Indie Breakouts Dominate The Last.fm Best Of 2011 Charts

2011 felt like a year of epic comebacks, as The Strokes and Radiohead returned with huge new albums. Meanwhile the likes of M83, Fleet Foxes and Foster The People all made a surprisingly strong impact on the public.

But who was really the most popular indie artist of the year? Last.fm’s Best of 2011 has the answer.

Yesterday, Last.fm announced their Best of 2011, a run down of the world’s most popular artists according to the service’s listeners. The results are taken from more than 11 billion track plays taken from more than 600 different music players and services, including Spotify, iTunes and even iPods and Xbox 360s.

The indie charts mixed up a few newcomers with some legendary acts. In the US The Strokes made it to fourth place in the chart after a strong showing for Angles, while folk-leaning troubadours The Decemberists nabbed the number two spot.

Fleet Foxes continued their run of success, reaching third place with Helplessness Blues. New Zealand’s The Naked And The Famous made a big impact in the US, claiming the fifth spot in the indie chart with Passive Me, Aggressive You.

But topping the indie chart it’s none other than Foster The People, who proved themselves breakout stars of 2011. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing “Pumped Up Kicks” and follow up album Torches was a critical and commercial smash. It also secured them third place in the global chart, losing out to two of the biggest pop stars on the planet.

Find out who those stars were and how else the charts are shaping up over at Last.fm’s Best of 2011.