Filk music (the folk music of science-fiction and fantasy fandom) is much less mainstream than rock songs with science-fiction themes (sometimes called found filk).

Unlike my Top 15 Filk & Geek Rock Songs, which is based on listening stats from streaming services, for this “best of” list I asked U.S. adults in an omnibus survey to name one to three songs. Here are the top 20 mentioned songs:

  1. Space Oddity
  2. Rocket Man
  3. She Blinded Me with Science
  4. Iron Man
  5. Mr. Roboto
  6. Weird Science
  7. In the Year 2525
  8. Thriller
  9. Monster Mash
  10. Space Truckin’
  11. Starman
  12. Ziggy Stardust
  13. The Purple People Eater
  14. Intergalactic
  15. Ghostbusters
  16. Frankenstein
  17. 2112
  18. The Final Countdown
  19. Rapture
  20. Major Tom (Coming Home)

Note that David Bowie dominates the list, with the #1, #11, and #12 songs—and with the #20 song being a tribute to his character Major Tom. No other artist has more than one song on the list.

More on this newsmaker survey: Music Streaming & Favorite Music Decades.

Photo credit: anatoliy_gleb via iStockPhoto.