 | | Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop feature best friends Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt. The group first came to notice with the 2010 Kitsuné single "Manners," which was sampled on Chiddy Bang's 2011 song "Mind Your Manners"; the song reached number 19 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and appeared on the hip-hop duo's debut album, Breakfast. |
 | | With a swooping, baby-voiced singing style, Grimes (the alias of Vancouver native Claire Boucher) crafts a haunting brand of lo-fi dance music that fits stylistically within the goth-electronic umbrella coined "witch house" or "grave wave. |
 | | As AlunaGeorge, producer George Reid and vocalist Aluna Francis amalgamate electronic pop, 2-step garage, and left-field R&B. |
 | | An offshoot of Minneapolis, Minnesota's prolific Gayngs collective, electro-pop outfit Poliça features singer Channy Leanagh and producer Ryan Olson as its core members. |
 | | The chilly electro-pop project of Corin Roddick and Megan James, Purity Ring began when the two were in Canadian indie rock act Gobble Gobble (which later became Born Gold). |
 | | Vocalist Lana Del Rey makes atmospheric, orchestral, retro-'60s-sounding pop that showcases her torchy image and sensuous singing style. |
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 | | A diverse handful of guest appearances and solo singles across 2010 and 2011 situated Jessie Ware in a line of remarkable soul-inspired U. |
 | | Stockholm’s Niki and the Dove craft shadowy electronic pop that falls somewhere between the Knife's eerie atmospheres and Robyn's tuneful hooks. |
 | | An enticing blend of indie pop hooks and crisp electronic beats in the style first perfected by Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha, Little Dragon are a showcase for Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano, a mainstay of the European downtempo and lounge scenes. |
 | | Marina and the Diamonds, really just Marina Diamandis, was born in Wales to Welsh and Greek parents in 1986, although she has often claimed to be from Ancient Greece. |
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 | | The Swedish indie pop artist Lykke Li Zachrisson (better known as Lykke Li) grabbed the attention of international bloggers in the early 2000s with a handful of catchy, retro-chic singles made available on her MySpace profile. |
 | | Hailing from Brooklyn, New York (by way of Boulder, Colorado, where they originally came together in 2006), the avant-pop outfit Chairlift formed for the unusual purpose of crafting music for haunted houses. |
 | | Spelling their name with a "v" instead of a "u" to differentiate themselves in Internet searches, Glasgow's frosty electro-pop trio Chvrches feature singer Lauren Mayberry and keyboardists/vocalists Iain Cook and Martin Doherty. |
 | | Shadowy New York-based chillwave duo MS MR first caught the public's attention with their infectious single "Hurricane," a dark yet sinfully melodic heartbreak anthem that blended the iciness of Phantogram and Bat for Lashes with the commercial grandeur of Adele and Florence and the Machine. |
 | | A brother-and-sister duo hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, the Knife take inspiration from vintage synth pop and forward-thinking electronic music, crafting a sound that is equally unsettling, playful, and beautiful. |
 | | In 2003, Frenchmen Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau enjoyed international acclaim for the album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, a luscious blend of shoegaze aesthetics, ambient pop, and progressive textures. |
 | | Precocious synth pop singer/songwriter Sky Ferreira had built up a huge online following, worked with Britney Spears' producers, and become friends with Michael Jackson, all before the age of 15. |
 | | Atmospheric English indie pop group the xx formed in London in 2008 around the talents of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, Baria Qureshi, and Jamie Smith, when the bandmembers were still in high school. |
 | | New Zealand-born Phillipa "Pip" Brown got her start as lead guitarist in the Wellington-based band Two Lane Blacktop in 2001. |
 | | U.K. artists Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey started making music together as Summer Camp in October of 2009, and their sunny wash of mellow C-86 pop was a timely fit with the lo-fi synth pop craze (coined “chillwave”) that was sweeping the States. |
 | | Phantogram is an electronic rock duo from upstate New York whose music incorporates psychedelic pop vocals, J Dilla-style hip-hop beats, and shoegazing sensibility. |
 | | Named for the Latvian goddess of light, Toronto's Austra feature singer/keyboardist Katie Stelmanis, drummer Maya Postepski, and bassist Dorian Wolf. |
