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

The best indie rock songs of 2023

Q: What was the top indie rock song of 2023?

Combining 12 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2023 is "Not Strong Enough" by Boygenius, which appeared on 11 of the lists.

Twelve radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2023: 107.1 The Peak, 90.9 The Bridge, Exit 97.7, Indie 102.3, KXT, Lightning 100, The Current, WERS 88.9, WFUV, WTMD, WXPN and WYEP. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2023 is “Not Strong Enough” by Boygenius, which appeared on eleven of the twelve countdowns and was voted number one by six of them. Ten different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius (3 stations), “Modern Girl” by Bleachers, “For Your Soul” by Josh Ritter, “Welcome To My Island” by Caroline Polachek and “Good Old Days” by The Revivalists and others. Boygenius was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 29 times across the countdowns.

12countdowns

505songs charted

10different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2023

All 505 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2023 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Not Strong Enough Boygenius	1,048	11	#1	6
2	Psychos Jenny Lewis	957	12	#3	–
3	When We Were Close Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	894	11	#4	–
4	More Than a Love Song Black Pumas	880	12	#3	–
5	Now And Then The Beatles	852	10	#2	–
6	Eat Your Young Hozier	755	12	#2	–
7	Road To Joy Peter Gabriel	709	10	#5	–
8	Evicted Wilco	700	11	#10	–
9	Nothing Matters Last Dinner Party	698	10	#3	–
10	Cool About It Boygenius	679	9	#1	1
11	Modern Girl Bleachers	677	10	#1	1
12	The Narcissist Blur	644	10	#14	–
13	Francesca Hozier	640	10	#5	–
14	Tropic Morning News The National	635	9	#10	–
15	Dial Drunk Noah Kahan	632	8	#1	1
16	Vampire Empire Big Thief	619	8	#4	–
17	Act Natural Margaret Glaspy	603	10	#7	–
18	Rescued Foo Fighters	584	10	#11	–
19	Forgiving Ties Deer Tick	573	11	#7	–
20	For Your Soul Josh Ritter	572	10	#1	1
21	Ghosts Again Depeche Mode	561	8	#2	–
22	Angry The Rolling Stones	527	9	#2	–
23	Days Move Slow Bully	522	10	#3	–
24	Evangeline Stephen Sanchez	491	7	#4	–
25	Lose You Bully	470	9	#10	–
26	Odyssey Beck & Phoenix	469	9	#25	–
27	My Love Mine All Mine Mitski	464	8	#6	–
28	Say Yes to Heaven Lana Del Rey	453	6	#5	–
29	What Now Brittany Howard	450	9	#1	1
30	Go Down River The Heavy Heavy	449	7	#9	–
31	The Alcott The National	440	6	#6	–
32	Leaving The Light Genesis Owusu	431	6	#2	–
33	$20 Boygenius	424	7	#9	–
34	All I Really Wanna Do Devon Gilfillian	422	8	#2	–
35	In Your Love Tyler Childers	422	7	#26	–
36	Bug Like an Angel Mitski	405	7	#17	–
37	White Horse Chris Stapleton	392	6	#11	–
38	Thinking About You Beck	390	10	#25	–
39	We're All Gonna Die Joy Oladokun	388	8	#12	–
40	Under You Foo Fighters	387	6	#18	–
41	Tears Run Dry Abraham Alexander	386	8	#9	–
42	Good Old Days The Revivalists	379	7	#8	–
43	Honey Samia	367	6	#8	–
44	Running Away Thee Sacred Souls	363	5	#10	–
45	Highlands Middle Kids	360	7	#23	–
46	Good Time Grace Potter	359	6	#12	–
47	Weightless Arlo Parks	354	9	#4	–
48	Are You Gonna Run? Low Cut Connie	354	7	#10	–
49	Stay Right Here Allison Russell	349	6	#15	–
50	Kid The Revivalists	343	7	#7	–
51	Death Wish Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	341	6	#10	–
