Nearly 150,000 votes were cast in five rounds of our March Dadness tournament and you’ve crowned Metallica the Best Dad Rock Band of All Time!
The championship round was down to two representatives from different generations — Metallica representing Gen X and Nirvana representing Millennials.
Our tournament began with 32 entrants. Eight dad rock bands occupied four generational divisions, with Boomers and Gen Z being the others in addition to the aforementioned two.
While many people largely consider all classic rock to be dad rock, we have a different stance at Loudwire. Since each generation is full of dads, this means they have their own crop of dad rock bands — the rock bands that were popular during the teenage years of each generation.
READ MORE: Map Shows the Most Popular Dad Rock Band in Each U.S. State – Study
In keeping with standard operating procedure in heavy music, Metallica smashed the competition, netting over 80 percent of the votes against Nirvana.
On the path to the championship, Metallica impressively beat Black Sabbath, Van Halen, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. Nirvana’s road, meanwhile, went through Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink-182, Foo Fighters and Avenged Sevenfold.
While the competition through those earlier rounds was quite fierce, it was an absolute blowout in the final round. Nirvana failed to gain even 20 percent of the votes, demonstrating the power and popularity of Metallica.
dad rock bracket tournament
All of us at Loudwire had expected one of the more traditionally recognized dad rock bands to take the crown — Van Halen or Led Zeppelin — but there’s just no stopping the Metallica machine from rolling over anyone and everyone.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote! We hope you had as much fun as we did!
The ‘Big 4’ of Boomer Dad Rock Bands
For kids of the ’60s and early ’70s, these bands led them through their teen years and stand the test of time as true icons!
Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire
The ‘Big 4’ Bands of Gen X Dad Rock
If there were four bands to represent the Dad Rock of Generation X, it would be these.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
The ‘Big 4’ Bands of Millennial Dad Rock
Every generation has their own version of dad rock. Here, we look at the ‘Big 4’ of millennial dad rock.
Millennials are those born between 1981 and 1996, so that’s a lot of musical ground to cover from their teen years!
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita
The ‘Big 4’ Bands of Gen Z Dad Rock
The following bands are who we consider the ‘Big 4’ of Gen Z dad rock, as they were popular with teens between the years 2010 and 2025.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
