Legend Ranking: The Definitive Order of Girls Aloud Singles From Worst To Extraordinary

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Song Of The Day: "Threads" by Sarah Harding

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The NSOTP Best Singles of 2007

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Q2 is upon us and to celebrate. I've decided to release the NSOTP Best Singles of 2007. The beginning of the golden age always has fond memories and hopefully you find some great throwbacks and hidden gems. So get ready for some era-defining music. It's 2007, bitch.

Throwback Thursday: Best Albums of 2007

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As an apology for being away for so long and because nostalgia is always fun in pop music, I have decided to share with you all NSOTP's Best Albums of 2007. As 2007 was the beginning of a golden era in pop music, it only stands to reason that some of the best albums of the decade came out that year.  I'll also try to put an update on what the artist is up to now so we can see the continuation of their legacy. So sit back, relax, think of yourself as a young 7th grader with a lot of issues (wait, that was just me) and listen these classic collections of pop.

The Next Big Thing: Tove Lo Brings Swedish Pop To New Heights Without Drugs

http://www.mostlyjunkfood.com/video-tove-lo-habits-live/

For those of you who don't know, Sweden is the birthplace of literally some of the greatest pop music every created. The country is responsible for the creation of ABBA, Icona Pop, and the goddess that is Robyn. Throughout the consistent string of singles that exit the country and infect our minds with amazingness, there is usually one or two popstars a year that simply take over your life with just a couple of songs. This happened with Icona Pop in 2011 before the behemoth called "I Love It" was written by Charli XCX. So now you might be asking who that popstar was for 2013? Well, meet Tove Lo.

As with any girl singing about lost love with mascara dripping down her face in agony, Tove Lo was destined for stardom. After attending a famed music school in her native country of Sweden, Tove basically made her career writing hits for other artists after pop legend Max Martin (just go through your Britney and Kelly Clarkson singles) realized what a brilliant singer-songwriter Ms. Lo was. After releasing her debut single "Love Ballad" in 2012, Tove made a name for herself after playing a part in creating songs for Icona Pop and Victoria Justice, but nothing can top the fact that Tove wrote the comeback single for Girls Aloud. Once again: TOVE WROTE THE COMEBACK SINGLE FOR GIRLS ALOUD!

After the Aloud decided it was time to disband (#NEVERFORGET), Tove Lo decided to save pop and give me a birthday present by dropping her second single "Habits" in March 2013. With a typically tribal synth beat and ominous background vocals, Tove describes her journey after a break up with drugs, alcohol, sex, and tears. "I eat my dinner in my bath tub, then I go to sex clubs, watching freaky people getting it on" is probably the best opening lyric of the decade and its video perfectly captures the way anyone would feel after a bad break up (though the original video is 20x better). With comparisons to Kesha, Charli XCX, and Lorde, Tove Lo laid waste to the pop arena before anyone knew it.

Not satisfied with just that, Tove has also collaborated with dance producers to create some of the most euphoric trance music you will ever hear. Lucas Nord's "Run On Love" is a prime example and should have been a hit around the world for sure. Tove also has a soundtrack to her name after collaborating with Seven Lions and Myon & Shane 54 on "Strangers" for the Mortal Instruments movie, one of the best songs of last year to be specific.

Unfortunately, Tove did not manage to break the mainstream market with these songs. That is, until indie electronic outfit Hippie Sabotage decided to remix Habits into the eerie and hypnotizing "Stay High" which has managed to crack the American iTunes top 100 and #6 on the UK charts. Riding the success off the single, Tove Lo released one of this year's best EPs with Truth Serum back in March (happy birthday to me!), with 6 spectacular songs, back to back. "Paradise" perfectly captures the feeling of love you have for your soulmate while "Over" and "Out of Mind" tell off a lover that clearly didn't know that Tove was perfect. Each song is massive, earthshaking, and poignant with the epic synth background topped with a heartbreaking scream of a vocal that has become Tove's signature sound.

Tove is poised to take over the world at large now and is slowly doing so. After writing hits for Cher Lloyd and Lea Michele, Tove managed to snag a TV spot on Late Night recently, introducing her to US fans for the first time. And if that's not enough, today Tove Lo casually dropped her lyric video for one of 2014's best songs "Not On Drugs." That chorus will never leave you, which I suppose is counterintuitive to the whole drug thing but anyway. Take it all in now, because Tove Lo is ready to set the world on fire.

Future Smash Alert: Are You Ready for "Trouble" by Neon Jungle?

Let's not beat around the bush (did you catch that jungle reference?). We are in a severe girl group shortage at the moment and pop can never really be amazing unless one is going about somewhere making amaze balls music. In 2013, we saw the end of Girls Aloud (WE WILL NEVER FORGET) and Sugababes 2.0, which really could have ended after that last forgettable single they released. Meanwhile, the Origibabes, aka Mutya Keisha Siobhan, came back with a brilliant single and decided to go away into obscurity for a while, as all major artists do. Currently, The Saturdays are readying a Greatest Hits album only, Little Mix is nearing the end of their album campaign for Salute and Danity Kane was cut down to a trio before the release of their comeback single (Fifth Harmony who?).

Indeed, it looked as if we may have entered a dark age where girl groups died out and desolation could be heard from every corner. We may as well have gone through another ice age that killed all the dinosaurs, that's how cold life felt.

