [[CoveredUp It isn't for nothing that most people think Hendrix, not]] Music/BobDylan, [[CoveredUp wrote "All Along The Watchtower."]] [[SugarWiki/BetterThanCanon Even Dylan himself considers it to be superior]].
** Just by listening to it you can tell what kind of guitarist he was. The last verse will give chills.
** 'Voodoo Chile' off of ''Electric Ladyland' is a standout. Clocking in at [[EpicRocking 15 minutes exactly]] the song not only features some of Jimi's finest guitar work, but a fantastic drum solo from Mitch Mitchell and a killer organ provided by none other than Steve Winwood.
** 'Machine Gun' is the angriest song made by Hendrix. A powerful, 12-minute masterpiece that includes possibly the best guitar solo of Hendrix's career.
* T'Pau's "Only a Heartbeat", was written to symbolise the fall of the Berlin Wall and does so to almost [[TearJerker tearjerking]] effect.
-->They took the wall away
-->Brick by brick it came down again
-->A Chain reaction, a solemn vow
-->Who in the world can stop this now?
* "Rock Around the Clock", by Music/BillHaleyAndHisComets. The song that started Rock and Roll. Its guitar solo, originally played by Danny Cedrone, inspired many future guitarists, including Music/JeffBeck.
* This is an obscure one, but it is one gem worth tracking down; the ''Artists United Against Apartheid'' project. It was one of the gazillion "mass-supergroup charity albums" from the '80s -- THIS one, though, was an anti-apartheid album, specifically targeting the "Sun City" resort in Johannesburg. There's one hell of a cast on board -- Little Steven started it, so he got Bruce Springsteen in easily; but he also got Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, Joey Ramone, Eddie Ruffin (from the Temptations), Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Ruben Blades, Peter Gabriel, Nona Hendryx, Bonnie Raitt, Miles Davis, Gil-Scott Heron, Herbie Hancock...the video for the main song was [[https://youtu.be/TlMdYpnVOGQ pretty kick-ass]] and gives an idea of the scope of artists. The album also has Bono's original SOLO version of U2's "Silver And Gold". The original features just Bono singing, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on guitar and slide guitar, and some random studio hand whanging on a cardboard box for the "percussion."
* DC Talk started out as a Christian hip-hop group, but they eventually switched to rock and became seriously awesome. Their musical style was very similar to that of Music/TheBeatles, but their songs conveyed a [[https://youtu.be/kbB0QrBIs9k completely]] [[https://youtu.be/uVlod4SdLD8 different]] [[https://youtu.be/pnHVQl3faVs message.]] While they were much better after the switch, their transitional album, ''Free at Last'', is all quite interesting.
%%* "Der Ring der Nibelungen" by E Nomine.
* Ex-Soft Machine bassist Kevin Ayers' debut album ''Joy of a Toy'', is a worthy candidate, especially the title track with its cool parade atmosphere that foreshadows the music from ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}''.
* {{Music/Switchfoot}}: "Dare You to Move", "Meant to Live", and "Dirty Second Hands" are absolutely ''mind blowing'' when performed live.
* {{Music/Paramore}}'s live performance of [[https://youtu.be/ZkVzUuRI2cQ "Let the Flames Begin"]] comes right the hell out of nowhere and turns a great middle-of-the-album song into an epic performance.
* Say what you want about the rest of Music/PhilCollins' music, but [[https://youtu.be/YkADj0TPrJA "In The Air Tonight"]] is awesome in song form. And if that's not good enough for you, check out the Ben Liebrand remix!
** Also, [[https://youtu.be/EY353c6y48Q "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven"]]. So. Very. CATCHY.
%%** "Invisible Touch" back when he was in Genesis.
* Harry Chapin. In the interest of not running favourites all the way down the page, just one: [[https://youtu.be/GWKpblxejWE "Sniper"]]. Pure lyrical brilliance with a soundtrack to match.
* Peter Gabriel. "In Your Eyes." A thing of glory well before John Cusack blasted it on a boom box.
* The Pretty Things may have been largely forgotten, but their 1970 album ''Parachute'' contains [[https://youtu.be/Ilbzf9VYT3k "Grass"]], one of the most beautiful rock songs ever.
* [[https://youtu.be/4tgWkItPGd4 "Don't Talk In Your Sleep"]] by the Magik Markers. Quite simply the most seething, visceral, and powerfully feminine song ever recorded. The pulsing, repetitive melody, scatterbrained drums, knife-sharp hiccups of funk guitar, all slathered in a terrifyingly emotionless warning. The chorus alone speaks volumes.
-->Don't talk in your sleep, don't leave a trace
-->Because a loving woman can have the devil's face
-->I don't want to be mean, but I'm not afraid
-->Anything you steal baby you'll pay for in spades
* "The Logical Song" by Music/{{Supertramp}}. Upbeat, yet cynical, meaning it somehow matches the attitudes of Generation Y, and it's just so epic.