52	No More Lies Thundercat and Tame Impala	305	5	#19	–
53	Float Janelle Monae	305	4	#2	–
54	Love You Anyway Devon Gilfillian	301	7	#4	–
55	The Trench Coat Museum Yard Act	298	4	#8	–
56	Calling Your Name Jon Batiste	297	8	#21	–
57	Cherry Baby Jenny Lewis	294	7	#30	–
58	Atomic City U2	294	7	#19	–
59	No Reason Sunny War	291	5	#31	–
60	Vampire Olivia Rodrigo	289	3	#2	–
61	An Arrow In The Wall Death Cab for Cutie	287	5	#17	–
62	The Way Manchester Orchestra	280	6	#6	–
63	Welcome to my Island Caroline Polachek	277	4	#6	–
64	Ready Or Not Shakey Graves	274	5	#14	–
65	Eucalyptus The National	273	5	#33	–
66	The American Dream Is Killing Me Green Day	272	5	#17	–
67	Homesick Noah Kahan	262	4	#14	–
68	Paper Machete Queens of the Stone Age	249	5	#20	–
69	Salad Blondshell	242	4	#14	–
70	I Remember Everything Zach Bryan	241	4	#11	–
71	Devotion Arlo Parks	240	5	#37	–
72	Ride On Nude Party	236	5	#35	–
73	Love Will Get You There Inhaler	235	4	#9	–
74	Nothing Left To Lose Everything But The Girl	235	5	#6	–
75	Maestro (Tears Don't Lie) Wilder Woods	232	5	#30	–
76	Trinity River Charley Crockett	226	5	#11	–
77	Your Side of Town The Killers	223	5	#20	–
78	Running Out of Time Paramore	223	3	#7	–
79	Be More Stephen Sanchez	222	4	#38	–
80	Really Really Light The New Pornographers	220	5	#34	–
81	Barbaric Blur	214	4	#34	–
82	Character Development Allison Ponthier	210	4	#18	–
83	Jersey Giant Elle King	209	3	#21	–
84	Lipstick Lover Janelle Monae	209	3	#6	–
85	Talk To Me The Record Company	206	4	#30	–
86	Body Briston Maroney	203	4	#29	–
87	Just The Once Metric	203	5	#60	–
88	New York Kills	197	4	#15	–
89	Quarry Wednesday	195	3	#8	–
90	Honey Lone Bellow	192	4	#10	–
91	What Was I Made For? Billie Eilish	191	2	#3	–
92	Buy You A New Attitude Tianna Esperanza	191	3	#8	–
93	The Tower Future Islands	190	4	#40	–
94	One Like You LP	190	6	#47	–
95	Tiny Garden Jamila Woods	190	4	#27	–
96	Sole Obsession Nation of Language	188	3	#18	–
97	Mother Nature MGMT	185	4	#33	–
98	Monsters Dave Matthews Band	185	3	#27	–
99	Tied Up! Genesis Owusu	183	5	#49	–
100	Lose Control Teddy Swims	181	4	#18	–

Every station’s number one of 2023

Station	Number one song	Countdown
107.1 The Peak	Modern Girl Bleachers	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2023
90.9 The Bridge	Not Strong Enough boygenius	90.9 The Bridge Top 90 Songs of 2023
Exit 97.7	For Your Soul Josh Ritter	WEXT Top 106 of 2023
Indie 102.3	Welcome To My Island Caroline Polachek	Indie 102.3 Top 102.3 Songs of 2023
KXT	Good Old Days The Revivalists	KXT Top 91 Songs of 2023
Lightning 100	Pages White Reaper	Lightning 100 Top 200 Songs of 2023
The Current	Stop The Bleeding Baby Rose	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2023
WERS 88.9	Not Strong Enough boygenius	WERS Top 88 Songs of 2023
WFUV	Cool About It boygenius	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2023
WTMD	Richard Pryor Satellite & the Hapoonist	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2023
WXPN	Sideways Skull The Hold Steady	WXPN Top 100 Most Played Songs of 2023
WYEP	Not Strong Enough boygenius	WYEP Top 91 Songs of 2023

All 2023 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2023 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 2023 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 twelve 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.