New alternative female acts have burst out this season, and even if they aren't blowing up the radio charts, the independent, or "indie," music sphere has noticed. Move over, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. From folksy sister act HAIM to dark pop princess Sky Ferreira and the jazzy prodigy Lorde, unique, female-led acts are becoming a dominant part of the music industry. The alternative charts are still mostly dominated by male acts, and of the current top-10 alternative albums on iTunes, only four of them feature a female vocalist, including HAIM and Lorde. Hopefully more female acts will come onto the scene, but for now these acts are carrying the torch successfully.

Solo act has signature whimsy
Born and raised in Malaysia, Yunalis Mat Zara'ai, known as Yona, recorded the follow-up to her 2012 self-titled debut in California. That album won critical acclaim, especially her single "Live Your Life," which was produced by Pharrell Williams, but Nocturnal was recorded with Verve Records and is reaching a wider audience. Yuna's soulful, folk-tinged pop has a fuller sound on the new album, fully showcasing her unique voice and whimsical lyrics. Malaysian instruments kick off the album in "Falling," which finds the songstress wondering why she comes back to the same guy, a trite subject but here reinvented in a light, airy pop gem. Most of the songs continue in the same breezy vein, but she keeps it interesting with the thoughtful "Mountains," whimsical "I Wanna Go," and vulnerable "Colors." Yuna gets to show off the full range of her voice, and the album is a neatly packaged, more mature Yuna than her first album.

Family ties translate into vintage-inspired tunes
HAIM is an indie-pop trio consisting of sisters Este, Alana and Danielle Haim from Los Angeles. Their debut album, Days Are Gone, gives their sunny, upbeat pop a twist that makes it hard to confine the music to one genre. They sound like a female, harmonizing version of Michael Jackson. Whether singing about failed love in singles "The Wire" and "Falling" or internet hit "Forever," or about successful relationships in "Honey and I" and "Running if You Call My Name," the sisters' layered vocals create catchy numbers. Without using a heavy amount of Auto-Tune, HAIM relies on their voices to create natural harmonies, and stay away from computer synthesizer beats, producing a more organic sound with acoustic guitars, harmonicas and handclaps. "Hey, you / Remember me?" the group sings on "Forever." Since the album is currently number five on the iTunes alternative album list, these girls won't be forgotten anytime soon.

Young singer sets the bar high
Ella Maria Lani Yellich-O'Conner, better known as Lorde, is the odd one out here, since her music has broken into mainstream circulation. She is also the youngest: at only 17 years old, Lorde has already had a smash-hit single on the U.S. charts. Her debut album, Pure Heroine, is currently the number one alternative album on iTunes. Hailing from New Zealand, the teen writes her own music, which blends elements of pop, light rock and jazz, and deals with more than the typical teen break-up anthem. In "Buzzcut Season," she sings about "the explosions on TV" and "the men up on the news/they tell us all that we will lose," and how people ignore the real issues going on in the world but at the same time there is too much of a focus on negativity. On her hit single, "Royals," she sings about the lifestyles of music stars today and how she "craves a different kind of buzz." This is reassuring, given the trend of pop starlets succumbing to the substance abuse or starting scandals like the recent Miley Cyrus performance at the Video Music Awards. With alternative music this tough and powerful, that has even garnered comparisons to Nirvana in terms of originality in an era of bland sameness, Lorde is more than a one-hit-wonder. Each song on her debut bursts with spunk, sarcasm and insight into society and the very industry that she has so quickly taken by storm.

Singer-songwriter stays true to personal sound
Also hailing from Los Angeles, Sky Ferreira has been alternative pop's underground princess since her first singles "Seventeen" and "One" hit the Internet blogosphere in 2010. Word-of-mouth helped her popularity grow and she had accumulated a following long before she finally released her first full-length album, Night Time, My Time, this past month. Some of Ferreira's music sounds sugary-sweet on the surface, but often has darker undertones, such as in "Heavy Metal Heart," where she sings about "talking to herself in the dark." Lead single "You're Not the One" stands out, with it's '80s-inspired vibe and catchy kiss-off chorus. The young singer has been compared to Miley Cyrus since they are similar in age, but Ferreira's music is very different from radio queen Cyrus. And while Ferreria's album cover, in which she appears presumably topless in a shower, has sparked some controversy, she has yet to make a spectacle of herself. Ferreira's focus is on her music, and that comes through on the album. She makes sparkling electric-tinged pop her own, and more people should take notice.