** [[https://youtu.be/ZsV-rQ23bus "Goodbye Stranger"]] is really awesome, especially the ending solo.
* Love's ''Forever Changes'' album. All of it. Rhino even put the whole thing on a Love compilation. It is that good.
** "7 & 7 Is" from ''Da Capo'', one of the most insane pieces of garage-based rock to come out of the '60s, with its high-speed energy, surprisingly good lyrics and an atomic explosion in its ending, all in just two minutes and thirteen seconds.
* Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine's whole first album ''Lungs''.
** To list a specific example, "The Drumming Song". Excellent.
** [[https://youtu.be/tfBY96qxVRQ Cosmic Love]]. With powerful, ethereal lyrics, a pounding instrumental, and truly fantastic singing, it becomes a small opera, evoking more than one kind of emotion with every verse.
** The follow-up, ''Ceremonials'', sounds quite different from the previous album, but no less amazing. Standouts include the haunting "[[https://youtu.be/am6rArVPip8 What the Water Gave Me]]" and the upbeat "[[https://youtu.be/iC-_lVzdiFE Spectrum]]", perhaps the straightest love song the group has done.
* Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, kids. An absolute rock GODDESS with some of the best pipes ever. And the band is killer too. Their entire albums constitute this trope start to finish. But if you're looking for particular examples, "Apologies", [[https://youtu.be/4NzXz4B2h98 "Sweet Hands"]], [[https://youtu.be/oHlhOgQ36m8 "Paris"]], [[https://youtu.be/S667cxL1ML0 "Ah Mary"]], [[https://youtu.be/B1xwfF5q4ak "Mastermind"]], [[https://youtu.be/c1PpRwRsDZc "Medicine"]], [[https://youtu.be/Ma9lzcUe2Zg "Tiny Light"]], and [[https://youtu.be/yrGObBbsCk8 "Oasis"]]...on and on it goes.
%%* Music/BobSeger had such amazing hits as [[https://youtu.be/w70McARIKuw "Old Time Rock and Roll"]], [[https://youtu.be/zunyXjzJLp0 "Hollywood Nights"]], and [[https://youtu.be/U1tstiCxybQ "Main Street"]]. [[https://youtu.be/3khH9ih2XJg "Turn The Page"]] more than trumps them all.
%%* Music/{{Ween}}'s [[https://youtu.be/-YlExaL57QI "Buckingham Green".]]
* Music/LoveHate's [[http://www.lovehate.com/songs/maryjane.mp3 "Mary Jane"]], [[http://www.lovehate.com/songs/angel.mp3 "She's An Angel"]], and [[http://www.lovehate.com/songs/rockqueen.mp3 "Rock Queen"]] from the album ''Blackout in the Red Room''.
* Music/{{Swans}}, as a group, period. Often goes hand-in-hand with NightmareFuel, but still: The only singular words appropriate to describing something like [[https://youtu.be/Nz--mUSi36M "Helpless Child"]] are "epic" and "awesome" in their original senses.
%%* "Club Foot" by Kasabian. Especially when used as the theme tune for ''Series/TheTake''.
* Every time I Fight Dragons does a cover:
** [[https://youtu.be/Jtbh6CRua_U "The Power]] [[ThePowerOfLove of Love"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/UrdUD5JV_rM "Why Bother?" by Weezer]]
** Even ''[[https://youtu.be/2pvjgBn4m4k The Legend of Zelda!]]''
** [[https://youtu.be/S50ovRMxqtw Can you say "DragonROLL with Mario on top"?!]]
* Music/MyVitriol are full of awesome sounding music. There's a reason why they're given credit for revitalizing the shoegaze movement.
* Music/{{Heart|Band}}:
** [[https://youtu.be/1Cw1ng75KP0 "Alone"]] is probably one of the best power ballads released. [[https://youtu.be/1Cw1ng75KP0 See for yourself.]] Two other nominations are [[https://youtu.be/qkIhyJ-f590 One Republic's All The Right Moves (DANGER Remix)]] and the candlelight remix of [[https://youtu.be/2CLCUoUUBuk DJ Sammy's Heaven]]. Be warned though, it is a TearJerker.
** "Barracuda" hits the ground running with a flanging effect on the opening guitar riff that has defied generations of guitarists' attempts to replicate it; at the time, flanging effects were mostly achieved in the studio, but the song was one of the first to use a flanging pedal that could be used in live performance. The rest of the song, a blistering TakeThat against Mushroom Records execs for fabricating a story that Ann and Nancy Wilson were in an incestuous relationship, is equally awesome, led by a first class lead vocal from Ann.
* The Pretty Reckless created such magic as "Make Me Wanna Die", "He Loves You", "Miss Nothing", "Light Me Up", "Since You're Gone"...Taylor has one of the best voices ever!
** There's also "Heart" and "You", both of which can be considered TearJerker songs. Oh, and you think she doesn't have power in her voice? Get a load of [[https://youtu.be/gWH0m3FUjdA "Victory"]]! There are female singers and then there's Taylor Momsen!
