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!