50 Best Rock Songs About Cancer

Best Rock Tracks That Confront Cancer

There’s a heavy sort of air when music takes on illness. Not the polished kind where everything feels inspirational and neat, but the rawer stuff where you can hear the cracks in the voice or the riff that hangs a little longer than it should. Songs tied to cancer aren’t always straightforward, and some aren’t even literally about it, but they still catch the weight of diagnosis, the fight, or the aftershock of losing someone. They pull out the parts that words alone can’t handle and leave them buzzing inside your chest.

It’s not the same as those glossy playlists meant to cheer people up. These tracks lean into discomfort, sometimes into anger, and sometimes into the strange clarity that illness can bring. They move between whispered admissions and loud, messy guitar walls that feel almost too big for the room. You can place them next to pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that wrestle with the same subject and see how different sounds reach for the same knot of emotion.

Play one of these tracks and it can feel like stepping into someone else’s fight, or remembering your own, or trying to make sense of watching it happen from the sidelines. They don’t all land the same way, but they sit in the mess instead of smoothing it over, and that makes them stick. Here are the best rock songs on cancer that cut through in a way that feels impossible to ignore.

1. 'Cancer' by My Chemical Romance

2. 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' by Green Day

3. 'Tears in Heaven' by Eric Clapton

4. 'Fix You' by Coldplay

5. 'Blackbird' by Alter Bridge

6. 'The Show Must Go On' by Queen

7. 'Fly to the Angels' by Slaughter

8. 'I'm Still Standing' by Elton John

9. 'Head Above Water' by Avril Lavigne

10. 'Don't Fear the Reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult

21. 'Human' by Rag'n'Bone Man

22. 'I Wanna Get Better' by Bleachers

23. 'Life Is Killing Me' by Type O Negative

24. 'Cure for Pain' by Morphine

25. 'My Body Is a Cage' by Arcade Fire

26. 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails

27. 'Angel' by Sarah McLachlan

28. 'I Won't Back Down' by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

29. 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor

30. 'Stand By You' by Rachel Platten

31. 'Keep on Truckin'' by Eddie Kendricks

32. 'This Is Me' by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble

33. 'I'll Be There' by Jess Glynne

34. 'Fight Song' by Rachel Platten

35. 'Survivor' by Destiny's Child

36. 'Roar' by Katy Perry

37. 'Try Not to Breathe' by R.E.M.

38. 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC

39. 'Another One Bites the Dust' by Queen

40. 'In Loving Memory' by Alter Bridge

41. 'Shattered Like Glass' by We As Human

42. 'Sever' by We As Human

43. 'Stay Strong' by Alter Bridge

44. 'Angel' by AEROSMITH

45. 'Say Hello 2 Heaven' by Temple of the Dog

46. 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' by Set It Off

47. 'Soldier of Fortune' by Deep Purple

48. 'Stand Up' by Uneducation

49. 'Warrior' by Avril Lavigne

50. 'Just a Girl' by No Doubt