Girls Aloud are a BRIT-nominated British girl group created by ITV1 talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The group, consisting of Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy), Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, has become one of the most successful British pop groups of the decade, with a record-breaking seventeen consecutive Top 10 singles (including three number ones), four platinum albums (including a number one) and record sales in excess of 4.2 million in the UK alone (as of October 2007). They are Smash Hits poll winners, have won a TMF Award and have been nominated for two BRIT Awards.
Their British production team Xenomania are well-known for embracing various influences, from electronica, house, power pop and dance, among others. Indeed, the music of Girls Aloud ranges from the distinctly 1980s sound of "No Good Advice" and "Jump" through the 1960s sound of "Love Machine" to the more futuristic sound of " The Show" and "Sexy! No No No..." Girls Aloud hold the record for the shortest time between formation and reaching number one in the UK Charts (with their platinum-selling début single "Sound of the Underground"), and have since become one of the few reality television groups to achieve continued success. Guinness World Records lists them as "Most Successful Reality TV Group" in the 2007 edition, and they also hold the record for "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group" in the 2008 edition, with 17 top tens, making everyone song in the top ten released then, from "Sound of the Underground" to "Call the Shots."
For a contemporary pop group manufactured on reality television they have received unprecedented praise from broadsheet newspapers and the rock music press, with publications including the Observer Music Monthly and the NME giving their music rave reviews. The Observer has referred to "Biology" as the single of the decade, and Sasha Frere-Jones described them in 2007 as 'England's greatest band'.
