There are rather alot of girlbands ‘doing the rounds’ at the moment; and even when you exclude international acts like Pussycat Dolls and The Veronicas you’re still left with a fair few. Let’s just take a moment to consider how they would look if they were placed on a tree… The Girlband Tree, if you will… with the ‘big ones’ at the top and the ‘little ones’ at the bottom.
Even when they’re not doing anything Girls Aloud are easily the country’s biggest girlband. ‘Out Of Control’ and ‘The Sound of Girls Aloud’ are still charting well, probably thanks to Cheryl’s ‘X Factor’ stint, but they are still ludicrously popular. That’s despite the fact that in April their run of Top 10 hits finally came to an end. BECAUSE THE WHOLE POINT OF ‘UNTOUCHABLE’ WAS TO NOT HAVE A SHORTENED RADIO EDIT.
Sugababes and The Saturdays are difficult to rank, everyone. Difficult to rank. Sugababes may be on the comeback trail but even though ‘Get Sexy’ is a bit of a tune, it does have a small whiff of desperation about it. And their next album really does have to fly off the shelves if they’re going to be back to their former glories. The Saturdays can’t really be accuratley placed on The Tree until ‘Forever Is Over’ is released… yes they are doing very well for themselves but the No22 peak of ‘Work’ a few months ago just went to show that they’re not popular enough yet to get complacent. Fair enough promotion was poor and the album had already sold well, but if it was Girls Aloud it would have been Top 15 at least. They’re at that Difficult Second Album stage, which is a bit of a cliché, but with this ‘new sound’ they seem set on pioneering it all needs to go well.
Xenomania creation Mini Viva are just ‘dance’ enough to be in with a real shot of making a dent in the industry. They’re also just ‘pop’ enough to not be a new Booty Luv (…we forgot to include Booty Luv in the tree. Shit.), who rely on the ‘Club Banginess’ to get high chart placings. ‘Left My Heart In Tokyo’ is a dead cert for the Top 10 on Sunday so the only way is up for these girls.
After charting outside the Top 40 with ‘Golddigger’ it’s safe to say the Dolly Rockers aren’t doing too hot at the mo, even with their riduclously over-exaggerated ‘I’M SINGIN’ IN ENGLISH YEA’ accents and constant fellow-girlband-bashing. Girls Can’t Catch seem very likeable but a No26 debut isn’t going to change the world is it. For both acts their second singles are pivotal, and even though we never really warmed to the first DR single, ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ sounds pretty good. GCC will be releasing ‘Echo’, which is hard to judge on a dodgy live recording but could be a small tune also.