* Before Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} covered it, there was Gary Moore's version of [[https://youtu.be/UlZvGW-CWUw "Over the Hills and Far Away"]], a truly epic song.
** While we're on the subject of Gary Moore: [[http://youtu.be/18FgnFVm5k0 Parisienne Walkways]]. The guitar solo especially is epic.
* Bruce Cockburn's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9HFjErMMlA "If I Had a Rocket Launcher"]]. Inspired by his visit to Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico that [[BananaRepublic were being attacked by Guatemalan helicopters on a regular basis]], this is one song in which a [[PrecisionFStrike Precision B-Strike]] is more than deserved.
* [[Music/ThreeDoorsDown 3 Doors Down]]:
** [[https://youtu.be/pgV6VUinDEA "Citizen/Soldier"]]. The true SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome lies in the fact that it's a tribute to the [[HomeGuard U.S. National Guard]].
-->Citizen soldiers
-->Holding the light
-->For the ones that we guide
-->From the dark of despair
-->Standing on guard
-->For the ones that we shelter
-->We'll always be ready
-->Because we will always be there
** [[https://youtu.be/xPU8OAjjS4k "Kryptonite"]].
-->I watched the world float to the dark side of the Moon
-->After all I knew it had to be something to do with you
-->I really don't mind what happens now and then
-->As long as you'll be my friend at the end
-->If I go crazy then
-->Will you still call me Franchise/{{Superman}}?
-->If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?
-->I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
-->Kryptonite
* [[https://youtu.be/eh3qy4dShLk "Chillout"]] by Youth of Britain. A song that does the exact opposite of its title, it is made three times as awesome by its [[CuteKitten music]] [[BadassBiker video]].
* Alternative rock band Ludo are so awesome. Their defining song may well be [[https://youtu.be/YkJ2ru68Cx8 "Save Our City"]], a song about one of the last cities on earth being attacked by zombies. They also have [[https://youtu.be/zxRCDmHwlEQ "Good Will Hunting By Myself"]], [[https://youtu.be/0XH3oMNKApI "Love Me Dead"]], and [[https://youtu.be/BUw-V0GPvQU "Whipped Cream"]].
* Music/TheZombies' 1968 album ''Odessey and Oracle''. Only "Time of the Season" was ever a hit, but [[https://youtu.be/afrdo2qneoI "Care Of Cell 44"]] (an oddly cheery love letter to a convicted criminal), [[https://youtu.be/VOIXARpyetk "A Rose For Emily"]] (a piano elegy for a spinster who dies alone), [[https://youtu.be/U2-bBSy8u9o "Brief Candles"]] (a breakup song that's actually about getting over it instead of wallowing), and [[https://youtu.be/Utk2pEbOUbo "Hung Up On A Dream"]] (despite the psychedelic Mellotron, possibly the most beautiful anti-drug song ever) all deserve to be more famous.
* Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Dazzle". This could easily be the sound of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE in your ears!
** "Hong Kong Garden" is a punk song with a ''xylophone''.
* The Doobie Brothers bring us [[https://youtu.be/kbXlLUUbX8U "Long Train Runnin'"]]. It's epic for an acoustic song, and you'll be hearing it for days.
* Music/TheHoosiers' [[https://youtu.be/VCOIjvWFFo8 "Choices"]] is quite frankly one of the most incredible songs in its simplicity.
** The heartbreaking but strangely catchy [[https://youtu.be/4hewEMQUIuU "A Sadness Runs Through Him"]].
* As far as chillwave goes, people aren't very inclined to call it "awesome." Go listen to "Amor Fati" by Washed Out. Your mind may change.
* [[https://youtu.be/IvAoVV33Mg4 "Where]] [[EpicInstrumentalOpener Butter]][[GriefSong flies]] [[HeartrendingInHindsight Never]] [[TearJerker Die."]] Never heard of it? If not, don't worry, you aren't alone. Broken Iris's only [[ConceptAlbum album,]] ''The Eyes of Tomorrow'', is a masterpiece of [[HeroicBSOD anguish]] and [[GriefSong grief]], showing the progression of a troubled relationship ending in tragedy that continues into [[GoMadFromTheIsolation unst]][[GoMadFromTheRevelation able]] [[LoveMakesYouCrazy insanity.]]
* "Bright Lights" by Matchbox Twenty, from the below lines to the big rock ending, complete with flawless build:
--> Baby baby baby, when all your love is gone
--> who will save me from all I'm up against
--> in this world
%%* Music/BillyJoel. "Piano Man", "We Didn't Start The Fire", "Miami 2010 (Lights Go Out on Broadway)", and "Leningrad", just to name a few.
%%* Music/LimpBizkit. How can you not love "Break Stuff", "Rollin", "Head For The Barricade", "Gimme The Mic", "Phenomenon", "Red Light Green Light", "Shotgun", "Douchebag", "Shark Attack" and "Gold Cobra"?
%%* Most songs by Music/TenaciousD. Especially the above-mentioned "Tribute" and "Master Exploder".
