Criteria: Artists are ranked by their influence, musical and cultural impact, popularity, and innovation. This list considers "indie rock" to be a genre with a discernible sound rather than a designation of label status. Although the genre originated and was cultivated on independent labels, it is no longer exclusive to them.
Definition & List Parameters: (see below the list)
Edited By: Ryan
Last Updated: 2012-09-12
Greatest Indie Rock Albums
1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel 2. Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement 3. The Queen is Dead - The Smiths 4. Spiderland - Slint 5. Doolittle - Pixies 6. Is This It - The Strokes 7. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement 8. Funeral - Arcade Fire 9. Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices 10. I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One - Yo La Tengo 11. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle & Sebastian 12. Exile in Guyville - Liz Phair 13. Either/Or - Elliott Smith 14. The Moon and Antartica - Modest Mouse 15. You're Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr. 16. Turn On the Bright Lights - Interpol 17. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens 18. Whatever People Say I am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys 19. I Could Live in Hope - Low 20. Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle - Olivia Tremor Control 21. Return to Cookie Mountain - TV On the Radio 22. Emergency & I - The Dismemberment Plan 23. You Forgot it in People - Broken Social Scene 24. 69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields 25. Tigermilk - Belle & Sebastian 26. There Is Nothing Wrong With Love - Built To Spill 27. Harmacy - Sebadoh 28. Surfer Rosa - Pixies 29. Kill the Moonlight - Spoon 30. Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie 31. The Smiths - The Smiths 32. Strawberry Jam - Animal Collective 33. Dig Me Out - Sleater-Kinney 34. The Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse 35. And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out - Yo La Tengo 36. Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground - Bright Eyes 37. Satanic Panic in the Attic - of Montreal 38. Seperation Sunday - The Hold Steady 39. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand 40. LCD Soundstsystem - LCD Soundsystem 41. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire 42. George Best - The Wedding Present 43. I See A Darkness - Bonnie "Prince" Billy 44. Picaresque - The Decemberists 45. Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes - TV on the Radio 46. Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs 47. Jamboree - Beat Happening 48. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon 49. Yerself Is Steam - Mercury Rev 50. XO - Elliott Smith 51. Alien Lanes - Guided by Voices 52. Wowee Zowee - Pavement 53. Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade 54. The Glow Pt. 2 - The Microphones 55. Boxer - The National 56. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 57. Viva Hate - Morrissey 58. Source Tags & Codes - ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead 59. Internal Wrangler - Clinic 60. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins 61. No Pocky For Kitty - Superchunk 62. Fun Trick Noisemaker - Apples in Stereo 63. Good News For People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse 64. Bakesale - Sebadoh 65. Perfect From Now On - Built to Spill 66. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? - of Montreal 67. On Avery Island - Neutral Milk Hotel 68. Give Up - The Postal Service 69. The Reminder - Feist 70. Meat is Murder - The Smiths 71. Set Yourself On Fire - Stars 72. Mass Romantic - The New Pornographers 73. Le Jardin De Heavenly - Heavenly 74. Tallahassee - The Mountain Goats 75. Mag Earwhig! - Guided By Voices 76. Echoes - The Rapture 77. Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle & Sebastian 78. Accelerator - Royal Trux 79. Painful - Yo La Tengo 80. Live It Out - Metric 81. Down Colourful Hill - Red House Painters 82. Bug - Dinosaur Jr. 83. Writer's Block - Peter Bjorn and John 84. The Curtain Hits The Cast - Low 85. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party 86. mclusky Do Dallas - mclusky 87. Back in the DHSS - Half Man Half Biscuit 88. On Fire - Galaxie 500 89. London 0 Hull 4 - The Housemartins 90. Bows + Arrows - The Walkmen 91. Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith 92. Brighten the Corners - Pavement 93. 16 Lovers Lane - The Go-Betweens 94. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire 95. For Respect - Don Cabellero 96. You Can't Hide Love Forever - Orange Juice 97. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene 98. The Photo Album - Death Cab for Cutie 99. Boys and Girls in America - The Hold Steady 100. Fevers and Mirrors - Bright Eyes
101. Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective 102. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix 103. The Charm of the Highway Strip - The Magnetic Fields 104. Up the Bracket - The Libertines 105. Your Arsenal - Morrissey 106. The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified - The Dismemberment Plan 107. Imperial F.F.R.R. - Unrest 108. The Sophtware Slump - Grandaddy 109. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 110. ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It - Television Personalities 111. Strangeways, Here We Come - The Smiths 112. Trompe Le Monde - Pixies 113. The Body, The Blood, The Machine - The Thermals 114. Before Hollywood - The Go-Betweens 115. Fabulous Muscles - Xiu Xiu 116. Gimme Fiction - Spoon 117. Superchunk - Superchunk 118. The Milk-Eyed Mender - Joanna Newsom 119. Let's Get Out of This Country - Camera Obscura 120. Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem 121. Let It Die - Feist 122. Everything All the Time - Band of Horses 123. Terror Twilight - Pavement 124. More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley 125. Dare to Be Surprised - The Folk Implosion 126. The White Birch - Codiene 127. Figure 8 - Elliott Smith 128. Alligator - The National 129. The Boy with the Arab Strap - Belle & Sebastian 130. Red Apple Falls - Smog 131. Black Sheep Boy - Okkervil River 132. The Shepherd's Dog - Iron & Wine 133. You Are Free - Cat Power 134. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear 135. Forever Again - Eric's Trip 136. Red House Painters (Rollercoaster) - Red House Painters 137. Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. - Deerhunter 138. Ys - Joanna Newsom 139. Everclear - American Music Club 140. Hearts of Oak - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 141. Icky Mettle - Archers of Loaf 142. Secaucus - The Wrens 143. Today - Galaxie 500 144. Gulag Orkestar - Beirut 145. Blood Visions - Jay Reatard 146. Highly Refined Pirates - Minus the Bear 147. Room on Fire - The Strokes 148. I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo 149. All Hands on the Bad One - Sleater-Kinney 150. Michigan - Sufjan Stevens 151. Sung Tongs - Animal Collective 152. You Turn Me On - Beat Happening 153. Starlite Walker - The Silver Jews 154. Where You Been - Dinosaur Jr. 155. Reveille - Deerhoof 156. More Parts Per Million - The Thermals 157. Snowball - The Field Mice 158. The Sunlandic Twins - of Montreal 159. The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire - mclusky 160. You're A Woman, I'm A Machine - Death from Above 1979 161. The New Romantic - Pretty Girls Make Graves 162. Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys 163. Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express - The Go Betweens 164. Fiestas and Fiascos - Lifter Puller 165. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - Bright Eyes 166. Palomine - Bettie Serveert 167. Gone Glimmering - Chavez 168. Up for a Bit with the Pastels - The Pastels 169. Perfect Teeth - Unrest 170. Strangers from the Universe - Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 171. So Jealous - Tegan and Sara 172. Let's Stay Friends - Les Savy Fav 173. You Are the Quarry - Morrissey 174. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT 175. Dum-Dum - The Vaselines 176. Today's Active Lifestyles - Polvo 177. You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand 178. Antics - Interpol 179. The Crane Wife - The Decemberists 180. Good Health - Pretty Girls Make Graves 181. Feels - Animal Collective 182. Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman 183. The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy 184. In Case We Die - Architecture in Helsinki 185. Bang Bang Rock & Roll - Art Brut 186. All Hail West Texas - The Mountain Goats 187. Shake the Sheets - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 188. Employment - Kaiser Chiefs 189. Blank Wave Arcade - The Faint 190. The Albemarle Sound - The Ladybug Transistor 191. Will Anything Happen - Shop Assistants 192. Bossanova - Pixies 193. Bizarro - The Wedding Present 194. Cryptograms - Deerhunter 195. Featuring "Birds" - Quasi 196. Fuckin' A - The Thermals 197. Whip-Smart - Liz Phair 198. Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs - Andrew Bird 199. Dear Science - TV on the Radio 200. Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One - Olivia Tremor Control
WHAT WILL BE INCLUDED
• what the general public often considers "indie rock" to be, those artists in the indie rock genre who have remained on indie rock labels their entire career.
• key indie rock bands (like Modest Mouse and TV on the Radio) which have been signed away from their indie labels and are now on major labels.
• Dance-punk, twee pop and various genres often considered to be offshoots of indie rock
WHAT WILL BE INCLUDED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS
• bands that are on indie labels in one country, but a major in another (such as Phoenix).
• British indie bands. In Britain, the genres that America calls "indie rock" and "alternative" are one genre, called simply "indie". This makes it difficult to those unfamiliar to the genre to deduce which bands are actually "indie rock" and which are merely alternative bands signed to an indie label.
• select post-punk and college rock bands that also happen to be apart of the indie rock genre (The Smiths, Pixies)
• Non-"rock" artists that are considered to be apart of the "indie rock" genre (Animal Collective)
WHAT WILL NOT BE INCLUDED
• artists (such as Creed and The Offspring) who were or are signed to indie label, but were never considered "indie rock" in the first place.
• Most 1980's "college rock" and "post-punk" bands (R.E.M., Hüsker Dü)
• most, if not all, Britpop artists.
• Certain artists that have never been considered to be "indie rock" which used to be on a major label but have left to become an independent-label or unsigned artist (Nine Inch Nails, XTC)
