Music fans react to Girls Aloud criticising indie bands

Girls Aloud

Fans have given their verdicts on the girl group’s attack

Feb 8, 2008
28 Comments
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Music fans have been giving their verdicts on Girls Aloud's recent attack on indie bands.

As previously reported on NME.COM, the band have recorded a song, 'Hoxton Heroes', which criticises fashion-chasing indie bands with lyrics such as, “You’re off your face like you’re no-one/How many tracks have sold? Hmmm, none”.

Writing on NME.COM, ‘orangeiod’ criticised the band specifically for their lyric, “So why don’t you write a tune that we can hum?”, pointing out that Girls Aloud have their songs written for them by songwriting professionals.

Another NME.COM user defended the band, writing, “Girls Aloud are a manufactured band? Unlike The Kooks, Razorlight, the Libs, right?” ‘Libsfan1’ added: “They've produced some pretty damn good singles and managed to throw off the mantle of winning a TV talent show better than anyone else. That takes some talent.”

Plenty of users were quick to attack the band, though, pointing out lyrical similarities between the song and 'That Boy That Girl' by Hadouken!.

One user wrote: “I’ve just listened to 'Hoxton Heroes' – it’s shit. All of Girls Aloud's stuff sounds the same, although some of it is alright. But being indie is way better than being a group of plastic WAGs who look like they've just been tangoed.”

‘the_royal_we’ added: “They're right. I just binned my trilby and got a symmetrical haircut.”

What do you think? Leave your comments below, the best will get published.

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Comments (28)

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walms91

Feb 8, 2008

girls aloud are a joke. wen they write there own material they can comment on people who make real music!

jim101

Feb 8, 2008

I hate to admit it but just take a walk around Camden! To be fair on girls aloud they don't pretend to be anything they are not!

dannypal

Feb 8, 2008

I like girls aloud, and they are kind of right

specialist

Feb 8, 2008

is this the same girls aloud who were all over the NME awards last year schmoozing with various 'indie' guys? hmmmm?

"hello, kettle? you're black"

unrealvampire2005

Feb 8, 2008

Cut you're fringe, ditch the trilby and stop copying the Libertines and write something good.

At the moment indie just sounds like guitar pop.
Fuck off fringe!

alexcolthart

Feb 8, 2008

i see they also attacked the london scene, how can they attack people like lily allen and peaches geldof, girls aloud bitch to gossip magazine and lily allen bitches on national tv, hmm i wonder who will win.

paulnmim

Feb 8, 2008

girls aloud are completley right. bands like the kooks are absoloute garbage- most indie now is garbage- its recylcled bandwagon jumping crap. its not the band's fault themselves, its music executives who think 'ooh they sound slightly like the arctic monkeys- we'll be able to sell them'- and low and behold the muppets who run this trashy gossip mag who's website im only on to check upcoming gigs- buy into it and promote crap music that theyve been told to promote giving bands labels like 'this years arctic monkeys' 'the new oasis'. its actually worse than the pop dross girls aloud record. rant over

Cheesy

Feb 8, 2008

Is this not just one set of absolote morons calling another set of complete idiots stupid?
This is not news nme, sort it out.

baronsaladback

Feb 8, 2008

How have THEY attacked anyone? Their songwriters have done the 'attacking' and they've flapped their flappable bits in an attempt to hook in the FHM crowd.
It's hardly like anyone credible is having a go, is it? Although, knowing NME this banal outburst will make them cover stars and ensure a better position on the Cool List.

Dave P

Feb 8, 2008

I think Girls Aloud have missed the point of what being in an 'indie' band is all about.
Since when has it been about selling records and having a 'tune that you can hum'?
Indie bands are usually formed as a reaction to manufactured pop like Girls Aloud. Indie music can often be challenging, and and even bands that don't sell many records can change the face of the industry and leave a lasting legacy and change lives.
Yes, of course you do get a fair amount of posers, wannabe's and banal crap who are just in it for the money and followers looking for attention, but the majority of the indie music scene are honest bands and fans involved for the love of music.
Girls Aloud should stick to what they know.

Dazza30

Feb 8, 2008

Hoxton Heroes, bit ironic for the fact i saw all of Girls Aloud sucking the ass of Liam Gallagher on the Oasis DVD

Huw120

Feb 8, 2008

Who Cares. Music is music if you dont like it dont listen and if you can get that wound up by a band then why bother. Some pop is pap some indie is pap and indie isnt that indie these days when indie bands are signed to major labels. Get a grip and have a good weekend regardless of the music.