* Music/FosterThePeople, anyone? They're masters of catchy melodies and dark lyrics; [[https://youtu.be/-nt4Lujk9NE "Warrant"]] is a triumph, from the soaring angelic beginning to the foot-tapping chorus to the garbled verse at the end.
* Music/BuddyHolly, one of the founding fathers of rock as we now know it. "Rave On", "Peggy Sue", "Rock Around With Ollie Vee", "Everyday", "Maybe Baby", "Brown Eyed-Handsome Man", the list goes on.
* For that matter, "La Bamba", "Donna", "Come On Let's Go", "We Belong Together". Welcome to your spot here, Richie Valens!
%%* Pioneers such as The Everly Brothers and Music/EddieCochran have a place on here as well.
* Roy Orbison, one of the greatest voices in Rock ever. Just try "Only The Lonely", "Oh, Pretty Woman", "It's Over" and "In Dreams" to name but a few.
* "Forever" by Music/InThisMoment, one of the best female singers ever along with a KILLER chorus makes for one hell of a song!
* Halestorm is just awesome incarnate: "It's Not You", "Taste Of Poison", "I Get Off" are all great.
* Music/RevTheory's "Hell Yeah", the song title says it all really, "Light It Up" rocks pretty hard as well.
* Music/JetBlackStare [[https://youtu.be/zWX2ORLTuSw "Ready To Roll"]]. WARNING: this song is so awesomely catchy that you should not under any circumstances listen to it while driving.
* Hinder: "Up All Night", "See You In Hell", "Freakshow", "Waking Up The Devil", "Striptease", "Ladies Come First", "Take Me To The Limit", "Use Me", and "The Best Is Yet To Come" all rock hard.
* [[https://youtu.be/Yrrch43CweU "Glad All Over"]] by the Dave Clark Five. One of the early British Invasion hits, it's not just catchy, but ''awesome.''
* Bon Jovi's [[https://youtu.be/vx2u5uUu3DE "It's My Life"]].
** That's just scratching the surface! Take a look at "We Weren't Born to Follow", "Last Man Standing", and "Born to Be My Baby". And that's only naming a few.
** Though it produced no recognizable single hit song and is treated as an OldShame by the band, as its songs are rarely (if ever) performed live, their second studio album ''7800 Degrees Farenheit'' could qualify as one big SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.
* Music/KidRock: "All Summer Long" is the PERFECT song for driving along during a warm summer day, while "[[https://youtu.be/glb2U6y-GdU Cowboy]]" is just 10 levels of badass.
* Orianthi's [[https://youtu.be/wZOQVbNjUVM "According To You"]]. Just listen to that solo!
* Music/SimpleMinds:
** If you think [[https://youtu.be/-HWPCa5yRRE "Oh Jungleland"]] is a good song, just listen to the [[https://youtu.be/SZ-1YnlszMY 12-inch version!]]
** [[https://youtu.be/ot5lObb4YDs "Glittering Prize"]] is particularly uplifting. The [[https://youtu.be/bRr1HHRnXfk live version]] from the B-side of the [[https://youtu.be/-0y69CTkMAY "Promised You a Miracle"]] single (''Live in the City of Light''), might be even better
** Despite being a BlackSheepHit and despite their constant dismissal and disownment of the tune, it's still impossible to talk about Music/SimpleMinds without bringing up "Don't You (Forget About Me)", an irresistible 80s classic immortalized by ''Film/TheBreakfastClub.''
* [[https://youtu.be/eu-xFvLaE68 I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems grow...]]
* Girls' [[https://youtu.be/OIrjFnnit5A "Jamie Marie"]]. The song is a heartfelt acoustic guitar track, up until the very end, where the drums kick in and the rest is an epic organ solo.
* [[https://youtu.be/ve7tpz1juyM "Jojo's Jacket"]]. So awesome..
* "My Sacrifice" by Creed. Narmy, maybe, but damnit, it's Narm that you HAVE to love.
* Dave Hole's "My Bird Won't Sing." A breakup song that's blues to the point that you want to drink yourself catatonic is just great.
* Mirah's "Archipelago". The only bad thing is that every time she sings, "Goodbye my love," her speech sounds really slurred. Otherwise, it's a very beautiful piece of music. For a breakup song.
%%* The Frames' "Dream Awake".
%%* The chorus of "The Bagman's Gambit" by Music/TheDecemberists is this ''so'' hard.
* [[https://youtu.be/lH0gnwtSEGI "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns"]] by Mother Love Bone. EpicRocking at its finest.
* The [[https://youtu.be/KHhKnc0XZrs live version]] of [[https://youtu.be/5K8SYmWjV6w "Whipping Post"]]. The "At Fillmore East" live album version is 23 minutes long and manages to be gorgeous and heartbreaking every step of the way. Plus EPIC GUITAR.
%%* "Now You're Gone" by The Secret Machines. Truly awesome.
