The bass guitar is the unassuming thunder that gives rock music its indispensable power and undeniable swagger.
It is the hidden genius of the rhythm section, tasked with doing far more than simply holding the beat; the right line can be a devastating weapon, setting a primal groove, sharpening a track's entire attitude, or becoming the song's unmistakable identity.
From the intricate runs of funk-rock to the crushing simplicity of heavy metal, the best basslines are those that are both inventive and unforgettable. Here, we celebrate the low-end hooks that transcended their supportive role, becoming some of the most recognisable, influential, and flat-out sexiest sounds in the history of modern music.
Rock music’s greatest basslines, ranked
25. Joy Division: 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' (1980)
Peter Hook fundamentally changed how post-punk and indie rock bands utilized the instrument. Instead of playing traditional low notes to anchor the rhythm, he played high up on the fretboard, essentially turning his bass into the lead melodic voice of the track.
His hypnotic, driving riff carries the song's haunting, unforgettable hook, perfectly contrasting Ian Curtis’s gloomy vocals and providing a bright, melodic counterweight to the bleak, stark atmosphere of the band's signature sound.
24. Red Hot Chili Peppers: 'Higher Ground' (1989)
While Flea has generated countless iconic basslines, his hyper-energetic slap-and-pop cover of Stevie Wonder’s classic is a relentless, masterly workout. He drives the entire song forward with an aggressive, elastic energy that defined 1990s alternative funk-rock.
By combining punk rock ferocity with traditional slap-funk techniques, Flea transforms the bass into a driving, percussive battering ram that dictates the track's furious tempo and establishes the band's signature, high-octane sonic identity.
23. Simple Minds: 'Big Sleep' (1982)
Played with left-hand vibrato and minimal pick attack, the dreamy bassline gives a warm, singing quality to this 1982 Simple Minds track. The keyboards offer texture while the bassline provides the harmonic movement, contributing to the ethereal quality of the song and its lyrics. Bassist Derek Forbes provides the emotional centre of the track, creating lyrical bass textures that influenced later dream-pop and alternative rock players.
22. Fontaines DC: 'Romance' (2024)
The opening title track of Fontaines D.C.’s Romance album sets an ominous atmosphere, with Conor Deegan III’s dark, resonant bassline sitting at the centre of the mix. It’s a perfect showcase of the band’s shift to more electronic and industrial textures across the album. The murky bassline is both sinister and cinematic, feeling, as the Pitchfork review suggests, ‘like a death march’.
21. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: 'Two Tribes' (1984)
The synth-bass line in Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s 1984 anti-war anthem is layered with additional sampling, giving it a punchy, upbeat feel – a relentless ‘call to arms’. The funk-influenced pattern drives the track forward with tension, matching the Cold War apocalypse theme. The rhythm section propels the song toward its climax, with crashing drums adding further drama.
20. Squid: 'Houseplants' (2019)
The bassline in Squid’s 2019 hit is thick, distorted and busy, reflecting the band’s post-punk revival aesthetic with modern math-rock sharpness and attack. Bassist Laurie Nankivell alternates between anchored ostinatos and frantic fills, in line with the anxious energy of the song, which addresses the socio-political unrest of ‘Kids getting smarter but the rent ain’t getting cheaper’.
19. The Who: 'My Generation' (1965)
John Entwistle’s playing in The Who’s Sixties Mod anthem is widely considered to contain the first recorded bass solo in rock music, fundamentally redefining the instrument's role. Entwistle showcases the bass in all its glory, elevating it beyond rhythm. His solo features astonishingly fast pentatonic runs delivered with a percussive, almost electric-guitar-like tone, thanks to his aggressive attack and unique string-bending technique.
This blistering, rebellious passage perfectly mirrors Roger Daltrey’s stuttering, angry vocal delivery, turning a simple rock track into a declaration of technical prowess and youthful defiance.
18. Black Sabbath: 'N.I.B.' (1970)
This track from Black Sabbath's epochal 1970 debut LP kicks off with a completely solo, wah-wah pedal-drenched bass intro before dropping into a massive, heavy-metal groove. Butler's fluid, finger-plucked style provided the thick, bruising undercurrent that made Sabbath sound uniquely heavy for 1970. By detuning his instrument and matching Tony Iommi's monstrous guitar riffs note-for-note, Butler created a dark, driving, and thunderous blueprint that became the foundational sonic bedrock for modern heavy metal bass playing.
