The American Music Award for Best Rock/Alternative Artist has been awarded since 1995. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year (until 2003 onward when awards were handed out in November of the same year). The all-time winner in this category is Linkin Park with 6 wins, and are also the most nominated act with 10 nominations. The award was previous known as Favorite Rock Artist from 1995 to 2025.
Winners and nominees 1990s Year Artist Ref 1995 Counting Crows Green Day Nine Inch Nails 1996 Pearl Jam Green Day Nine Inch Nails 1997 The Smashing Pumpkins Bush Stone Temple Pilots 1998 Bush The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Sublime 1999 Pearl Jam Green Day Third Eye Blind
2000s Year Artist Ref 2000 Red Hot Chili Peppers Kid Rock Limp Bizkit 2001 Creed Limp Bizkit Red Hot Chili Peppers 2002 Limp Bizkit Linkin Park Staind 2003 Creed Linkin Park System of a Down 2003 Linkin Park Coldplay Metallica 2004 Linkin Park Incubus Jet 2005 Green Day Coldplay System of a Down 2006 Red Hot Chili Peppers Nickelback Pearl Jam 2007 Linkin Park My Chemical Romance The White Stripes 2008 Linkin Park Coldplay Foo Fighters 2009 Green Day Kings of Leon Shinedown
2010s Year Artist Ref 2010 Muse Phoenix Vampire Weekend 2011 Foo Fighters The Black Keys Mumford & Sons 2012 Linkin Park The Black Keys Gotye 2013 Imagine Dragons The Lumineers Mumford & Sons 2014 Imagine Dragons Bastille Lorde 2015 Fall Out Boy Hozier Walk the Moon 2016 Twenty One Pilots Coldplay X Ambassadors 2017 Linkin Park Imagine Dragons Twenty One Pilots 2018 Panic! at the Disco Imagine Dragons Portugal. The Man 2019 Billie Eilish Panic! at the Disco Imagine Dragons
2020s Year Artist Ref 2020 Twenty One Pilots Billie Eilish Tame Impala 2021 Machine Gun Kelly AJR All Time Low Foo Fighters Glass Animals 2022 Machine Gun Kelly Imagine Dragons The Lumineers Måneskin Red Hot Chili Peppers 2023 – 24 colspan="3" 2025 Twenty One Pilots Hozier Linkin Park Pearl Jam Zach Bryan 2026 Twenty One Pilots Deftones Linkin Park The Marías Sleep Token
Category facts Multiple wins
6 wins Linkin Park 4 wins Twenty One Pilots
2 wins Creed Green Day Imagine Dragons Pearl Jam Red Hot Chili Peppers Machine Gun Kelly
Multiple nominations
10 nominations Linkin Park
5 nominations Green Day Imagine Dragons Twenty One Pilots
4 nominations Coldplay Pearl Jam
3 nominations Foo Fighters Limp Bizkit Red Hot Chili Peppers
2 nominations Billie Eilish The Black Keys Bush Creed Hozier Mumford & Sons Nine Inch Nails Panic! at the Disco System of a Down
References