* [[https://youtu.be/_k6r4yG6NIM "Fall Down"]] by Toad The Wet Sprocket.
* The wailing vocals and incredible medley of space rock makes [[https://youtu.be/JG6DEW-PQMA M4 Part II]] is the [=CMoA=] for a band all about epic space rock.
* The track [[http://www.rhapsody.com/house-of-fools/house-of-fools-ep "Live and Learn"]] by a somewhat obscure band called House of Fools is a somewhat depressing but very awesome track.
* "Barra Barra" by Rachid Taha is not only awesome for its fusion of hard rock and traditional Algerian music, but its lyrics, though [[CrapsackWorld pretty depressing]], sound so angry and powerful in Arabic.
* The Pixies' [[https://youtu.be/KTQmClWe5N4 "Gigantic"]]. Incredibly breathtaking, especially at the moment when the guitars kick in after the second chorus.
* Anastacia & Ben Moody: [[https://youtu.be/DKCccyZvtIo "Everything Burns"]]. The theme song to every WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds ever.
* Celldweller's [[https://youtu.be/1JKC43hNB-U "Own Little World"]] is a rock song about ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve. There's an entire CD of nothing but remixes of the song. In particular [[https://youtu.be/-R57_xDfnjQ The Remorse Code Remix]] stands out as pure awesome.
* The entire album ''New Again'' by Taking Back Sunday. From the title track ("I am/ready to be new again/I'm ready to hear you say/who I am/is quite enough") to ''Capital ME'' about their former guitarist who left in a huff ("he taught me how to hold my tongue/and wait to strike 'til their backs were turned/and you slither away like the snake that you are") to closer ''Everything Must Go'' about lead singer Adam Lazzara's broken engagement ("You quote the Good Book when it's convenient/But you don't have the sense/No, you don't have the sense to tie your tangled tongue"). The entire album is practically constructed to show how much better off they are with their current line-up, not to mention how far they've come from "you could slit my throat/and with my one last gasping breath/I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt". Kudos.
* [[https://youtu.be/TSxrwosAs-k KEEP DANCIN' IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD SHE SAID OH BABY IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD, C'MON BABY IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD SHE SAID SMILE TO THE END OF THE WORLD!]]
%%* Every song by Music/TheBirthdayMassacre is awesome, but "To Die For" ranks among the best.
%%* [[https://youtu.be/GePsvwfi7wA "Young Lions"]] by the Constantines, anyone?
* [[https://youtu.be/dtDWPN4s8Vo "Starblood"]] by Cranes. A creepy broken little girl voice against epic, tribal drumming, and then when it reaches the chorus? Epic wall of guitars, and even more epic drumming. Just, wow.
%%* Speaking of epic drumming, Music/TheNational.
%%** "Boxer" is THE indie rock masterpiece of the 2000s.
%%** The early albums aren't anything to forget either, with songs like "Slipping Husband" and "Available".
* Matthew Good. [[https://youtu.be/rpeNL8oPaGI This]] and [[https://youtu.be/XPaw6FN8Vj4 this]] are two in a massive flock of awesome songs that are, well. Awesome.
* [[https://youtu.be/bOBb13yDnzo "The '59 Sound"]] by Music/TheGaslightAnthem, which is a goodbye to a friend of theirs who'd passed away. Ever since the early 90s, many have wondered who if anyone would be the rightful heir to Bruce Springsteen. We now have a definite answer.
** [[https://youtu.be/oST77VRHXt0 "45"]] is a catchy, punchy song with a clever music metaphor.
* Ludo's [[https://youtu.be/YkJ2ru68Cx8 "Save Our City"]] is about a zombie apocalypse and is part of a rock opera from the CD ''Broken Bride''. They have incredibly hilarious songs like "Girls on Trampolines", "Good Will Hunting by Myself."
* ''Anything'' by Electric Six. "Formula 409". Watch the video.
** If "Dance Commander" doesn't make you want to jump off your seat and go nuts then you probably need to check your pulse.
* [[https://youtu.be/iA_qIycirRA "Under a Vast/Boundless Sky"]] by Beyond. There're reasons they're legends of Cantopop, and this is one of them.
%%* [[https://youtu.be/7rOMGIbY-9s "Journey of the Sorcerer"]] by Music/TheEagles, better known as the theme to Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy.
%%** [[https://youtu.be/Yyy4yaVwsv0 Hotel]] [[HellHotel California]] is a rock classic for good reasons.
* The absolutely beautiful [[https://youtu.be/-8G-cEMUFAw "Buried Alive By Love"]] (Deliverance version) by HIM.
* [[https://youtu.be/mmoYuMOnX_U "Conquistador" ]]. Procol Harum. A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA playing with Procol Harum.
* Jukebox the Ghost, an indie rock band from Washington, D.C., kicks butt on the song "[[https://youtu.be/R1whUHF7eVE Somebody]]". The problem is, you may find yourself singing it randomly.
%%* Music/MelissaEtheridge's "[[https://youtu.be/eC8FfGvCFho Angels Would Fall]]".
