anthemicadj.
/anˈθɛmɪk/, /anˈθiːmɪk/, U.S. /ænˈθimɪk/, /ænˈθɛmɪk/ Originally U.S. rare before mid 20th cent.
Suggestive of or resembling an anthem. In later use chiefly spec.: (of rock or pop music) rousing or uplifting (occasionally with implications of being designedly or unsubtly so); cf. anthem n. 3c.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > pop music > [adjective] > qualities of pop
metal?1518
anthemic1890
Afro-Latin-American1900
sun-kissed1907
heavy1937
Latin American1937
Memphis1938
sun-drenched1943
indie1945
rockish1955
hardcore1957
doo-wop1958
middle of the road1959
Latin1962
straight-ahead1964
easy listening1965
Motown1965
funky1967
post-rock1967
rocky1967
rock-out1968
funkadelic1969
funked out1970
grungy1971
punk1971
grunge1972
Philly1972
dub1973
drum and bass1975
disco funky1976
punkish1976
reggaefied1976
Britpop1977
post-punk1977
anarcho-punk1979
rap1980
trash rock1980
crunchy1981
industrial1981
New Romantic1981
rockist1981
garage1982
hip-hop1982
thrashy1982
urban1982
Gothic1983
hip-hopping1983
beat-box1984
lo-fi1986
technoid1986
hip-house1987
acid house1988
new jack1988
old school1988
techno1988
baggy1990
banging1990
gangsta1990
filthy1991
handbaggy1991
nu skool1991
sampladelic1991
junglist1993
1890 Herald of Gospel Liberty 24 July 470/2 Our Alma Mater is worthy the highest encomium which rhetoric can declaim or poetry sing in its noblest of anthemic praises!
1969 Boston Sunday Globe 26 Oct. a-56/3 ‘Don't Let Me Down’ is almost anthemic in the manner of ‘Hey Jude!’.
1985 Sunday Times 14 July 2/7 A song called We Are The Champions, an exercise in bumptious self-congratulation which hinges on the anthemic chant No Time For Losers.
2002 Heat 2 Feb. 68/2 And it all comes to a rather grandiose climax with The Test, a big, anthemic closer featuring guest vocals from Richard Ashcroft.
2008 New Yorker 4 Aug. 76/3 Rock that respects the sea change of punk but still wants to be as chest-thumping and anthemic as the music of the seventies stadium gods.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1890