What was the top indie rock song of 2012?

Combining 7 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2012 is "Ho Hey" by Lumineers, which appeared on 7 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · Indie & Adult Alternative · seven countdowns combined

The best indie rock songs of 2012

Seven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2012: 107.1 The Peak, 92.3 WTTS, KFOG, Lightning 100, The Current, WTMD and WXPN. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2012 is “Ho Hey” by Lumineers, which appeared on seven of the seven countdowns and was voted number one by three of them. Six different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers (2 stations), “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye, “Gold On The Ceiling” by The Black Keys, “Skyfall” by Adele and “Hold On” by Alabama Shakes and others. Lumineers was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 16 times across the countdowns.

7countdowns

359songs charted

6different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2012

All 359 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2012 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Ho Hey Lumineers	662	7	#1	3
2	Hold On Alabama Shakes	638	7	#1	1
3	Little Talks Of Monsters And Men	629	7	#3	–
4	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	628	7	#2	–
5	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	595	7	#1	1
6	Simple Song The Shins	549	7	#6	–
7	Live and Die Avett Brothers	548	7	#4	–
8	Gold On The Ceiling The Black Keys	484	5	#1	1
9	I'm Shakin' Jack White	459	6	#7	–
10	We Are Young fun.	455	7	#5	–
11	Stubborn Love Lumineers	447	6	#9	–
12	Madness Muse	403	6	#9	–
13	Reboot the Mission The Wallflowers	400	6	#13	–
14	It's Time Imagine Dragons	380	5	#3	–
15	That Wasn't Me Brandi Carlile	367	5	#16	–
16	Queen Of California John Mayer	340	5	#13	–
17	Love Interruption Jack White	330	6	#18	–
18	Happy Pills Norah Jones	329	6	#23	–
19	Take A Walk Passion Pit	315	4	#8	–
20	Doom And Gloom The Rolling Stones	312	5	#8	–
21	I'm Getting Ready Michael Kiwanuka	295	5	#14	–
22	Home Phillip Phillips	291	4	#11	–
23	California Delta Spirit	288	5	#40	–
24	Myth Beach House	286	5	#19	–
25	Skyfall Adele	277	4	#1	1
26	Mercy Dave Matthews Band	276	4	#12	–
27	Would That Not Be Nice Divine Fits	272	4	#6	–
28	North Side Gal JD McPherson	271	4	#11	–
29	Default Django Django	267	3	#8	–
30	Mountain Sound Of Monsters And Men	260	6	#23	–
31	Anna Sun Walk the Moon	255	5	#11	–
32	Do It Anyway Ben Folds Five	252	4	#9	–
33	Runaways The Killers	243	3	#18	–
34	Charlie Brown Coldplay	239	3	#12	–
35	I'm Writing a Novel Father John Misty	234	4	#35	–
36	Tongue Tied Grouplove	218	5	#7	–
37	Video Games Lana Del Rey	211	3	#18	–
38	Man On Fire Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros	204	4	#13	–
39	Shadow Days John Mayer	203	4	#25	–
40	Land Of Hopes And Dreams Bruce Springsteen	203	3	#5	–
41	Silenced by the Night Keane	200	4	#25	–
42	Watching You Watch Him Eric Hutchinson	198	4	#27	–
43	Set Fire To The Rain Adele	198	3	#19	–
44	Too Close Alex Clare	197	3	#19	–
45	This Head I Hold Electric Guest	197	4	#27	–
46	That Old Black Hole Dr. Dog	196	3	#21	–
47	Tell Me A Tale Michael Kiwanuka	191	2	#4	–
48	Yet Again Grizzly Bear	191	3	#40	–
49	Right Down The Line Bonnie Raitt	189	3	#8	–
50	Duquesne Whistle Bob Dylan	186	3	#20	–
51	It's Only Life The Shins	183	3	#6	–
52	The A Team Ed Sheeran	181	3	#10	–
53	I Ain't The Same Alabama Shakes	181	5	#18	–
54	If Only Dave Matthews Band	180	3	#28	–
55	Sleep Allen Stone	180	3	#4	–
56	The Walk Mayer Hawthorne	180	2	#4	–
57	We Take Care Of Our Own Bruce Springsteen	176	2	#15	–
58	Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings Father John Misty	175	2	#11	–
59	Ain't Messin' Around Gary Clark Jr.	174	3	#20	–
60	Some Nights fun.	171	3	#30	–
61	Down In The Valley The Head and the Heart	168	2	#2	–
62	Chains Of Love Ryan Adams	167	3	#16	–
63	Only Love Ben Howard	165	3	#9	–
64	Revolution Dr. John	164	3	#35	–
65	Sixteen Saltines Jack White	163	3	#28	–
66	Who David Byrne & St. Vincent	162	2	#11	–
67	Bottom Of The River Delta Rae	159	2	#7	–
68	Breezeblocks Alt J	157	4	#37	–
69	Never Go Back Grace Potter & The Nocturnals	156	4	#33	–
70	Little Black Submarines The Black Keys	156	2	#14	–
71	Lover of the Light Mumford & Sons	155	3	#24	–
72	Sleeping Ute Grizzly Bear	150	3	#44	–
73	My Oh My Tristan Prettyman	147	2	#27	–
74	No Light, No Light Florence And The Machine	147	3	#32	–
75	Dark Star Polica	145	2	#12	–
76	Carried Away Passion Pit	145	2	#33	–
77	Cough Syrup Young the Giant	139	2	#18	–
78	Open the Door (To Your Heart) Van Morrison	138	3	#21	–
79	Parted Ways Heartless Bastards	136	2	#23	–
80	Emmylou First Aid Kit	136	2	#5	–
81	Chained The xx	131	2	#30	–
82	Babel Mumford & Sons	130	2	#44	–
83	Fitzpleasure Alt J	128	2	#18	–
84	I'll Be Waiting Adele	127	2	#7	–
85	Bright Lights Gary Clark Jr.	126	2	#39	–
86	Hang Loose Alabama Shakes	123	3	#32	–
87	Wrecking Ball Bruce Springsteen	118	2	#30	–
88	Free Graffiti 6	118	3	#29	–
89	Change The Sheets Kathleen Edwards	117	2	#46	–
90	Wandering Star Polica	116	2	#16	–
91	The Only Place Best Coast	115	3	#55	–
92	Heartbeat Kopecky Family Band	115	2	#41	–
93	One Lovely Day Citizen Cope	111	2	#61	–
94	Tessellate Alt J	111	2	#31	–
95	Splitter Calexico	109	3	#31	–
96	Lonesome Dr. Dog	107	3	#53	–
97	Old Friend Sea Wolf	106	3	#55	–
98	The House That Heaven Built Japandroids	105	3	#34	–
99	Trojans Atlas Genius	104	4	#61	–
100	Alone Trampled by Turtles	101	2	#7	–

Every station’s number one of 2012

Station	Number one song	Countdown
107.1 The Peak	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2012
92.3 WTTS	Gold On The Ceiling The Black Keys	WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2012
KFOG	Skyfall Adele	KFOG Foghead Favorites 2012
Lightning 100	Hold On Alabama Shakes	Lightning 100 Top 100.1 Songs of 2012
The Current	Old Friend Sea Wolf	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2012
WTMD	Ho Hey The Lumineers	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2012
WXPN	Ho Hey The Lumineers	WXPN Year in Review: Top 200 Songs of 2012

All 2012 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2012 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 2012 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all seven qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the indie & aaa results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.