Which Indie Rock Singles Actually Hit No. 1 in the 2000s?
British music outlet Far Out Magazine has published a rundown of indie rock singles that actually reached No. 1 on the charts between 2000 and 2009. The piece argues that while The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys are usually credited as the figureheads of the decade's indie boom, most of the era's defining songs never translated into chart-topping numbers — only a handful of tracks actually got there.
The Billboard Modern Rock Tracks No. 1s
Far Out lists the indie rock singles that hit No. 1 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart:
- The Raconteurs – "Steady, As She Goes"
- Queens of the Stone Age – "No One Knows"
- The White Stripes – "Seven Nation Army"
- The Killers – "When You Were Young"
- Kings of Leon – "Sex on Fire"
The UK picture: Arctic Monkeys' double No. 1s vs. The Strokes' gap
In the UK, Arctic Monkeys topped the UK Singles Chart twice, with "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" and "When The Sun Goes Down." On the albums side, every Arctic Monkeys record has hit No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart except 2022's The Car.
The Strokes, by contrast, saw both "Last Nite" and "Reptilia" — tracks widely regarded as defining the era — fail to even crack the UK Singles Chart top 10.
"Mr Brightside": a hit that never actually topped the charts
Far Out singles out The Killers' "Mr Brightside" as a particularly stark case: the song, often treated as the signature track of the early-2000s indie revival, peaked at only No. 10 on both the UK and US charts, and barely scraped into the top 40 in several other countries.
Why the numbers don't match the legend
The article traces the boom's origins to the decline of Britpop and a backlash against overproduced mainstream pop, which created appetite for rougher, more rock-rooted sounds — amplified by the DIY distribution culture of the early internet era. Far Out's conclusion: the 2000s indie boom is better measured by its cultural footprint and the breadth of artists it produced than by chart positions.