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

The best indie rock songs of 2023

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

Combining 3 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2023 is "Not Strong Enough" by Boygenius, which appeared on 3 of the lists.

Three radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2023: KXT, The Current and WFUV. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2023 is “Not Strong Enough” by Boygenius, which appeared on three of the three countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. Three different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Good Old Days” by The Revivalists, “Stop The Bleeding” by Baby Rose and “Cool About It” by boygenius. Boygenius was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 9 times across the countdowns.

3countdowns

192songs charted

3different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2023

All 192 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	299	3	#1	2
2	Now And Then The Beatles	275	3	#2	–
3	Vampire Empire Big Thief	267	3	#4	–
4	When We Were Close Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	264	3	#5	–
5	Nothing Matters Last Dinner Party	252	3	#4	–
6	Psychos Jenny Lewis	252	3	#3	–
7	More Than a Love Song Black Pumas	214	3	#9	–
8	Cool About It Boygenius	193	2	#1	1
9	In Your Love Tyler Childers	180	3	#30	–
10	Death Wish Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit	178	3	#14	–
11	Angry The Rolling Stones	175	3	#23	–
12	Eat Your Young Hozier	167	3	#37	–
13	Act Natural Margaret Glaspy	166	3	#29	–
14	Road To Joy Peter Gabriel	166	2	#14	–
15	Modern Girl Bleachers	161	2	#16	–
16	Leaving The Light Genesis Owusu	160	2	#19	–
17	I Remember Everything Zach Bryan	160	2	#11	–
18	From The Start Laufey	156	3	#17	–
19	For Your Soul Josh Ritter	150	2	#23	–
20	Running Away Thee Sacred Souls	148	2	#22	–
21	My Love Mine All Mine Mitski	147	2	#21	–
22	Honey Samia	145	2	#8	–
23	Days Move Slow Bully	141	3	#28	–
24	Francesca Hozier	137	2	#10	–
25	Under You Foo Fighters	135	2	#18	–
26	Tropic Morning News The National	135	2	#13	–
27	Ghosts Again Depeche Mode	134	2	#7	–
28	Bug Like an Angel Mitski	128	2	#17	–
29	Get Inspired Genesis Owusu	127	2	#16	–
30	Nothing Left To Lose Everything But The Girl	125	2	#6	–
31	Rescued Foo Fighters	123	3	#11	–
32	Odyssey Beck & Phoenix	121	3	#25	–
33	Eucalyptus The National	119	2	#33	–
34	The Narcissist Blur	119	3	#14	–
35	Float Janelle Monae	119	2	#4	–
36	Tears Run Dry Abraham Alexander	117	2	#9	–
37	Evicted Wilco	115	2	#15	–
38	Welcome to my Island Caroline Polachek	114	2	#29	–
39	Evangeline Stephen Sanchez	112	2	#5	–
40	Thinking About You Beck	112	2	#36	–
41	$20 Boygenius	110	2	#30	–
42	Lose You Bully	109	3	#40	–
43	Be More Stephen Sanchez	101	2	#40	–
44	Vampire Olivia Rodrigo	99	1	#2	–
45	What Was I Made For? Billie Eilish	98	1	#3	–
46	Forgiving Ties Deer Tick	96	2	#26	–
47	Hurricane Party Dessa	96	1	#5	–
48	New York Kills	95	2	#15	–
49	The Alcott The National and Taylor Swift	94	1	#6	–
50	Coming of Age Durry	94	1	#6	–
51	White Horse Chris Stapleton	93	2	#49	–
52	Buy You A New Attitude Tianna Esperanza	92	1	#8	–
53	Superspreader Ber	91	1	#9	–
54	Really Really Light The New Pornographers	90	2	#34	–
55	Honey Lone Bellow	90	1	#10	–
56	bad idea right? Olivia Rodrigo	90	1	#10	–
57	Where My Wild Things Are Ryan Bingham	89	1	#11	–
58	Quarry Wednesday	88	1	#12	–
59	Little Bit of Sun Semisonic	88	1	#12	–
60	Hunter Jess Williamson	87	1	#13	–
61	Boys Who Kiss You In Their Car Ber	87	1	#13	–
62	Kisses Slowdive	86	2	#16	–
63	Stay Right Here Allison Russell	85	2	#46	–
64	The Trench Coat Museum Yard Act	84	1	#15	–
65	New Gold Gorillaz	82	1	#17	–
66	Sole Obsession Nation of Language	81	1	#18	–
67	Descending To Nowhere Rodrigo y Gabriela	81	3	#49	–
68	Paper Machete Queens of the Stone Age	79	1	#20	–
69	Crumble The National	79	1	#20	–
70	Back On 74 Jungle	78	1	#21	–
71	Worth It RAYE	77	2	#34	–
72	Eddie My Love Brigitte Calls Me Baby	75	1	#23	–
73	Say Yes to Heaven Lana Del Rey	74	1	#24	–
74	Candle Flame Jungle	74	1	#25	–
75	The American Dream Is Killing Me Green Day	73	1	#25	–
76	Radio Margo Price	72	1	#26	–
77	Good Old Days The Revivalists	72	2	#27	–
78	Master Power Jon Batiste	72	1	#26	–
79	Gin & Roses Dirty Shirts	67	1	#31	–
80	Galloping Seas Polyphonic Spree	66	1	#32	–
81	New York Comeback Lucinda Williams	66	1	#32	–
82	Kill Bill SZA	65	1	#32	–
83	Are You Gonna Run? Low Cut Connie	65	2	#58	–
84	No Reason Sunny War	65	1	#33	–
85	There You Are (Beautiful) Kiss the Tiger	64	1	#33	–
86	Impressively Average Brigitte Calls Me Baby	63	1	#34	–
87	Drift Purr	63	1	#35	–
88	Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad Rhiannon Giddens	62	1	#35	–
89	Afraid of Heights Boygenius	62	1	#35	–
90	In The Stars Corina Grove	62	1	#36	–
91	History Books The Gaslight Anthem	61	1	#36	–
92	Devotion Arlo Parks	60	1	#37	–
93	Barbaric Blur	60	1	#37	–
94	Weird Goodbyes The National	59	1	#38	–
95	What Now Brittany Howard	59	1	#38	–
96	Dancer Idles	58	1	#38	–
97	Ride On Nude Party	58	1	#39	–
98	Anti-Hero Taylor Swift	57	1	#39	–
99	Running Out of Time Paramore	57	1	#40	–
100	Roll The Credits Danielle Ponder	56	1	#41	–

Every station’s number one of 2023

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KXT	Good Old Days The Revivalists	KXT Top 91 Songs of 2023
The Current	Stop The Bleeding Baby Rose	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2023
WFUV	Cool About It boygenius	WFUV Top 90 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 three 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.