TheStylishKidInTheRiot93

Feb 8, 2008

There plastic, they slap so much make up on, you cant even see what they look like! they've got OK voices but nothing that makes them stand out. they think they if they slag of other musicians, it will put them up. Indie bands are so much more that this, for starters they can actually write songs! there a joke, there not serious! their lyrics make me sick, they think music is about how many tracks you sell, they dont care about the music they make, just the money in their pocket. That is not what music is about.

shaunyeah

Feb 8, 2008

Why do people assosiate indie with razorlight, the kooks etc.
Its people like girls aloud fans who listen to them.
I mean hadouken! made the same point as girls aloud in that boy that girl, but they've got a right to, being completely different that anybody else.
Girls aloud are clones themselves so its a bit hypocritical.
At least indie produces some different type of bands, like foals.
All mainstream is the same and has bigger following of spice boys and slappers who all look the same than indie does of indie kids.
I think girls aloud are just jealous that people are realising that their mundane style of music is goin out of fashion, and a new era of bands who actually write their own music, play instruments and can play live, is taking over.

x

McDermott_no1

Feb 8, 2008

They don't write there own songs therefore it is not them who is attacking anyone it's the person who wrote the song you guys should be bitching about

papasmurf

Feb 8, 2008

i think someones been listening to 'that boy that girl' and bit too much and realised hypocritcal slander with a 'funky beat' is a good way to get noticed once all the hype and good singles are starting to die down. shame cause soundof the underground will always have the best pop riff on the '00s.

the high king

Feb 8, 2008

Girls Aloud are pathetic manafactured pap.They seek cred by flirting with The Arctic Monkeys and then diss indie like this....pffffftttt.

Angry Dave

Feb 8, 2008

As, always they girls have caught on a bit late - if you check out the excellent "Burn Koko" by Subliminal girls, this was already tackled as an issue a year ago "Burn Koko to the ground, send them all back to Ministry of Sound"

woodykarma

Feb 8, 2008

Girls Aloud are not a joke. In today's indie climate, i think its a breath of fresh air to hear a girl band keeping to the pop template. So what if people write for them, my hat goes off to those behind- the- scenes songwriters. I can understand why listeners of 'indie' music think Girls Alouds' comments are offensive but 'indie' music nowadays has a lot to answer for as well.
Indie music as was originally known, was independent. Nowadays we have these little labels propping up around the country, backed by majors signing bands for a desperate shot at the big time and they gullibly take it. Its a shame because they think they're going to be around forever, but no, after a year circuit taking in europe and the uk, as well as possibly playing sxsw and the summer festivals, many bands are dumped or vanish.
Fashion has always had something to do with music, its a way of expressing oneself visually. But dressing up and being half good on the guitar is what people are presented with AND accept as Indie music. This is not Indie music. Look at bands like The Beatles, The Smiths, Oasis, Blur, Pulp. They produced POP MUSIC, not on the sheen scale of Girls Aloud, but nonetheless it was pop music. They sold records, and many of them had number one hits and produed album after album of tunes for everyone to listen to. Today we get boring run of the mill indie bands copying other bands and not even trying to give their own take on it. It's an absolute travesty, give me some REAL indie music please, before my ears pack up and leave in disgust.

drgonzo2012

Feb 8, 2008

Hmmm, a shit band making fun of other shit bands, its like a fight has broken out at a special school for retards.

neweducation

Feb 9, 2008

i agree with what they're saying, the tight jean cravat wearing posers of today are slightly repulsive. i'm just not sure they're the ones who should be saying it, as i generally find the gossip mag, tarty wag scene a lot more insulting than that of the indie robots.

drkiko

Feb 9, 2008

Well done Girls Aloud!! Indie scene those days is full of people who's into music more for fashion than passion... I hope Los Campesionos will save british kids... And everyone who thinks that Shoreditch roundabout is the centre of the universe with fucking skinny jeans... "Has gonna be Loose Fit" S.W.Ryder

Indietimmy

Feb 9, 2008

why get so angered by indie fashion it's just clothes. if you meet the people that wear them and they appear to be knobheads then fair enough but don't just slag off people just for wearing skinny jeans - its ridiculous.
is that what people want? to be judged by clothes and nothing else. well im off to punch someone continously and viciously for wearing henri lloyd.

supercooper13

Feb 10, 2008

I'm not a girls aloud fan but I have to say they have quite a valid point. Indie music has become so generic with real rubbish like the kooks, wombats, razorlight being promoted to death when what they are producing we've heard a thousand times before with dull lyrics and a catchy tune. I think it's time to turn off the radio and seek solace in British Sea Power a band not really promoted and probably the best indie group at the moment

mockleburt

Feb 10, 2008

i agree with timmy - just like what you want to like. listen to the music you want to listen to and wear what you want to aslong as you feel comfortable why does it matter? life is way too short

yooffella

Feb 10, 2008

i thought Girls Aloud were just a cover band, anyroad i doubt they pen all their own music/lyrics but maybe a slight input on the subject matter. As for this though i expect they thought they were attacking people like The Kooks, Razorlight, etc because they don't know what indie is, and are jelous that they're not center of attention.

thecurators

Feb 11, 2008

i have to say its pretty crude.

the point being made by 'girls aloud' (ahem the songwriters indeed) is a materialistic attack revolving around money. for a group which sells themselves to no end until we are so sick to death with them that we are forced to put up with them, how can they claim to be any better than generic sounding bands?

tripe.

Splendid Fool

Feb 11, 2008

It is not about writing your own material that makes you a valuable artist. I seem to remember someone called Elvis Presley who never wrote a tune to save his life!
On the other hand, thousands have written their own material of which nobody cares...