OneRepublic

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has catapulted tons of bands onto folks' iPods and into record stores over the past couple years for one simple reason: He owns MySpace. Alt-poppers OneRepublic should certainly give Murdoch props. Thanks to loads of MySpace traffic, the Colorado quintet snagged a record deal with mega-famous hip-hop producer Timbaland. And while Timba's picks have been a bit hit-or-miss lately, his remix of OneRepublic's "Apologize" was a key track on his solo CD, Shock Value. Granted, it's an unlikely pairing, since the guitar-, piano- and cello-speckled ballad has little in common with Value's hip-hop grooves (and Justin Timberlake's BFF barely altered the group's original tune, except for adding a "hey" or two here and there). "Apologize" now serves as the centerpiece of OneRepublic's own debut album, Dreaming Out Loud — and even if Timbaland won't be around when the group plays live, fewer beatbox distractions mean more chances to hear what netted OneRepublic all those MySpace friends in the first place.