Of course, the context here is important considering these are UK "indie" (uuunh, there's that word again) songs, so it's a little hard to judge. I mean, the ridiculous amount of Oasis and the Libertines on the list negates it for me more or less. However, I do love seeing lots of Smiths (though I would have put "How Soon Is Now?" at #1). I think this list mostly highlights how much NME has become the UK Spin, with a lot of new bands on the list that just don't deserve to be there (Klaxons, Killers, Kasabian, Babyshambles) and leaving a lot of classic things off...

Totally -- but then their drinking age is lower than ours - so maybe that accounts for the unruly "anthemness" of those newcomers.

I wish they would do a tally of the UK's most karaoke'd songs. The karaoke books there are chock full of indie athems... and Frank Sinatra (which, I believe, in some circles is indie).

I second the Idlewild "Rosability" nomination (and add "I Am What I Am Not" for its anthemic qualities.

And the La's, as per usual, are direly underrepresented at #45 with "There She Goes."

Though I'm not really so sure that song is a anthem, really. According to dictionary.com, an anthem is:

1. a song, as of praise, devotion, or patriotism: the national anthem of Spain; our college anthem.
2. a piece of sacred vocal music, usually with words taken from the Scriptures.
3. a hymn sung alternately by different sections of a choir or congregation.

To me, "I Predict a Riot" is anthemic. "Don't Look Back in Anger" definitely is not.

RE: #48
surely 'teen age riot' is much more of an anthem than 'bull in the heather'

It is also fun to see how they love their Gossip (#23) in the UK (well, at least at NME).

What, no Super Furry Animals? The Man Don't Give a Fuck, now that's an anthem from the scriptures of Steely Dan!

toby - you're so right! I forgot all about that song -- but I enjoy drunkenly singing it whenever given the chance.

There are some things that please me on this list (Strokes #9, Arctic Monkeys #10 [I even referred to "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" as an anthem this morning, before I even knew of this list's existence]), but it seems to be fatally flawed in that the Libertines (who put out two records and only one is actually pretty good) to have as many songs on the list as the Smiths. Plus, four American songs in the top 25? I know this is a British list/magazine, but come on!

Oh, and what's the deal with NME's Oasis fetish? I will never, ever get it.

I liked the Radiohead...

Is Nirvana indie now? What happened to the grunge stuff.

where the fuck is where is my mind?

There are no Australian songs on this list. Major drawback. Not too sure as what counts as "indie", but you'd think that The Saints' classic punk song "Know your product" would top, or nearly top this list. Or perhaps Do Re Mi's classic "Man overboard"...a song I would nominate as perhaps the greatest song of all time, in my view. Joan Jet and the Blackhearts "I love rock'n'roll" deserves to compete for top spot in this list too.

I think Oasis have only two great songs...Wonderwall, and Free. The latter did not make the list. They wrote a lot of rubbish too, some of which makes this list.

Really, no Aussie songs equals inferior, British centric compilation.

I agree with the Oasis fetish wtf is with that? None of the Oasis songs they listed are even any good. Where the hell is all of the Smashing Pumpkins anyway? I would have expected "Disarm" to be somewhere at least.
dfle3 that is the stupidest thing I've ever read, I live in Australia and I've never heard anything from the Saints and I've only ever heard of Do Re Mi, anything that isn't generic pop/rock gets no exposure over here, in addition to that Australians are talentless and act like sheep following trends that occur in America. Your comment conforms with the typical "if it isn't australian it isn't worth shit" attitude that is disgusting and often racist in certain situations (like your attitude to Indians and outsourcing).

