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The story
On November 9, 2026, US music magazine Pitchfork published its list of the “100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time.” On 5ch’s Geisports Sokuho+ (entertainment/sports news) board, posters questioned the absence of staple bands like Pixies, The Offspring, and Dead Kennedys, while many were satisfied to see Pavement, Elliott Smith, and Sonic Youth make the cut. There was also plenty of pushback over whether the very definition of “indie” differs between the US and UK, turning the ranking’s selection criteria itself into the main point of debate.
A ranked countdown of the best records, aiming to define the sound and spirit of this genre.
November 9, 2026
Rank Artist Album
Source: pitchfork.com / Read the original article here
What people said
Honestly, if you're even a casual Western-music fan, this is stuff you'd know
Elliott Smith is great though~
True
Probably major label in the UK but indie by American standards
Knowing even half is impressive, isn't it?
I thought I had a decent handle on Western music, but clearly I've got a long way to go
Good excuse to go listen to the bands on this list
Sonic Youth and R.E.M. are the only ones I recognize lol
But didn't most of these end up jumping to a major label afterward anyway?
Well, can't help it I guess — probably seen as just one of J Mascis's laid-back side projects
Pavement's Crooked Rain is a conceptual album with a lot of smirking irony to it, so
plenty of people prefer the rougher early stuff instead
The EP before Is This It?
This band that did the Berserk opening theme
was a rare Japanese Pavement-follower act
though I don't remember much else about them
The first one was on an indie label, the second was through Geffen Records
Kind of a nerdy-looking cover, but it fits perfectly — ranked #77
77. The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms
Stiff ✦ 1980
https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/6aee2be778d0dfa19820eee6/master/w_1280,c_limit/The%20Feelies%20%E2%80%93%20Crazy%20Rhythms.jpg
https://thefeelies.bandcamp.com/album/crazy-rhythms
Isn't Epitaph considered an indie label?
Just being released on an indie label doesn't make it indie rock — the lineup here makes that obvious
What about Black Flag?
That's punk/hardcore
Dead Kennedys aren't on there either, so I guess punk just doesn't count as indie rock
is about as wrong as shichimi togarashi with no chili pepper in it (shichimi = Japanese "seven-spice" blend)
I also figured Pixies would be #1 lol
The first one feels more "indie rock," but no matter how you slice it, the second has way more good songs
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Pitchfork is a US music criticism outlet founded in 1996, known for shaping how the indie scene has been evaluated since the 1990s. “Indie rock” originally referred to a mode of distribution outside the major labels, but as the reactions to this ranking show, it’s now more often used as a genre label describing a particular sound — and that mismatch is a major source of the confusion. That’s also why opinions split over punk/hardcore bands and over artists who eventually moved to a major label. On top of that, artists like Mitski, whose critical standing swings wildly between how they’re received overseas versus in Japan, are part of why a Western-made ranking like this doesn’t always line up with how Japanese music fans see things.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Music] US’s Pitchfork Publishes “100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time”.”
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