At times, modern rock in 2004 looked a lot like modern rock in the '90s, with Beastie Boys, Green Day, the Offspring and U2 all checking in with No. 1 hits. A few new bands managed to sneak in some songs too (um, Hoobastank, Lostprophets and Three Days Grace all had No. 1 modern-rock hits), but the year's biggest tracks belonged to the vets.

  • Green Day, 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'

    Green Day's 'American Idiot' album was all over the place in 2004. This song stayed at the top of the modern-rock chart for a whopping 16 weeks.

  • Incubus, 'Megalomaniac'

    Incubus' 2004 political-themed cut still sounds timely today. And we still love the cool animated video, especially the bloodthirsty eagle.

  • Green Day, 'American Idiot'

    George W. Bush sure was an easy target in 2004 -- he's both the "megalomaniac" in Incubus' song and the "American idiot" of Green Day's.

  • Velvet Revolver, 'Slither'

    Ex-members of Guns N' Roses + the most troubled member of Stone Temple Pilots. What could possibly go wrong?

  • Linkin Park, 'Breaking the Habit'

    In addition to Bush-bashing, animated videos were all the rage in 2004. This one from Linkin Park found the band all tooned up.

  • U2, 'Vertigo'

    Surprisingly, none of the songs from U2's huge 2000 comeback album 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' reached No. 1. But the first single from the follow-up LP did.

  • Jet, 'Cold Hard Bitch'

    These Australian rockers weren't going to win too many female fans with their attitude. But this song still managed to top the chart for three weeks.

  • Three Days Grace, 'Just Like You'

    We're not hearing a whole lotta modern rock from this guitar-powered Canadian band. But they somehow stayed at No. 1 for three weeks with their second single.

  • Blink-182, 'I Miss You'

    Blink-182 shelved the penis jokes for their 2003 self-titled "serious" album. 'I Miss You' was the record's big hit single.

  • Beastie Boys, 'Ch-Check It Out'

    The Beasties went totally old-school on their only No. 1 modern-rock hit, the highlight of their 2004 album 'To the 5 Boroughs.'

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