Then, out of nowhere, Neon Jungle decided to casually go about saving the world as we know it and reinvigorating life into the cliché idea of what a girl group should sound like. In summer 2013, "Trouble" by the Jungle came out and signaled the arrival of a hurricane sized force in pop. Who were these four stunning modelesque beauties trashing this house while playing with puppies? Well they happened to be Jess Plummer, Asami Zdrenka, Shereen Cutkelvin, and Amira McCarthey. With "Trouble" being their debut single, Neon Jungle cemented their position as the new girl group in town. 

The song's revolutionary ability to set itself apart from the rest of mainstream radio is thanks to its writers, the amazing pop entities known as Cocknbullkid and Fear of Tigers (those names alone deserve a Grammy).With enough swagger and badassery to earn themselves a place on Bad Girls Club, the high energy Icona Pop-like catchiness of "Trouble" will not get out of your head for at least 72 hours and this is coming from a premed student so you know it's true.  Not only did it give the girls their first top 20 chart hit in the UK and become one of the best songs of 2013, it gave them enough traction to cross the pond and perform at last year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show alongside pop juggernauts like Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy.

The girls kept the momentum going by releasing 2 more top 10 hit singles "Braveheart" and "Welcome to the Jungle" which was essentially their way of saying, "Remember 'Spice Up Your Life'? Yeah, we're Neon Jungle, bitches!" The reckless clubby feel of these songs fit along with their debut single and their album set to be released at the end of July is sure to be among one of 2014's finest.

The best part about the band is that they know they're awesome. So awesome that they release covers of other amazing music, thereby compiling the collective amazingness into one performance. So awesome that the girls regularly show how much they love their fans through different media. And so awesome that the UK can't possibly contain their amazingness and they have decided to release "Trouble" in America THIS SUMMER! If that doesn't become a smash hit in the States, I will have lost all faith in college girls in the club who would eat this song up. But in the meantime, I'll be bouncing up and down to this song until the 72 hour rush it gives me dies away, which will probably never happen. And all I have to say to that is...

Song Of The Day: "Little White Lies" by Florrie

Dear god, this is amazing. Florrie has given us a new song after just releasing her brilliant Sirens EP and it's one that we have all been waiting for. After teasing all her fans with 4 EPs worth of amaze balls music, Florrie appears to finally be readying her debut album and if it comes out this year, it definitely has the potential to be the best album of the decade, let alone year.

"Little White Lies" is one of Florrie's hardest hitting singles. Beginning with a Girls Aloudian guitar-synth intro, Florrie sings of a love that she really isn't that into and hopes to justify her #littlewhitelies throughout the rest of the song. That chorus gives us what Florrie has never really done before, a catchy yet hard-hitting cut that keeps us entranced and coming back for more (once again, thanks Xenomania!). If you don't know Florrie by now, you better stop and take a look because she could be pop's savior in the near future. 

Stay tuned for an Artist Retrospective on her soon as she is one of my favorite popstars.

Girls Aloud: A Retrospective! Yes Yes Yes…

I can't think of a better way to start my new blog than by talking about one of the greatest musical acts the world has ever seen. Girls Aloud represents every thing that went right with pop throughout the 2000's and, despite having no presence in America (such a crime), they had really been a part of my childhood. So let's go over who Girls Aloud are and why their magnificence should be honored throughout the universe.

Girls Aloud was formed through a reality TV show, as any credible celebrity has been. The judges on Popstars: The Rivals, which included Ginger Spice!!!, knew what they were doing when they picked Cheryl Tweedy (now Cole, then "Cheryl", now back to Cole), Nicola Roberts, Nadine "Nuh-deen" Coyle, Kimberley Walsh, & Sarah Harding to form what we now know as Girls Aloud. They released their first single "Sound of the Underground," got the 2002 Christmas number one, and solidified their position as Brit Pop Royalty. After five studio albums, their first greatest hits collection, two charity singles (the first a beautiful snorefest, the second a clear power play to show their dominance over the Sugababes), and this live performance, the group decided that while they were on top they might as well take a break for a year. A great idea, right? RIGHT?!?!

And so began the longest hiatus in musical history for every pop fan. Ultimately, this wasn't the worst thing. We saw the launch of Cheryl and Nicola's solo careers, Nadine's attempt at a solo career, Kimberley's stage acting career, and Sarah… well Sarah was in some movies ok? Then, on a bleak mid-November day in 2012, something new "Something New" descended from the heavens to bless our ears. A clear Girls Aloud classic, we knew we had our girls back. After another greatest hits album and an amazing tour, maybe the girls would be back for good? Maybe we could have another album that checks off every box on the Poptastic list? But no, on March 20 2013 (I was only 18 when I had to endure this trauma) Girls Aloud announced they had split up. And so ended the greatest girl group to impact the pop scene since the Spice Girls. But we will always remember their amazingness for generations.

So what made Girls Aloud so integral to modern pop? Well, it was honestly because their music (and yes, I mean the music) was so revolutionary. Most of that revolutionary quality came from their work with Xenomania, a name every true pop fan should become familiar with. Run by Brian Higgins, the man behind Cher's "Believe" (you're welcome gays), the production company helped write and produce every one of the Aloud's albums and continually reinvented their sound to stay 5 years ahead of the curve in pop music. With every irregular song structure, with every melodic reference, and every "OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?" moment, Girls Aloud epitomized cool, avant-garde pop music that transcended generations. Combine that with their girl next door from the 2000's that went onto pop stardom look and we get a musical act that rung up 20 consecutive top ten hits and remained on top for almost a decade.

So thank you to Cheryl, Nicola, Kimberley, Sarah, and Nadine. For everything.