Oh, and the title? It has long fuelled fan speculation, with different theories variously translating the acronym as 'Nativity in Black' or the equally Sabbath-y 'Name in Blood'. However, Geezer Butler clarified the true, far more mundane origin in the early 1990s: the bandmates felt drummer Bill Ward's beard at the time closely resembled a pen nib, and the playful nickname simply stuck.
17. Blondie: 'Rapture' (1981)
Nigel Harrison’s disco-infused bassline in Blondie’s ‘Rapture’ perfectly captures the band’s infectious fusion of new wave, funk rhythms and hip-hop energy. The bass has a thick sound, sitting at the low end of the register and providing a rich foundation for the rest of the song’s layers. ‘Rapture’ also features rap – the first US No. 1 single to do so.
16. The Stone Roses: 'Fools Gold' (1989)
The psychedelic groove of ‘Fools Gold’ is built on a hypnotic, looping bassline heavily influenced by funk rhythms. It is one of the most iconic UK basslines of its era, nudging British indie towards more groove-led, danceable rock.
Bass player Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield reportedly played the riff repeatedly as the rest of the band built the jam around him, showing just how central the bassline was to the creation of the record.
15. Led Zeppelin: 'Ramble On' (1969)
John Paul Jones’s melodic bassline on 'Ramble On' is almost vocal in approach. Rather than simply outlining the chords, it weaves around them – like a ramble in and of itself – giving the track a restless feel. It adds forward motion and becomes more active in the chorus as the song moves into more driving rock motifs, a hallmark of Led Zeppelin’s songwriting. It is frequently cited as a template for melodic hard-rock bass playing.
14. Deftones: 'My Own Summer' (1997)
While we might be straying a little too closely into metal territory here, it feels remiss not to mention the riff that opens ‘My Own Summer (Shove It)’, the lead track of Deftones’s album Around the Fur. While the lyrics are distorted and the drums offer a busy, textured roll on top, the main guitar line pulses throughout, continually returning to its dark, intense motif.
13. Rush: 'XYZ' (1981)
It is impossible to talk about rock bass without honouring Geddy Lee. On this instrumental powerhouse from Rush's 1981 magnum opus Moving Pictures, his bass functions as a lead instrument, trading lightning-fast, syncopated licks with guitarist Alex Lifeson and mimicking Neil Peart’s complex drum fills with mathematical precision.
Lee utilizes a growling jazz bass tone that cuts through the progressive arrangement, demonstrating how a bassist can drive the rhythmic foundation of a song while simultaneously executing intricate, melodic gymnastics at the absolute highest level.
12. Deep Purple: 'Smoke on the Water' (1973)
It feels almost too predictable to even include ‘Smoke on the Water’ in a round-up of basslines, but it’s a classic for a reason. Most people will know the opening riff without knowing how the rest of the song goes. Why is that?
Perhaps because it’s not just the bass part playing it at the bottom of the mix. The line opens the track on electric guitar, quickly joined by another guitar, then a drum beat, and then further guitar layers to add texture. Between verses, Deep Purple returns to this familiar figure to make sure it’s fully cemented in the listener’s mind.
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore later revealed that the four-note blues-scale melody is an inversion of the main theme of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. No surprises there.
11. Pink Floyd: 'Money' (1973)
Another 1973 entry. Roger Waters’s bassline for Pink Floyd’s 'Money' is a masterclass in stability and groove within an unstable environment. Peculiarly for a rock song, the track is largely written in a 7/4 time signature – meaning the bass part has to work extra hard to root the listener in the rhythm. Waters achieves this with a predominantly straightforward pattern made up of crotchets (quarter notes), ensuring the listener always feels the downbeat.
However, to prevent the unusual time from sounding monotonous, he cleverly adds a 'cheeky triplet' that provides a moment of rhythmic variety and tension before resolving back into the solid, unmistakable funk-rock groove. This simple, powerful line is what makes the 7/4 structure instantly recognizable.
10. Pixies: 'Hey' (1989)
Proving that less is often more, Kim Deal’s looping, effortless bassline anchors the song’s erratic, avant-garde guitar work and Black Francis’s unhinged vocals. It provides a steady, hypnotic groove that gives the track its irresistible, tense, and sultry swagger.
- Did you know? Kim Deal made one of the best solo albums by bass guitarists
Deal's mastery lies in her restraint; by leaving space between the notes, she allows the rhythm to breathe, creating a masterclass in alternative rock minimalism that influenced a generation of 90s musicians, including Kurt Cobain.