 | | Ellie Goulding is a British vocalist whose music finds the balance between electro-pop and indie folk. |
 | | Italian-born singer/songwriter Mauro Remiddi makes dreamy indie pop with his solo project Porcelain Raft. |
 | | Seattle's Chromatics were originally a quartet featuring vocalist Adam Miller, drummer Hannah Blilie, guitarist Devin Welch, and bassist Michelle Nolan. |
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 | | Fusing low-res electronic noise and pop hooks so effortlessly that it can seem accidental, Crystal Castles began as producer/multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath's solo project in late 2003. |
 | | A self-taught producer, London’s SBTRKT -- aka Aaron Jerome -- mixes elements of dubstep, 2-step, garage, house, soul, and techno into a bass-heavy blend of flowing melodies and intricate percussion. |
 | | The multimedia electronic music project iamamiwhoami emerged in 2009, piquing the interest of the Internet with a series of viral videos that introduced the artist's music while obscuring the female singer's identity. |
 | | Formed by singer/songwriter Martina Sorbara and her husband, bassist Dan Kurtz, Canadian electro-poppers Dragonette have drawn comparisons to the Scissor Sisters, No Doubt, and the Killers, thanks to the new wave sheen that dominated their early sound. |
 | | Raised in Harlem by a single mom while attending Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, Azealia Banks' backstory reads like an alternate version of the musical drama Fame, only where the main character discovers her sexuality and becomes a rapper. |
 | | Los Angeles indie electro unit Capital Cities first came together as a duo of composer/songwriters Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian. |
 | | Little Boots formed in 2007 as a solo vehicle for Victoria Hesketh, the ex-lead singer/keyboardist of English dance-pop outfit Dead Disco. |
 | | Riding the line between Battles' proggy electro jams and Vampire Weekend’s tropical pop, Brooklyn duo Tanlines started as a remix project by Eric Emm (Don Caballero, Storm & Stress, Brothers) and Jesse Cohen (Professor Murder) that involved friends singing over their music. |
 | | After logging several years as a coffeehouse singer/songwriter, Elizabeth Harper began focusing on electronic music in 2009 with the help of producers Mark Richardson and Scott Rosenthal. |
 | | Cults' twinkling experimental pop arrived in a shroud of mystery early in 2010, when the group posted three songs on their Bandcamp page. |
 | | Mixing electronic polish with guitar-driven hooks à la Phoenix and the Postal Service, Bangor and Donaghadee, Northern Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club feature singer/guitarist/programmer Alex Trimble, guitarist/singer Sam Halliday, and bassist/singer Kevin Baird. |
 | | Brazilian-bred/American-born siblings Erica and Bruce Driscoll compose the sultry indie pop of Astaire. |
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 | | Spain's Crystal Fighters, a folktronic band that combines Basque folk instruments with drum loops, heavy synth, and lilting vocals, were formed after singer Laure recovered a diary of her deceased reclusive grandfather's while visiting his Basque country home. |
 | | Justice, a Parisian dance production duo comprised of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, generated an international buzz with "D. |
 | | Metric are a band with an eclectic, adventurous outlook, whose music encompasses elements of synth pop, new wave, dance-rock, and electronica and whose hometown has vacillated between Toronto, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, and London over the course of the group's existence. |
 | | As a solo project with a revolving door of members, the heart and face of Santigold is vivacious frontwoman Santi White. |
 | | Discovered in the wake of the Strokes' popularity and the subsequent garage rock revival, New York's art punk trio the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are comprised of singer Karen O, guitarist Nicolas Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. |
 | | Sunny Los Angeles-based indie pop outfit Family of the Year formed in 2009 around the talents of Welsh brothers Joseph and Sebastian Keefe, Florida native James Buckey, and Orange County, California denizen Christina Schroeter. |
 | | Poolside began in early 2011 as the recording project of Los Angeles musicians Filip Nikolic and Jeffrey Paradise. |
 | | New Zealand indie electronic ensemble the Naked and Famous make driving, melodic pop with an '80s post-punk influence. |
 | | Ben Curtis fled Secret Machines in 2007 to focus on School of Seven Bells, an electronics-enhanced dream pop group formed with twin sister vocalists Claudia and Alejandra Deheza (also of On!Air!Library!). |