Girls Aloud Embrace The Triumph Of Hope Over Experience

British pop group Girls Aloud has always been an unlikely success story, from surviving a reality show to ditching their manager to landing in the tabloids more than is really healthy. But now, despite the fact that none of their fantastic songs have gotten any recognition in the U.S. outside of music critics, breakout Girl Cheryl Cole is trying to make it in the States. “Simon Cowell is said to be taking her to America as his next protegee,” says an excellent Guardian article that nicely summarizes the Girls’ appeal and dynamic. The writer, Hadley Freeman, brings up Destiny’s Child as a best-case scenario for Cheryl’s success, but a more useful comparison might be the Pussycat Dolls. Where that group churns out forgettable pop hits with a seemingly interchangeable cast of singers with no character or chemistry, the Girls seem to have (or have created) a genuine music group, with members fans might take an interest in and personalities that come through in the music.

Still, the fact that the group shows such focus and discipline in the interview suggests that, while having a personality is a prerequisite for displaying a personality, this sort of appeal requires careful cultivation. A successful pop career, in this view, is more a matter of management than of talent: staying on message, delegating tasks to responsible employees, thinking about what your image should be and deliberately pursuing that. It sounds awfully mercenary, but maybe the best example of this sort of success would be Bob Dylan. The only difference in pop is that there’s transparency, that we’re not wondering—as one might with, say, Will Oldham—how much of this is genuine personality and how much is artifice. The end result, though, is the same, though perhaps with different inflections, and the ultimate goal is to create a pleasurable experience for fans.

As for Cheryl and her upcoming American adventure? Signs are not good. Freeman lays out her two possible models: “Whether Cheryl turns out to be the Robbie Williams to their Take That (the great hope who quickly burns out) or the Beyoncé to their Destiny’s Child (the success story who leaves her bandmates in the dim, forgotten past) remains to be seen.” The problem with that comparison is that the failure in America was the one from England.

Louder and louder [Guardian]