9. Talking Heads: 'Psycho Killer' (1977)
Simpler than many, Tina Weymouth’s minimalist bassline to Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’ features six repeated notes, played on the beat, followed by a quaver pattern finishing on the same note again. Simple, perhaps, but effective. It allows the rhythm guitars to come in over the top and add flourishes and texture. As the track continues, the quaver pattern is employed elsewhere, setting out a restrained bassline for the upper parts.
It might not be driving a stadium into singing along – but its job here is to create forward momentum and a menacing atmosphere for a song often believed to reference the mindset of a serial killer. Cheery stuff.
8. Lou Reed: 'Walk on the Wild Side' (1972)
The laid-back groove and signature slides of Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ make this one of the most recognisable basslines in popular music. Its construction is simple – a descending arpeggio – but the expressive glissandos and tone-blending effects give the line its relaxed, silky character.
7. Roxy Music: 'Love is the Drug' (1975)
Starting on a single repeated note, the intro bassline for Roxy Music’s September '75 single shows the potential for rhythm. The walking bassline then gets properly underway, with a catchy groove and punchy syncopation. In another case of musical influence, Nile Rodgers of Chic cited the bassline from this track as a major influence on his 1979 track ‘Good Times’, which in turn influenced Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’.
6. Yes: 'Roundabout' (1972)
Yes's bassist Chris Squire used a picked Rickenbacker bass to achieve a distinct, punchy, "clanky" tone that cuts right through the mix like a knife. His bassline doesn't just follow the guitar; it counters it with a soaring, independent melody that keeps the eight-minute track exceptionally dynamic.
Squire fundamentally redefined the instrument's role within prog rock, proving that a bassline could be just as intricate, melodic, and memorable as any synthesizer or guitar solo happening around it.
5. Queen: 'Under Pressure' (1981)
Co-written by Queen and David Bowie, ‘Under Pressure’ opens gradually with a gentle bassline joined by the rhythmic punctuations of other instruments – and eventually the vocals. There’s a great deal of speculation over the creator of the ‘Under Pressure’ bassline, but it’s widely believed that the early riff came from bassist John Deacon, and was later tweaked by Bowie. Like all good basslines, it is simple, memorable and rhythmic.
The intro bassline was later sampled by American rapper Vanilla Ice in his 1990 single ‘Ice Ice Baby’, cementing its status further in popular culture.
4. Chic: 'Good Times' (1979)
Having helped inspire Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, Chic’s ‘Good Times’ has a lot to answer for as one of the most influential grooves of all time. It’s effortless, funky, and carries the entire track. This is mostly down to its rising melodic pattern and continual return to the tonic, creating a strong sense of forward momentum. It’s performed by Chic's revered bassist Bernard Edwards, whose precise plucking makes every note crystal clear.
3. Bee Gees: 'Stayin' Alive' (1977)
Like our number one bassline below, the Bee Gees's disco behemoth is also used to teach CPR compressions – perhaps with slightly more optimistic lyrics. While its bassline acts as a useful metronome in moments of life or death, it’s also a great groove for the rest of the track to build on, providing a relatively simple framework for the vocal harmonies to play around with.
2. Fleetwood Mac: 'The Chain' (1977)
For the first few minutes of this track from Fleetwood Mac's iconic 1977 album Rumours, bassist John McVie plays a steady, understated role, locking perfectly into Mick Fleetwood's kick drum. But at the 3:04 mark, the song strips away to reveal his iconic, growling solo riff.
It serves as the ultimate musical bridge, escalating the tension before igniting one of the most famous, cathartic outro jams in rock history. McVie’s fluid, pulsing line provides the literal and emotional anchor for a band otherwise tearing itself apart from the inside out.
1. Queen: 'Another One Bites the Dust' (1980)
The bassline in Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ is so iconic it’s even used to train medical professionals. The well-known tune has become a teaching method for providing the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR, clocking in at a neat 110 bpm. In fact, a study evaluating CPR compression-rate accuracy found that this bassline helped improve consistency among veterinarians and veterinary nurses.
While there are plenty of Queen tracks with great basslines, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ was written by bassist John Deacon, inspired by the riff from Chic’s ‘Good Times’ in an attempt to write the band a funk tune. The drums provide a simple on-the-beat groove, leaving the bassist free to shine – proof, perhaps, that a great bassline can build the foundation for a killer track. The notes sit close together, making the line easy to sing along to, which provides the perfect base for an anthem.