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra_%28American_band%29 Ra]]. Their music has a very distinct Egyptian-inspired tune, alongside some amazing rock melodies; IT. IS. AWESOME. ''[[https://youtu.be/Q9vBcn2DyPU Sky]]'', ''[[https://youtu.be/vpcEed5ZKNk Don't Turn Away]]'', and ''[[https://youtu.be/9ssQC3uiyv0 Running Blind]]'' are great examples.
* [[https://youtu.be/1Vq_WDf6NT0 Youth Of The Nation]] by P.O.D., which was written as a result of two school shootings, one of which being the Columbine shooting. Very powerful and moving.
** There's also "Beautiful", which is... well, ''beautiful''.
** We could just go ahead and put most, if not all, of ''Satellite'' on the list. It isn't the band's most successful album ever for nothing. "Alive" is a highlight, though. It's also quite SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming|Moments}} when you hear how uplifting it is and then discover the album was released on September 11, 2001.
%%* Pretty much anything Stevie Ray Vaughan did, especially "Texas Flood" and "Little Wing".
* Avenged Sevenfold gave us [[https://youtu.be/HIRNdveLnJI "Afterlife",]] [[https://youtu.be/IHS3qJdxefY "Bat Country",]] [[https://youtu.be/jUkoL9RE72o "Seize the Day",]] and [[https://youtu.be/aNZwMG_QUGs "Fiction"]].
** The song [[https://youtu.be/RL7lEe36MYs "A Little Piece of Heaven".]] It is an epic song of Operatic porportions.
** [[https://youtu.be/zci2ilhf4UE "Now your Nightmare comes to life!"]]
** [[https://youtu.be/EPpLVdbVXFI Blinded in Chains.]] Many a gamer in the mid-2000s recalls this from their ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted'' days.
* Midnight Oil had many awesome songs:
** [[https://youtu.be/Mz3HShQkdd4 One Country]] is in a class by itself. It can send the listener into an ecstatic trance.
** [[https://youtu.be/ejorQVy3m8E HOW DO WE SLEEP WHEN OUR BEDS ARE BURNING?!]]
* Music/CheapTrick: "Surrender". "Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird..."
* Music/{{Sodagreen}}'s [[https://youtu.be/Z72ReHQMuQY The Last One in Your Heart]]. The arrangement pulsates with magic and the ethereal vocals soar beautifully.
%%* The Hives' "Tick Tick Boom".
%%* "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and "Harlem" by Danish rock group New Politics.
* Harts' "[[https://soundcloud.com/hartsmusic/harts-offtime Offtime]]". It's a {{Retraux}} pop headbanger harkening back to 1980s New Wave that's [[SugarWiki/NeedsMoreLove insanely underrated]].
* Frank Turner has the inspirational "If Ever I Stray" and the very catchy MotorMouth "Recovery". The build-up in the piano solo in the latter song is enough to cause ManlyTears at its perfection.
* Music/TheCab has "Angel with a Shotgun" which ''begins'' with a rather epic chorus and only gets better from there. [[https://youtu.be/QA_ONzF9Xz4 Unofficial video]]. The bridge where the chorus returns only ups the awesomeness.
* Music/MyBloodyValentine. In particular, their second album, ''Loveless''. [[https://youtu.be/chaYm2TqfHM "To Here Knows When"]] is without question one of the most ethereal songs ever recorded.
* Pick a [[Music/TheStrokes Strokes]] song. ''Any'' Strokes song.
** Their third album is seen as somewhat of a slump for them, but try listening to "You Only Live Once", "Heart in a Cage", or even "Ask Me Anything" and not love them.
** "Under Cover of Darkness" from the polarizing ''Angles,'' is pure sunshiny rock n roll joy. "Life Is Simple in the Moonlight" is a fan favorite too.
** Even their much-maligned [[BrokenBase (by half the fanbase at least)]] fifth album ''Comedown Machine'' has some gems on it. Listen to "Tap Out", "All the Time", "Welcome to Japan", or "Happy Ending" and hear for yourself.
** [[https://youtu.be/Uc9S9qfL7Ts "Juicebox".]]
%%** Their debut album ''Is This It'' is considered one of the greatest albums from the garage rock revival.
%%** "Reptilia".
* FrightenedRabbit. From the heartbreaking "Keep Yourself Warm" to the sheer massiveness of "The Woodpile", they know how to write an anthem.
* The Arrows' [[https://youtu.be/yFHg0uRAyVs I Love Rock n' Roll]] [[CoveredUp as made famous by the cover by]] Music/JoanJett is that rock anthem that you know the words to even if you don't think you do.
* Big Country are considered to be one of Scotland's greatest rock bands, and not without good reason...
** ''The Crossing'' is made of awesome. From the opener (and the band's [[SignatureSong signature]]) [[https://youtu.be/9RJyuLs0EgQ "In A Big Country"]] to the [[EpicRocking epic]] closer [[https://youtu.be/PMXodwZnrqY "Porrohman"]].
