200 Greatest Indie Rock Artists

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.

Edited By: Ryan

Last Updated: 2012-09-12

Indie Rock Artists
1. The Smiths 2. Pixies 3. Pavement 4. Dinosaur Jr. 5. Belle & Sebastian 6. Yo La Tengo 7. Modest Mouse 8. Guided By Voices 9. Elliott Smith 10. Arcade Fire 11. Neutral Milk Hotel 12. Built to Spill 13. The Strokes 14. Spoon 15. Beat Happening 16. Wilco 17. The Go-Betweens 18. Death Cab for Cutie 19. Sleater-Kinney 20. Sebadoh 21. Broken Social Scene 22. LCD Soundsystem 23. Morrissey 24. Low 25. Bright Eyes 26. The Shins 27. The Dismemberment Plan 28. Interpol 29. Galaxie 500 30. Animal Collective 31. The Wedding Present 32. The Libertines 33. Liz Phair 34. Franz Ferdinand 35. Slint 36. Arctic Monkeys 37. Red House Painters 38. The Decemberists 39. The Hold Steady 40. Yeah Yeah Yeahs 41. Sufjan Stevens 42. The National 43. TV on the Radio 44. Royal Trux 45. Superchunk 46. The Magnetic Fields 47. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead 48. Will Oldham (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Palace) 49. The Housemartins 50. Mercury Rev	51. Olivia Tremor Control 52. The New Pornographers 53. Orange Juice 54. Don Caballero 55. Metric 56. Wolf Parade 57. The Vaselines 58. Bloc Party 59. The Rapture 60. The Walkmen 61. The Apples in Stereo 62. The Mountain Goats 63. Cat Power 64. Codeine 65. Television Personalities 66. The Microphones/Mount Eerie 67. Heavenly 68. Phoenix 69. Band of Horses 70. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 71. Kaiser Chiefs 72. Vampire Weekend 73. Smog 74. Half Man Half Biscuit 75. Unrest 76. Clinic 77. Rilo Kiley 78. Camera Obscura 79. American Music Club 80. Iron & Wine 81. The Cardigans 82. The Thermals 83. mclusky 84. The Folk Implosion 85. Feist 86. Xiu Xiu 87. Stars 88. Deerhunter 89. Okkervil River 90. Peter Bjorn & John 91. The Pastels 92. The Postal Service 93. Grizzly Bear 94. Grandaddy 95. The Field Mice 96. Fleet Foxes 97. The Wrens 98. The Silver Jews 99. Talulah Gosh 100. Archers of Loaf	The Smiths Pixies Pavement Dinosaur Jr. More Music Lists
101. Eric's Trip 102. Tegan and Sara 103. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 104. MGMT 105. Death from Above 1979 106. Pretty Girls Make Graves 107. Deerhoof 108. Minus the Bear 109. Les Savy Fav 110. Bettie Serveert 111. Chavez 112. Joanna Newsom 113. Liars 114. Beirut 115. Polvo 116. Silversun Pickups 117. Quasi 118. Jay Reatard 119. Jens Lekman 120. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 121. Blonde Redhead 122. Dirty Projectors 123. The Futureheads 124. Art Brut 125. The Ladybug Transistor 126. The Shop Assistants 127. Architecture in Helsinki 128. Andrew Bird 129. Kenickie 130. Frightened Rabbit 131. M. Ward 132. The Long Blondes 133. Badly Drawn Boy 134. The Faint 135. The Notwist 136. Beach House 137. Cansei de Ser Sexxy (CSS) 138. The Sea and Cake 139. The Twilight Sad 140. Ida 141. Eleventh Dream Day 142. Menomena 143. The Essex Green 144. No Age 145. Los Campesinos! 146. Patrick Wolf 147. Lifter Puller 148. Acid House Kings 149. Foster the People 150. The Yummy Fur	151. Hot Hot Heat 152. Helium 153. The Go! Team 154. The Trash Can Sinatras 155. Tilly And The Wall 156. June of 44 157. The Stills 158. The Submarines 159. Elf Power 160. The Boy Least Likely To 161. Ra Ra Riot 162. Beulah 163. Shout Out Louds 164. Klaxons 165. The xx 166. Pinback 167. Rosebuds 168. Son, Ambulance 169. The Airborne Toxic Event 170. We Are Scientists 171. The Horrors 172. Felt 173. Oxford Collapse 174. Foals 175. Rouge Wave 176. VHS or Beta 177. Why? 178. Japandroids 179. Tokyo Police Club 180. Gotye 181. Mystery Jets 182. Mates of State 183. The Rural Alberta Advantage 184. The Helio Sequence 185. Guillemots 186. Maximo Park 187. The Antlers 188. The Kooks 189. Tiger Trap 190. You Say Party! We Say Die! 191. The Dears 192. Bombay Bicycle Club 193. Ariel Pink 194. Tapes N' Tapes 195. Blitzen Trapper 196. St. Vincent 197. Another Sunny Day 198. Editors 199. Portugal. The Man 200. Sunset Rubdown
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 (REM, 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)