 David Whitehouse of Wonderland Magazine declared the "Bad Boys" video as "the birth of a pop star". After commenting that America generates better, glossier pop than the British, such as the "holy trinity of 21st century pop music", Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake, Whitehouse said that the video looked and sounded American, "dripping" with "dollar signs and expensive lenses". The review commending Burke's look in the video calling her, "the gutsier, sassier alternative to the anaemic, high school warbling of, say, Kelly Clarkson or the pre-pubescent offal piped into our children by Miley Cyrus." Whitehouse stated, "It has pomposity, big dance routines, cars built like tanks, moody street hunks (also built like tanks), stunts, jewellery and a rapper, Flo Rida, who in honesty, could have been anyone". He went on to say, "If we want to make a megastar, let the Americans do it for us. They make megastars. If Alexandra Burke is going to be the pop star we want her to be, she ’ s going the right way about it".
