Girls Aloud: The sound of the cash register Karl Whitney The Belfast Telegraph, Friday 1st June 2007 - - - - They filled the space left by the Spice Girls, but no-one could have predicted the long-term success of Girls Aloud - in large part attributed to Londonderry gal Nadine Coyle. But are the good reviews down to brilliant marketing, or is there genuine songwriting talent beyond those catchy choruses and perfectly-honed bodies? Karl Whitney reports In November 2002, when Girls Aloud were assembled as part of the reality TV talent show Popstars: The Rivals, few could have predicted their staying power. Like a mid-price version of the Spice Girls, but for the most part shorn of the cartoonish posturing of that group, Girls Aloud have since ploughed a profitable furrow. They have surprised not only with their longevity but also with the uniformly good reviews their music gets in respectable music magazines. It doesn't take a sociologist to work out that they've probably lasted so long by flying well below the heights of stardom that the Spice Girls set (and thanks to a bit of luck, too). When the Spice Girls split in early 2001, they left a template that it seemed could never be bettered: a string of hit singles and albums, a feature film - global success, really. Yoked somehow to the catch-all Cool Britannia juggernaut being manically steered by New Labour leader Tony Blair, their blueprint was a bunch of girls-next-door with hopes and dreams of being famous, turned into cartoon characters: Scary, Sporty, Ginger, Baby and Posh. The process of becoming these characters made the women in the band incredibly rich in the short term, and seemingly quite unhappy in the long run. A recent interview with Sporty (Melanie Chisholm) betrays some of the dissatisfaction and bewilderment she still attaches to that period. This wasn't the local girl made good, after all, this was the local girl made god - 20-something women marketed as strange, childish amalgams of the fantasies of their management team and what they thought the market wanted. That they were huge did not mean it was a feat that could be repeated - not even by the Spice Girls themselves, whose efforts to evolve were met with disinterest. They became trapped in the image they had played a part in creating; long-term solo success hasn't really been sustainable for any member of the group. Attempts were made to fill the gap made by the Spice Girls, most notably with bands Hear'say and Liberty X, who both emerged from the 2001 version of Popstars. But the quality of songs just wasn't there, and soon both were dropped by their respective labels. Girls Aloud's first single, on the other hand, sold a million copies, turning GA into this week's - if not this month's - sensation. The single was called The Sound Of The Underground. Considering the band was such an overground - and highly visible - overnight sensation, the title was heavy with irony. It stuck to the tried and tested winning formula for pop singles: it was all about music and dancing and annoying the neighbours. But what truly marks GA out from the crowd is how long they've actually lasted since this promising beginning. Late last year they even knocked out a greatest-hits album (The Sound Of Girls Aloud). Inevitably, it's their biggest-selling album, clocking up nearly 800,000 copies in the UK. The positive reviews in more credible, generally less excitable music magazines - such as the Observer Music Monthly and the NME - have vaulted Girls Aloud up to the level of vague respectability. They recently appeared on the cover of NME dressed kind of punkishly, and it all had something to do with the Sex Pistols, though it's not quite clear what ... Their answers to the journalist's questions were curt and gave the impression that these were a bunch of bad girls held back for detention. It was rock-chick chic, and it was very much a performance. The schoolgirlish naughtiness will presumably be stretched to breaking point with their cameos in next year's St Trinian's movie. This is no accident, of course - Girls Aloud have been able, through their generally low-key personalities, to adopt any image or style they have to in order to gain acceptance from a particular magazine, age-group, or market. Their initial singles mixed in some very prominent rock guitar - often playing very recognisable rock riffs: The Sound Of The Underground was driven by a surf-rock riff that sounded like it had been ripped from the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction. Other tracks use old blues riffs or more glam rock riffs like The Knack's My Sharona. But these riffs are mostly on the early songs, and have since been replaced by a sort of soapy, time-for-a-ballad filler that couldn't appeal to your average indie kid but no doubt appeals to a younger, female teenybopper. Since their debut single, Girls Aloud have for the most part carved out a niche making pop that sounds like it should be listened to - and not just sold - in a supermarket. With songs like The Show and No Good Advice they see-saw between a slightly duff version of slinky American R'n'B and the kind of thumping but now-dated pop sounds that Britney Spears began her career with. This has been combined with a mild talk-to-the-hand sassiness and more than a touch of come-hither-then-sod-off sexuality. They have also become specialists in the karaoke-style cover version, picking songs like the Pretenders' I'll Stand By You and, more recently and bizarrely, the Kaiser Chiefs' I Predict a Riot. You can't deny the crowd-pleasing nature of these songs, but they hint at a band running out of ideas. As the number of cover versions creeping into their live sets and records has grown, talk of the group going their separate ways has increased. Most speculation focuses on a solo career for Londonderry- born Nadine Coyle, agreed on by most as the biggest talent of the bunch. The tabloid profile of the group has always been very high, with Cheryl Tweedy being convicted of assault in a Guildford nightclub, and subsequently marrying Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole. Lately, though, there has been more focus on Coyle, and her on-again, off-again relationship with Desperate Housewives actor Jesse Metcalf. Where it all goes from here remains to be seen. No doubt, GA will point the way with the next album. Will they (yet again) do a chameleon act to keep being all things to all people? Or will they end up, like so many reality-show stars before them, back on TV, this time making up the numbers in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here? © 2007 The Belfast Telegraph To read this piece on the Belfast Telegraph site click here -------- Journalism | Home | About