** This list would be incomplete without mention of [[https://youtu.be/hT255v-evw8 "Fields Of Fire"]], which is perhaps their next-best known song. {{Epic Riff}}s abound.
--->Four hundred miles\\
Without a word until you smile\\
Four hundred miles\\
On fields of '''''FIRE!!!'''''
** This extract from [[https://youtu.be/f0NpHoqn-nk "Restless Natives"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/-vWOBhJ4rWI "Just A Shadow"]], which has a fantastic ending.
** Even their [[BSide B-sides]] are awesome. [[https://youtu.be/BxUZFpFUepI "Angle Park"]] and [[https://youtu.be/u86nd96lrr4 "All Of Us"]] are two particularly great examples.
** [[https://youtu.be/-9ZdrzTTang "To the dream that fires the furnace, give all your heart and soul!"]]. What a fantastic chorus.
* And speaking of Scottish rock bands, we also have Music/BiffyClyro, who are known for making big, awesome music. Case in point: [[https://youtu.be/2Evn9MiIuqM "The Captain"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/UxUb9Yzr1sE "Bubbles"]] and [[https://youtu.be/_pDSZw6UmCg "That Golden Rule"]] are two explosive songs with even more explosive endings.
** The thunderous [[https://youtu.be/myc_RViTHhY "Black Chandelier"]].
** [[https://youtu.be/dSATJGgaoqs "Stingin' Belle"]]. [[EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes Everything is indeed Louder With Bagpipes]].
** [[https://youtu.be/L8kuWH7sjFo "I'm a fire and I'll burn, burn, burn tonight..."]]
** The album version of "Glitter and Trauma". The track starts off with a weird, slightly creepy techno beat, which doesn't sound like Biffy Clyro at all. The come the drums. Then the guitar. [[https://youtu.be/zcwN92_7D3U Then the song]].
* {{Music/Evanescence}}'s [[https://youtu.be/5anLPw0Efmo My Immortal (band version)]] will remind you of why they were successful. That piano, those vocals, the bridge leading into the band joining in.
* Music/TheWhiteStripes. Proof that a new generation was capable of making "classic rock" music.
** "Seven Nation Army" from ''Music/{{Elephant|Album}}''. One of the great {{Epic Riff}}s.
** "Fell In Love With A Girl" and its [[https://youtu.be/fTH71AAxXmM LEGO music video]].
* 30 Seconds to Mars has the GORGEOUS Jared Leto, and most of their songs (especially [[https://youtu.be/hTMrlHHVx8A "Kings and Queens"]], as well as [[https://youtu.be/mLqHDhF-O28 "Closer to the Edge"]]) just SCREAM triumph.
** [[https://youtu.be/RmOIDAa3Dy0 "Stranger In A Strange Land"]].
** "A warning to the people/the good and the evil/[[https://youtu.be/NyAm8YhL1Wo this is war]]"
--->"To the right/ to the left/ we will fight to the death/ To the edge/ of the earth/ it's a brave new world from the last to the first."
** Attack: "I won't suffer/ be broken/ get tired/ or wasted/ surrender to nothing/ and give up what I started/ and stopped it/ from end to beginning/ a new day is coming/ and I am finally free!" It ends in a scream.
** "The Kill" in itself was basically a Crowning Music of Awesome, edging out Linkin Park's "In the End" and Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" (according to AOL [[http://www.aolradioblog.com/2009/12/11/top-alternative-songs-of-the-decade-2000s/ here]]) as top alternative song of the decade and spent 94 weeks on the charts.
--->"Come, break me down/ Marry me, bury me/ I am finished with you."
* Ozomatli, probably the most L.A. of all the L.A. bands. They combine Latin music, hip-hop, and rock into songs like [[https://youtu.be/w9rbpybXfa8 Saturday Night]] and [[https://youtu.be/3xMr8VaMUfk Believe]].
* [[https://youtu.be/ULL7apmAJTE The epic guitar riffs]] from the first 28 seconds of the Raspberries' "Go All the Way".
* Music/{{Badfinger}}. A staple of PowerPop, the band recorded some awesome tracks, not least of which is a little number called [[https://youtu.be/4UvqPC6wgR "Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch/Should I Smoke".]] The guitar solo at the end is simply ''mesmerising''.
* Music/ThinLizzy's most famous work internationally may be [[https://youtu.be/hQo1HIcSVtg The Boys Are Back in Town]] or their rendition of folk staple [[https://youtu.be/wyQ-tScuzwM Whiskey in the Jar]]. But for grand romantic themes and gorgeous instrumentals, it's hard to top their 1979 patriotic ballad [[https://youtu.be/TjjpBb9q1PA Róisín Dubh]].
