5 Epic Rock Songs With September In The Title

The month of September is a powerful symbol in music. It marks the closing of summer and a fundamental shift to the colder, harsher half of the year. The nights are getting longer, the air is soon to bring chills, and the green of this year's foliage is withering to brown. Taking this into account, it's no surprise that September has become the subject of so many heart-wrenching — and epic — rock songs.

Some September songs, like Daughtry's "September," are beautiful modern power ballads. A lot of these rock songs, though, fall into the pop-punk subgenre of the 2000s. We could blame this on Green Day for having one of the most memorable songs ever mentioning the 9th month, but it's more likely that the emotional tones of the era were just crisply melancholic (in a good way) — a defining element of millennial high school jams.

Regardless of the genre these songs fall into, each one will grab you by the soul and move you in ways that only epic music can. Some through powerful crescendos; others with stunningly painted imagery of nostalgia or lyrics that are so deeply relatable that our eyes water when we hear them.

Let's be honest, there's something powerful about a good rock ballad. In fact, power ballads often end up bigger than the bands who made them. They ramp up emotions through driving instrumental buildups and musical story-telling. And, while the '80s were the heyday of power ballads, Daughtry's "September" is no slouch. It's a true power ballad that feels like an evolution of that '80s epic core with a touch of modern rasp and helping of soul.

The song, at its center, is a story of Chris Daughtry's nostalgia for the simpler times of childhood. The singer grew up in what's basically a loose collection of houses and farmland in Lasker, North Carolina — a small, rural town with a population of around 150 people. When you're a rock star, a rural upbringing certainly counts as "simpler" in contrast. But the nostalgia of "September" isn't reserved for the famous.

As we get older, the memories of our youth have a way of pulling at us stronger with each year that passes. The music might be powerful and moving, but it's the sense of nostalgia this song stirs in us that really makes it epic. It makes us painfully aware of the times when we didn't have bills to pay or taxes to navigate, and when we didn't worry about politics or employment.

It builds a yearning for, as the song says, when "In the middle of September, we'd still play out in the rain / Nothing to lose but everything to gain." But in the end, "Summer's never looked the same."

It's time for a millennial favorite that blasted from many-a-car speakers in the high school parking lots of America through the mid-to-late '00s. "Wake Me Up When September Ends," off Green Day's "American Idiot" album, is an interesting blend of alternative rock and slow-tempo power ballad that draws out the deep feels of emo music, released by a pop-punk band. Yeah. Take a second to wrap your head around that.

Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day's frontman, originally wrote the lyrics about the grief he felt from losing his father when he was a kid. The official music video — featuring actors Evan Rachel Wood and Jamie Bell — portrays the story of a happy couple falling apart as Bell leaves for the Army to join the Iraq War. These may seem like two disconnected stories, and while "Wake Me Up Before September Ends" has very personal roots, the song became an anthem for grief in loss for everyone.

The emotional tones and revolving crescendos drove this song to massive cultural heights. To put this into perspective, it currently has over 1.1 billion listens on Spotify, peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and will very likely go down in history as one of the most iconic rock songs mentioning September in the title.

The song "September" by Marianas Trench is niche compared to the previous two, and isn't the only one on this list to branch away from the ballad format. The song came out on the band's debut album "Fix Me" in 2006 and has fewer than 2 million plays on Spotify. Compared to Daughtry and Green Day, it might seem out of place, but at the end of the day, this is a fantastic piece that deserves to be here.

This song starts with the driving drums and guitar of a punk melody that slowly builds into the distortion of a harder rock jam — all with mid-2000's pop-rock vocals over the top. It's honestly one of those tunes that completely takes you over. You'll be bobbing your head to the beat and wailing off-key on the long drive home after a hard day (an angry car jam, if you will).

The lyrics speak about emotional burnout and the world feeling like it's a little too much. It's a contrast to the common view of summer — sun-filled happy days — and instead, uses summer imagery to portray internal pain with lines like, "September won't you bring me some rain again? / This sun is melting my skin."

Marianas Trench has only enjoyed limited fame in the United States — though they're very popular in Canada — and their music has changed significantly since they released this song to become less pop-punk and more complex-melody pop-rock. But as far as epic September songs go, this one is "a bop," as the kids say, even with its more simple stylings.

"Blame It On September" by Allstar Weekend falls into the pop-punk/pop-rock subgenres that seem to be obsessed with this month. It's epic, but not on the "grand popularity" scale or because of some high-production orchestral instrumental. It's epic in the "everyday miracles" sense, where it will unwittingly cause an impromptu kitchen dance session.

While the slower beat and a quick skimming of the lyrics might tempt you to lay your head on your partner's shoulder, as occurs between the song's subjects, it's only a semi-romantic song. The story is one of summer romance, sure, but a romance that's ending as the season comes to a close — the singer saying, "Let's blame it on September" so neither feels at fault. "'Cause no summer lasts forever."

This is another one of those songs you've probably missed in the ocean of rock music available, but the band had some modest success. Though "September" never hit the charts, other Allstar Weekend releases did. Oddly enough, their rise to fame came from competing on "Radio Disney's Next Big Thing," which seems like a left-field route to popularity for a band that wrote an epic September song (then again, Daughtry comes from American Idol).

If you haven't noticed by now, the ending of Summer tends to appear in themes of sadness, wanting, and loss in the world of rock music. "September Skyline" by Single File isn't any different.

The song expresses a desire to find meaning in life again after longing for someone who's "seven states away." The music itself has a light, rhythmic drive and signature 2000s whining vocals that lend to an overall sense of yearning. Overlaid with lyrics like "So lets drive tonight / we'll race the autumn skyline" and "I'll say that I've been fine / but no, I'm lying through my teeth," you'll viscerally feel emotions you haven't thought about in a while.

Single File signed with Reprise Records in 2007 — the label started by Sinatra that once signed Jimi Hendrix — and hit the now-defunct Billboard Heatseekers chart. Still, they never really gained fame and fortune. The label only produced one album for the band before everything fell apart: "Common Struggles" (April 2009).

Warner Records, Reprise's parent company, saw a 9% decline in revenue in the third quarter of 2009 alone (via Warner Music Group). By September, they'd laid off roughly 20% of their staff. But the books and personnel weren't the only areas to take a figurative beating. Reprise, specifically, dropped several smaller bands from their roster, Single File included.

From what we can tell, the band never signed with another label and only enjoyed limited success on Spotify before quietly disappearing, leaving "September Skyline" to forever be one of the most underrated rock songs featuring September in the title.