The INTRO: Girls Aloud vs. The Saturdays.

I know what you might be thinking - FINALLY! Hahah. Time for me to talk about my line of expertise, British pop. K-pop may be great but it's not my forte, this is purely what I blog about best. Hahah.
Girls Aloud and The Saturdays - the two biggest 5-member girl groups in Britain. Vocally these girls know how to jump through hoops and fire but it was only until my K-pop addiction that I learned to appreciate the fact that all 10 of these girls can sing. Yes, there are a lot of Koreans who can sing damn good and a lot of British who just suck but it’d been a while since I first sauntered into the realm to British pop - all the crappy voices I’d already gotten rid of years ago. Now that I just got addicted to K-pop 3 - 4 months ago, I’ve spent that time scouring the good and the bad - in seeing the bad I began to appreciate the good even more.

On to the girls. The reason why I chose to combine the two groups in one post (apart from convenience which I know isn’t valid) is because whether we like it or not, the two will ALWAYS be compared in one way, shape or form - it’s a fact. They’re Britain’s top girl groups, they’ve got five members and they make pop songs, what’s more to ask?

I don't know if anyone has noticed this but I never talk about Girls Aloud's vocals seriously. Yes, I say that I'd love some solo stuff from Nicola and Cheryl's my least favorite singer in the band but apart from that you don't really hear me ranting about the girls, maybe because I don't have anything bad to say about them or I just never thought about commenting on their voices.

It's a given that everyone in Girls Aloud can sing. They went through an American Idol-like (Popstars the Rivals, to the exact) selection process and emerged victorious over their supposed male equivalent - One True Voice. Over the years their vocals have grown along with their musical style but who we heard on Sound of the Underground are the same girls we heard in Untouchable - their voices didn't change, they just grew.

I got all nostalgic when I had to listen back to Sound of the Underground, The Show, Love Machine, Biology, Whole Lotta History, Call the Shots and all their other old stuff that I hadn't listened to in ages - I got all tingly remembering the time when this was all I used to listen to.

The Saturdays' roots trace back to the ill-fated S Club 8 - Frankie and Rochelle (was that her or was that another girl?) were what I assume the 'lead singers', it wasn't directly said (it never is in Britain) but they, Calvin Goldspink and another guy got the most singing parts and the most airtime. After the band dissolved in the wake of I Dream, their failed yet somewhat musically brilliant TV show, they disappeared and suddenly returned to pop in the form of The Sats.

If vocal ability says anything about them assuming the place of Girls Aloud in British music, the Saturdays are the best candidate for it. Yes, even Mollie can sing - at least the material they're doing right now. We don't have a lot of material to work with yet when it comes to The Saturdays but I can at least trace Frankie and Rochelle's vocal growth.

Here are a few videos from each band - these are the ones I really based my commentaries on.

Girls Aloud:

The Saturdays:

I used the recorded version of this but you can't embed that from YouTube.

You have the 2 WHOLE DAYS to watch and soak up on all 10 girls' voices - on Wednesday MY commentary's up! Hahah.