MySpace offers top ten artists of today for a number of genres and for today (August 27th 2008), the top the indie bands were: Bloc Party, Bring Me The Horizon, Adele, Oasis, The Wombats, The Streets, Kano, Chemical Brothers, Paul Oakenfold, Biffy Clyro.



That's quite an eclectic mix and to be honest, theres a lot in that which would not pass for indie. It may give you a good starting point and with the rush release of Bloc Party's new album you can tell why they rank highly but some of the choices are baffling to say the least.

The selection between 11 and 20 is probably more stereotypical for indie featuring The Kills, Last Shadow Puppets and The Automatic amongst others. This means you can find indie bands on myspace but you may need to do a bit more digging around for them.

How does MySpace defines Indie?

What makes it more frustrating is that in the column beside the indie acts is a mainstream column and not far away from The Last Shadow Puppets are the Arctic Monkeys. Yes, Sheffield's current finest may have sold enough records to make them mainstream, but they remain an indie band. They are certainly more indie than Paul Oakenfold or Kano who made it into the top ten of the indie chart. Similarly, The Verve rank highly in the mainstream chart but nowhere on the indie column.

That said it's not as if it's telling you about any new or up and coming acts is it? All of these acts, indie or not, are major commercial artists when MySpace should really be about launching new bands. There is an unsigned column but when you see that contains acts like The Darkness and Fatboy Slim, you start to lose faith in it.

It is still possible to find new indie bands but MySpace doesn't really help until you search through the musical sections and come to the indie section and here is where you can start to find some news about new acts. Some of the new acts featuring on this section include:

Flamboyant Bella:

If you could imagine Kate Nash joining up with an indie band you would be close to the sound of Flamboyant Bella. They carry the excitement of youth and may well be a tip for mainstream crossover although musical greatness is probably beyond them.

I Haunt Wizards:

With a name like that you just know they are going to have a slightly electro edge and yes, I Haunt Wizards are influenced by the electro 80s sound that appears to be fashionable at the moment. Another bunch of three crazy kids who may be worth checking out soon before the musical fashion changes to something else.

The Filthy Youth:

With a few more choruses these lads could be the new Fratellis as the guitar riffs and swagger are all in place. Theres a cheeky 60s vibe running through their songs and of the new bands listed so far, they appear to be the most equipped to become an indie favorite.

Obviously, the beauty of MySpace is that once you find a band there will be songs available for you to check out right away. This is where these sites really excel and help listeners get involved with new bands right from the off.