Review Summary: For Tomorrow: A Guide to Contemporary British Music, 1988-2013 (Part 67)
Girls Aloud were assembled for a reality TV show. ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals assembled two groups, Girls Aloud and the long forgotten One True Voice, to compete against each other for the Christmas number one slot. Composed of Cheryl Cole, Sarah Harding, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, and Kimberley Walsh, Girls Aloud initially seemed like they would go the way of most reality show products, but Girls Aloud exist in a rare category, the singing show creation that actually matters. This has less to do with ITV or even the members of Girls Aloud themselves though than the quiet force behind the group, Xenomania.
After providing the Sugababes with their second-chance smash hit “Round Round”, the songwriting team founded by Brian Higgins, Xenomania were approached to write for the female group produced by the competition. It was the beginning of a partnership between Xenomania and Girls Aloud that would produce the most dominant pop act in the UK, one that would rule the charts for the next decade.
Girls Aloud ending up being so significant that their story doesn’t deserve to begin with Popstars, it deserves to begin with their debut single and first number one “Sound of the Underground”. Possessing both the suave charm of James Bond and the tongue in cheek awareness of Austin Powers, “Sound of the Underground” finds common ground between spy guitar and turn of the century electronica to create a single that remains a singular pop thrill. A trembling surf guitar drives the chorus down a speedy autobahn and when the girls leap up the register for “where the
bass line jumps in the back street light” it immediately strikes as a brilliant and effective hook.
Unfortunately for the album it hails from, only follow-up single “No Good Advice” stands up to its precedent. The rest of
Sound of the Underground is composed of solid pop music that, for the most part, doesn’t leave too much of an impression. Text-message-despair ballad “Life Got Cold” and DnB-lite “Love Hate” are both highlights but aside from that things are merely good. But Girls Aloud were a group that lived and died by its singles and in the 2000’s they didn’t do a whole lot of dying.