Australia = inferior

(btw it might sound weird me saying this while living in Australia but I was forced here and consider myself Canadian)

having lived in scotland for awhile, i can tell you why Oasis is so huge over there (Robbie Williams is huge in scotland for the same reason)... they were working class blokes who made it big. drunkards, arses, mean bastards who took bucketfuls of "the man's" money.

that will forever endear them to the UK populace. nothing is more bizarre than a bunch of hockney, hard ass, toothless, working class guys, fighting one minute in the crowd, banging bottles over each other's heads, and then the next moment holding up lighters, arms around each other, singing "you're my wonderwall" all at the same time.

it reminds me of an interview i saw with ewan macgregor once, when he said "the main difference between americans and brits is that you look up at the rich guy with the big house on the hill and say 'someday i'm gonna be that guy', we look up at the rich guy with the big house on the hill and say 'someday i'm gonna GET that guy'!"

i met plenty of people over there who didn't get nirvana too- "that guy slurred his words, couldn't play his guitar, and dressed like crap!"

oasis was pretty much the UK's nirvana back in the day. watch their earliest DVD, "Live By The Sea"... you'll see a lot of what I'm talking about (somebody throws a shoe at Liam and he picks it up and yells back "if you're gonna throw something at me, you better fucking hit me!").

and no matter what anyone says "I'm A Rock 'n Roll Star", "Live Forever" and "Cigarettes & Alcohol" off Definitely Maybe are great rock 'n roll anthems... even if neither made the list!

SmilingPolitely-hmmm, what an idiotic comment you make. You've never heard anything by The Saints? And? What's your point troll? When the released the punk song in England, one magazine over there said it was the song of the week for that and every week.The song was "I'm stranded". Read that stuff on Wikipedia. The Saints are a TRUE indie band...their debut record was a diy job. It's not a fave of mine. I like "Know your product" is way better.

I'm not saying that if the song isn't Australian it's rubbish. I'm just saying I can't take seriously such lists when they are ignorant of music from anywhere but the US or UK. Oasis' "Whatever" is a great song. Not on the list. Other rubbish of theirs is on the list.

My attitudes to Indians and outsourcing? What are you smoking? Wtf?

Troll somewhere else. Listen to that profoundly original Canadian of yours Celine Dion. Yeah, she's a real musical trailblazer. Like Shania Twain too. Or Nickelback. Trailblazers all.

Considering that artists on Merge AND SST in the States could both be considered indie, from the 80s to the 90s to the 00s, the absence of any Magnetic Fields, Husker Du, Le Tigre, and a million other of our bands makes this list hilarious. Not to mention the predominance of Oasis, who I actually have never thought of as "indie" before. (Aren't they the Brit equivalent of Huey Lewis or something?) And I love the Libertines, but half an album's worth of their songs don't belong in this list either. This wack stack of tracks is strictly for the punters, as they say.

Great, underrated, overlooked book on UK indie as a milieu: "Empire of Dirt" by Wendy Fonarow.

Hey Chris Estey- I've thought the same thing about Oasis, re how "indie" they are. If I was to compile my own such list, based on the limited knowledge I have of this field, I would consider some heavy metal songs. That's pretty indie/alternative right? E.g. Iron Maiden's "Run to the hills" and Metallica's "Fade to black" or Megadeth's "Prince of darkness". If these songs were not on major record labels, would they not count as indie or alternative anthems? They're definitely not mainstream, hence the 'alternative' moniker. Looking for an opinion on this from someone who is into this music.

P.S. I like a few Pixies songs a lot-they should have had more tracks and Oasis less in this list, but it is a UK poll, so you expect that. Some of my fave Pixies songs not on this list include "River Euphrates" and "The happening", amongst others.

Not sure if my Aussie contender, Do Re Mi are properly indie. They're not mainstream but I'm not sure if they were with a major record label or not, which is what part of this list is about, right?

Back to Australian songs-I would think that a list compiled by Australians would be better than one compiled in the US or the UK. Australians hear songs from both countries whereas with a UK list like this, you get a brazilian Oasis songs included. A US list would have zero Oasis songs, I think. The benefits of an Aussie list is that you would have the best of our three countries, without the parochialism of either the US or UK.

