(Credits: Far Out / Billboard Charts / Immo Wegmann)
Thu 8 January 2026 16:30, UK
There’s a lot to be said for how the 21st century has completely changed the world. From the 2000s onwards, it was like a complete cultural reset.
We went from a landscape where modern technology was only just beginning to emerge, to a society that simply cannot function without it, a place where, with hindsight, political crises never seemed quite so severe and stark as they are now, a musical landscape where, for the better half of the previous century, rock and roll reigned supreme. Then it almost died away.
This might seem like an exaggeration, but when you look at the rock music produced over the span of the last 25 years, compared to the sheer volume which was pumped out during the 20th century, it simply pales in comparison. To this end, scanning the lists of best-selling songs of this century, the rock entries are often things like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
There’s no denying the magnitude of these tunes, which very much warrant their place in history, but the point is that they were released decades ago and now represent something nostalgic, rather than current and fresh. All of this is to say that the choice of best-selling 21st-century classic rock offerings is pretty slim pickings.
But nevertheless, there are still a few contenders which emerge from the fray, all released after the year 2000. ‘How You Remind Me’ by Nickelback still stands as one of the biggest songs of the century so far in the US charts. But as far as the UK goes, it was a different Atlantic wind that reached our shores and took over the nation when Kings of Leon released ‘Sex on Fire’.
Kings of Leon pictured in 2024 – (Credit: Jared Shelton)How did ‘Sex on Fire’ become the best-selling rock song?
Sure, you may be rolling your eyes. In terms of the multitude of overplayed mainstream tracks, it’s pretty high up there. But it was in the art of this overplaying that ‘Sex on Fire’ soared to the top of the 21st century league, after spending more than 90 weeks sitting comfortably inside the UK charts, having first seismically entered at the number one spot.
That makes the song the third most charted single of all time – a massive feat for something released anytime in the past few decades, let alone as relatively recently as 2008. Sweeping up a slew of other chart accolades at the time of its release, from being the UK’s second most downloaded digital single in 2009 to having sold over 1.2million copies in the country by 2012, its dominance was certain.
Bizarrely enough, given that Kings of Leon are homegrown Stateside talent, the response to the song in their native country was less overwhelming than elsewhere. It did well enough, but compared to the storm that brewed in its wake in the UK, ‘Sex on Fire’ comparatively only reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100.Â
This meant it was kind of a tale of two halves, although there was no denying that the impact made in the UK was one that could never be ignored. As with a surprising number of so-called British anthems, it actually hailed from American shores – who’d have thought?
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