50 Best Rock Songs About the Future

Best Rock Tracks That Look Toward the Future

There’s a certain mood that kicks in when people start thinking past the present. Not a neat vision board kind of thing, more like a messy mix of curiosity and unease. You throw on a song and suddenly the idea of tomorrow feels heavy and exciting at the same time. Rock has always had a way of leaning into that tension, sometimes with wide-eyed wonder, sometimes with cynicism, sometimes with guitars that sound like they’re trying to outrun the clock itself. A few tracks wander into sci-fi or surreal territory, and others are more grounded, but they all circle the same headspace of staring forward into whatever comes next.

The tricky part is that not every track spells it out. Some are tangled up in metaphors, or they’re written from a place that could mean love, regret, or even the apocalypse depending on how you hear them. Still, that’s the beauty of it. The same riff that feels like dread on one day can feel like a spark of hope the next. These songs are less about making predictions and more about capturing that restless buzz of waiting for what’s ahead. They sit right in that space between fear and possibility, and that’s why they fit so well on playlists with pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that wrestle with similar questions.

And here’s the thing—some of these tracks aren’t literally focused on the future at all, but the mood lines up, the imagery hits, and the sound carries that forward-looking charge. They’re the kind of songs that soundtrack late nights when you’re imagining what’s next or mornings when you’re trying to believe it’s worth looking forward. These are the best rock songs for thinking about the future.

1. 'In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)' by Zager & Evans

2. '21st Century Schizoid Man' by King Crimson

3. 'Man on the Silver Mountain' by Rainbow

4. 'Iron Man' by Black Sabbath

5. 'Mr. Roboto' by Styx

6. 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie

7. '2 Minutes to Midnight' by Iron Maiden

8. 'Bad Moon Rising' by Creedence Clearwater Revival

9. 'Welcome to the Machine' by Pink Floyd

10. 'The Spirit of Radio' by Rush

11. 'Virtual Insanity' by Jamiroquai

12. 'Living In The Plastic Age' by The Buggles

13. 'Radio Ga Ga' by Queen

14. 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles

15. 'Future World' by Helloween

16. 'Sputniks & Mutniks' by Ray Anderson & The Home Folks

17. 'Zeroes and Ones' by Jesus Jones

18. 'Paranoid Android' by Radiohead

19. 'Testify' by Rage Against the Machine

20. 'The Robots' by Kraftwerk

21. 'Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)' by Elton John

22. 'Trans-Europe Express' by Kraftwerk

23. 'Subdivisions' by Rush

24. 'TVC 15' by David Bowie

25. 'If I Had My Time Again' by Tim Minchin

26. 'Electric Avenue' by Eddy Grant

27. 'Age of Consent' by New Order

28. 'Future Now' by Peter Hammill

29. 'Wig Wam Bam' by The Sweet

30. 'Computer Love' by Kraftwerk

31. 'Time' by Pink Floyd

32. 'The World Is a Vampire' by The Smashing Pumpkins

33. 'We Have the Technology!' by Pere Ubu

34. 'Digital Witness' by St. Vincent

35. 'The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' by R.E.M.

36. 'Planet Telex' by Radiohead

37. 'Big Yellow Taxi' by Joni Mitchell

38. 'Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)' by Muse

39. 'Satellite Rock' by Joe Tate & The Hi-Fives

40. 'Neuromancer' by EMA

41. 'Satellite Baby' by Skip Stanley

42. 'The Future Will Be Silent' by OMD

43. 'Digital Boy' by Bad Religion

44. 'Future World' by Europe

45. 'The Little Space Girl' by Jesse Lee Turner

46. 'Clint Eastwood' by Gorillaz

47. 'Where Is the Feeling?' by Madonna

48. 'We Didn't Start the Fire' by Billy Joel

49. '20th Century Boy' by T. Rex

50. 'I'm Building a ???' by Weldon Rogers