1. Girls Aloud & Xenomania
The best girlband of the 21 century and the producing team who have made them legends. Could it really be anyone else? Girls Aloud emerged from reality Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, just another band destined for the one-hit-single flop pile, a fate that was fortunately averted by their Christmas number one Sound of the Underground which is an iconic British pop song to this day. Xenomania, just like Girls Aloud aren't a regular girlband, are far from being a normal run-of-the-mill producing team - they work like a jigsaw puzzle, building up beats and vocals until they construct something utterly bizzare and relentlessly catchy and listenable. Their back catalogue sans Aloud speaks for themselves - hits from The Saturdays, Amelia Lily, The Wanted, Gabriella Cilmi, Cher and dozens more all have that Xenomania stamp on them, that utterly demented and beautiful pop brilliance that takes from every kind of music. Girls Aloud have had every album since their debut produced by Xenomania to incredible results - twenty two consecutive top ten singles, four number one singles, an iconic status and five successful albums. It's also incredibly notable that most of their singles, the vast majority of them can be sung or hummed by the great British public. How can artists can say that? The Promise is a BRIT-award winning retro delight while Something Kinda Oooh is a classic, Untouchable is a chilled-out dance anthem and Can't Speak French is the ultimate seduction pop song. Plenty of variety, all of it at the hands of the fine folks of Xenomania. Making a comeback last year with the best comeback song ever (and my favourite song of 2012), Something New was a joyous blast of fierce pop that gave the pop public something they'd really missed - a pop song that didn't mind being pop at all. And that's something pretty damn special. Xenomania and Girls Aloud: a match made in heaven. There are dozens of great match-ups that I didn't include on the list but please feel free to list yours below. Thanks for reading, guys!