I really do think that some metal belongs on an indie list, yes. For example, I think the first Danzig record is an indie rock record -- I was there when it came out, and it was punks and indie kids more into it than metal guys. Think of Rick Rubin's career, and the effect of producing rap and metal was just a reflection of what indie kids were into at the time (catchy hard rock and current hip-hop). That said, hip-hop being left off of this list -- also soul or soul-pop in general like Fine Young Cannibals or Nicole Willis -- is pretty alarming. "Indie" is actually an umbrella term for the DIY record business began in the UK and America and yes even Australia (throughout the world, actually) that includes the original wave of punk, the evolution of punk, the crossover of marginalized subcultures (including metal), and finally becoming its own aesthetic as "indie rock" by the mid-80s. Australia had a huge part in this, for sure. Any group house in Seattle in the late 70s had Radio Birdman's records; The Birthday Party were so adored in the indie scene here one of our very best bands (U-Men) seemed sincerely inspired by them. Etc. There's an enormous amount of Aussie music I want to seek out and try ...

Hi. You touch upon why I'm a bit puzzled by this list. I actually tried emailing the people behind it but never got a reply. The issues that bother me are: is "indie" referring to the kind of people who like this music or a style of music or the status of the company which is manufacturing the music? Not sure, but presumable even a band like Metallica got a major label behind them at some point, and the Sex Pistols were with EMI first, so do they count? Does having been indie at one time mean that later, non indie stuff by the act gets counted here anyway?

Also, I suppose "alternative" denotes a style more so, than, say "indie".

Lastly, on this list-"anthem"-that sort of limits what kind of song you can have, doesn't it? That seems to imple some sort of stadium type singalong song, with lighters waving, perhaps!

Back to your points-re Aussie music-yeah, I heard that The Saints really manufactured their debut release themselves and posted it around the world to industry players. It doesn't get any more 'indie' than that.

Re Oz influence in indie and the US-have been reading stuff on this. I was staggered to read reported that Cobain or Nirvana were influence by Aussie band "The scientists". Now, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about Aussie music, but that band had gone under my radar. I couldn't even imagine how Cobain knew about that band, before the age of You Tube and MySpace.

Re seeking out Aussie music-I have my own group where I've posted my lists of the best songs from various countries-Australia, US, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, rest of the world. Provide You Tube videos as well.

My tastes tend to be a bit mainstream but I do have punk songs, metal songs, alternative, hip hop etc. My biggest lists are for the US,Britain and Australia-over 200 songs for each. That's because I know a lot of those countries songs.

If you're interested, maybe try emailing this id of mine at Bill Gates' site. I can share those vids with you if you like.

P.S. re Radio Birdman-they went under my radar. "one of these days" I'm gonna check out some alt/indie albums which are well regarded-The Scientists' (something about Red River or something) and The Triffids "Born sandy devotional" which sounded a bit interesting when I heard it one the Aussie version of Classic albums. In recent years have seen The Scientists on music video shows here and wasn't too keen on it.

Got loads of reviews up on Amazon...some Aussie cds reviewed as well as metal and alternative or indie music. Quickest way to find them would to be search for Coldseed's "completion makes the tragedy", which is a great metal album but hardly reviewed, so I'm easy to find their...then just click on "see all my reviews".

Cheers.

Here's a top 10 indie/alt list of mine-let me know if it's not technically indie or alt enough:

1-The Saints-Know your product
2-Kate Bush-Wuthering Heights
3-B52s-Rock Lobster
4-Do Re Mi-Man Overboard
5-Pixies-Monkey Gone To Heaven
6-Metallica-Fade To Black
7-Nirvana-Smells Like Teen Spirit
8-Oasis-Whatever
9-Blur-Song 2
10-Sex Pistols-God Save The Queen
11-Pixies-River Euphrates
12-Oasis-Wonderwall
13-Elastica-Connection
14-Iron Maiden-Run To The Hills
15-Breeders-Cannonball
16-The Vines-Get Free
17-Pixies-The Happening
18-The Strokes-Last Nite
19-Megadeth-Prince Of Darkness
20-The Vines-Ride With Me
21-Sex Pistols-Anarchy In The UK

Pretty good list, right? Not exactly in order, but close enough.