* Music/FleetwoodMac's discography is full of them, but special mention goes to and [[https://youtu.be/iJh0TogkAFM "My Heart Beat Like A Hammer" from the debut album]] for its [[EpicRiff awesome blues riff]] and the powerful vocals by Green, [[https://youtu.be/8Z2E37iNV0w "Monday Morning"]], for how it introduced the Pop Era of Fleetwood to the masses with a soaring vocal delivery and awesome guitar work from Buckingham, [[https://youtu.be/U_aYibUx1B8 and "Rhiannon"]], one of their most iconic songs due to Nicks' beautiful delivery and [[EpicRiff Buckingham's guitar work]], from the second self-titled, all of ''[[https://open.spotify.com/album/3nuRoTy7gi52Z4C0negdw1 Rumours]]'', with special mention to [[https://youtu.be/pcawnRIyeok "The Chain",]] especially the [[https://youtu.be/pcawnRIyeok#t=184s section near the end]] that will be familiar to any [[UsefulNotes/FormulaOne fans of Formula One]] for its blend of [[EpicRiff an epic bassline and an awesome guitar solo]], and [[SerialEscalation all of]] ''[[https://open.spotify.com/album/5FIN8pyPVx8ggNs5jQ86Re Tusk]]'', with special mention to [[https://youtu.be/R7U7XtYeq8c the title track]], with the [[EverythingIsAnInstrument use of Kleenex boxes and hitting meat with spatulas in the tribal-inspired drumming]] and the USC Trojan Marching Band's stunning performance that kicks in during the chorus being the major highlights.
%%Instead of just giving "special mention" to these songs, how about explaining WHY they deserve special mention? "Special mention goes to..." is not context.
%%* You can always count on Music/PattiSmith for [[https://youtu.be/FPwOfwhpiW8 wildly cosmic visions]], [[https://youtu.be/xxygqSTO1lQ stupendous rave-ups]], [[https://youtu.be/pPR-HyGj2d0 righteous anthems]] and [[https://youtu.be/WH8KCo8IG5A breathtaking hymns]].
%%What about song titles? Can we count on her for those? Don't uncomment the above example without providing the titles of the songs being listed.
* To anyone who doubts that instrumental music rocks, listen to "[[https://youtu.be/65XSHM3jlAY Frankenstein]]" by The Edgar Winter Group. All five minutes of this song are worth it. Nine minutes if you watch [[https://youtu.be/P8f-Qb-bwlU this version]].
%%* Hate on Nickelback all you want, they have some killer songs like "Diggin This", "Next Go Round", "Side of a Bullet", "S.E.X.", "Burn it to the Ground", "Million Miles an Hour", "Bottoms Up", "Feed the Machine", "Someone that You're With", "Photograph", "Never Gonna be Alone", "Lullaby", "Far Away", "This Means War", "Midnight Queen" etc.
%%* Limp Bizkit may get a lot of hate, but there's a reason they were popular, they have plenty of catchy songs like "Break Stuff", "Shotgun", "Full Nelson", "Boiler", "Take a Look Around", "My Way", "My Generation", "Gimme the Mic", "Head for the Barricade", "Phenomenon", "Eat You Alive", "Shark Attack", "Douchebag", "Lightz", etc.
%%* [[https://youtu.be/fKJDAVvs_JA I AM A REAL AMERICAN! FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF EVERY MAN! I AM A REAL AMERICAN! FIGHT FOR WHAT'S RIGHT, FIGHT FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIIIIIFE!]]
* Music/CreatureFeature's [[https://youtu.be/oVwqkBG0ulE "The Greatest Show Unearthed"]] is this mixed with NightmareFuel, with the catchy CreepyCircusMusic mixed with GothRock and lyrics inspired by ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes''. Truly is a great show.
* Music/TheKnack spent their entire career trying to live down the fact that their label tried to market them as a SpiritualSuccessor to Music/TheBeatles, but they got pretty close with 1998's "[[https://youtu.be/53CHD7uaJow (All in the) all in all]]", a gorgeously trippy number that recalls the Beatles' "Dear Prudence", or possibly "Real Love" or "Free as a Bird". It even got used in ''Film/DaydreamBelieverTheMonkeesStory'' for a scene where the Monkees meet the Beatles.
* Van Fan's [[https://youtu.be/T3HajLSq3EA "What Brings You Here"]] is a good soft rock ballad with an epic hard rock chorus.
* Tsai A-Ga's [[https://youtu.be/55rKnc5rCKo Taiwan is So Awesome]] is so awesome, indeed. [[https://youtu.be/DWdLX8p1zMg The cover made for NTNU's camp]] adds a country and acoustic sound into it.
* Music/{{Bread|Band}} are more known for producing inoffensive soft-rock than awesome music, but they absolutely have their moments.
** "Mother Freedom". A {{Hard Rock}}ing tune that shows they're more than just AM Radio pleasantry.
** "Down On My Knees" is PowerPop joy, with Jimmy Griffin's vocals and Mike Bolts' superb drum fills leading the whole track.
* Music/{{Asia}}'s "Heat of the Moment" sounds like the opening DancingTheme of the 1980s as a whole; a blood-pumping arena rock song, it's strangely tinged with doubt that only gets you excited about what's coming next.
----