Why study Girls Aloud?
We have now reached the ‘pop’ section of our analysis of the music industry. Girls Aloud are a very successful variant of the ‘manufactured’ pop group formed by a music industry management ‘svengali’. Through a study of the career of Girls Aloud we can identify the music industry processes and people that have made their career such a success
Popstars: The Rivals
Popstars: The Rivals was broadcast on ITV1 on Saturday nights from 7 September 2002, beginning with three pre-recorded episodes of preliminary audition rounds, before switching to live broadcasts of studio performances. During the live show rounds, viewers voted for their favourite performers by phone and red button. In the final weeks, five females and five males were chosen by the British public to form the two groups, the all-male One True Voice, and Girls Aloud, an all-female group.
The final episode of Popstars: The Rivals was broadcast live on 22 December 2002. During the broadcast, Pepsi Chart Show (Capital FM) presenter Neil Fox (Pop Idol judge with Simon Cowell before ‘Popstars) revealed in a live link-up that ‘Sound of the Underground’ recorded by Girls Aloud had reached Number one on the Singles Chart, thereby becoming the Christmas Number One. A pattern that would be continued with the X-Factor. One True Voice’s double...
