Fans react as Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, April 8, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

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Three sisters from Los Angeles producing fun and infectious folk-pop could be the tonic that chart music needs to lift it from what some experts are calling a creative slump.

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As music channels, journalists and record labels step up their search for the "next big thing" in 2013, the Fleetwood Mac-inspired Haim sisters have appeared in a growing number of lists produced at the start of each year.

They include MTV's "Brand New for 2013" survey, the band topped BBC's "Sound of 2013" poll on Friday decided by over 200 experts and also appeared on the cover of music magazine NME's new music edition out this week.

Matt Wilkinson, New Bands Editor at NME, was upbeat about indie music in 2013 because up-and-coming acts like Haim had the attitude to succeed unlike more "reluctant" stars of the past.

"The difference (from recent times) is that they want to be pop stars, want to be on the front of NME, want to create their own scene and want to be No 1," he told reporters. "It's been quite a long time since bands really wanted to do that."

Haim is made up of Este, Alana and Danielle, all in their early- to mid-20s - as energetic as they are photogenic and signed to the Polydor label in Britain.

Dorian Lynskey of the Guardian praised their "fantastic, inventive songs", and said they were part of a revival from "the current sickly condition of chart pop" dominated by familiar faces like Rihanna and producers David Guetta and Calvin Harris.