Girl group

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A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonize together. Girl groups are often backed by male musicians, and serve as front artists for behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers. The term "girl group" is generally not applied to girl bands, in which women play instruments as well as sing. Examples include Diana Ross and the Supremes, Bananarama, The Spice Girls and more recently Girls Aloud.

[edit] Pre-girl groups

During the Music Hall/Vaudeville era, all-girl singing groups were mainly novelty acts singing nonsense songs in silly voices. One of the first major exceptions was the Boswell Sisters, who became one of the most popular singing groups from 1930 to 1936, with over twenty hits. The Boswells were noted for their artistry, and often played their own instruments and performed their own arrangements. The Andrews Sisters started (1937) as a Boswell tribute band, filling the vacuum left after that group's demise. The Andrews Sisters remained hugely popular through the 1940s and 1950s as recording and performing stars, until the rise of early rock and roll made their tight-harmony, big band-derived style obsolete.

[edit] The classic girl-group era

[edit] 1950s

Among the earliest acts categorizable as a "girl group" are The Chantels, whose 1958 hit "Maybe" had many of the earmarks of what would become the classic girl-group sound: looser harmonies mixing elements of pop and rhythm and blues, an identifiable lead vocal within a harmony arrangement, and subject matter centered around young love.

[edit] 1960s

As rock and roll began to quickly grow in popularity, dozens of groups tried their luck, often teaming up with established songwriters and record producers. The Shirelles, who had had some minor R&B hits, hooked up with Brill Building songwriters, notably Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who wrote "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for them. The song became a number one pop hit in early 1961, and is widely recognized as establishing the prototypical girl-group style.

Other songwriters and producers quickly recognized the potential of this new approach, and recruited existing acts (or, in some cases, created them anew) to record their songs in a girl-group style. Phil Spector recruited The Crystals, The Blossoms, and The Ronettes, while Goffin and King handled much of the output of The Cookies. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller would likewise foster The Dixie Cups, The Shangri-Las, and The Exciters. Other important girl group songwriters included Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.

[edit] Motown

The Motown label also masterminded several major girl groups, beginning with The Marvelettes and, later, Martha and the Vandellas and The Supremes.

[edit] High-end production

Besides harmony singing, girl group songs of the time were characterized by high-end production and dramatic arrangements, and producers were often as important to the recordings as the artists themselves. Spector was the most famous and influential producer of the era. His Wall of Sound production featured a thick layer of instrumentation (drums, guitar, bass, a horn section and often something more exotic, such as Glockenspiel or vibraphone). Amidst the musical accompaniment, there was a lead vocal, often deliberately girlish in tone, singing deceptively simple, naïve lyrics which artfully and eloquently expressed the emotions of teenagers of the time. An example would be The Ronettes' "Be My Baby," which doubles as both a charming love song and, implicitly, a portrayal of adolescent sexual mores. Many groups, such as the Shangri-Las, used productions inspired by Spectors', even if Spector himself did not work on their records. Others, including some New York City-based groups like The Chiffons, used more conventional pop music arrangements, while the Motown groups used typical driving Motown arrangements of the period.

The high-production, harmony-heavy sound of girl groups was so well-established and proved so popular that many individual singers adopted the "girl-group sound." Lesley Gore and Little Eva were solo artists, but are often considered part of the girl group genre. Other groups, such as Ruby and the Romantics and The Essex, had the "girl-group sound," even though they were not composed entirely of females. The sound was also a key element of many of the "Beach Party" type movies of the same era, many starring Annette Funicello.

[edit] Fashion

Fashion also became a key aspect of the girl group phenomenon, especially as the acts began to be invited to appear on variety television programs and musical revues. Despite their often-humble backgrounds, the girl groups wore the latest and most stylish dresses (often in matching sets) and set styles for hair and clothing.

[edit] Crossing ethnic and cultural boundaries

Although the most popular girl groups of the 1960s were primarily of young black women, their success and popularity crossed all ethnic and cultural boundaries, even during periods of racial tension. (A few white girl groups, including The Angels and The Paris Sisters, had hits that were basically indistinguishable in style and sound from their black counterparts). Even when the content of the songs bordered on the risque', the well-dressed, well-mannered young women in these groups found acceptance in suburban America, subtly changing attitudes and spearheading the crossover successes of many black musical acts to come.

[edit] Waning popularity

By the mid to late 1960s, in the face of the British Invasion and the increasing popularity of rock music, the popularity of girl groups began to wane. During this time, only a few all-female groups, such as The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas, (both Motown), made the transition to an earthier, soulful sound and success.

[edit] Lasting influence

The influence of the girl-group sound would continue to be heard even as the rock era progressed; particularly through The Beatles, who would cover several girl-group hits including "Chains" (The Cookies), "Please Mr. Postman" (The Marvelettes), "Baby It's You", and "Boys" (both originally recorded by The Shirelles).

[edit] Later girl groups

In recent times, the sound of girl groups has been defined, and has helped to define, the popular musical styles of the period.

[edit] Mid 1970s - mid 1980s

From the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, a profusion of successful disco/pop dance female groups were formed in Continental European countries: Luv', Babe, Dolly Dots, Maywood, Doris D. & The Pins, Snoopy, Star Sisters, Mai Tai from the Netherlands, Silver Convention or Arabesque from Germany, Baccara from Spain but produced in Germany....

While the 1980s saw the emergence of rock and punk rock girl groups such as The Go-Go's, a number of other girl groups, such as The Bangles, not only flourished, but are actually still performing and producing new material to this day.

The Pointer Sisters were a popular mainstream female R&B trio featuring three African-American sisters. The group charted several hits in the '80s, including "Jump (for My Love)" and "I'm So Excited".

In the UK the New Wave / Europop trio, Bananarama racked up an extensive number of Top 40 singles around the world throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and later as a duo. Their most famous international hit, "Venus," hit No 1 in the United States (a feat they didn't achieve in their homeland). In 1988, they entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful all-female group in history, a title they held for over a decade. (Former Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey also created an edgy alternative group, Shakespears Sister, whose single "Stay" stayed at No. 1 in the UK for a staggering 8 weeks, the longest run by any girl group, and the song also made the Top 5 in the U.S.)

[edit] Late 1980s - early 1990s

In the late '80s and early '90s in America, Exposé, Sweet Sensation, The Cover Girls, Jade, and Seduction all enjoyed commercial success with the growth of a Latin- or R&B-oriented dance sound.

In 1990 saw the beginning of Destiny's Child, whose success through to 2006 had them rated at one of the best musical trio's of all time according to Billboard^[1][2].

Another girl group from this period, SWV standing for Sisters With Voices had with many hits throughout the 90s.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Mid - late 1990s

Many of the girl groups of the '90s returned to a manufactured pop style, marketed as clean-cut and aimed at young, predominantly female audiences. A prime example of this was the U.S. vocal trio, Wilson Phillips, which featured the daughters of Brian Wilson (of The Beach Boys) and of John Phillips and Michelle Phillips (of The Mamas & the Papas).

In Canada, the West End Girls achieved minor hits on the Canadian charts.

In the UK, the R&B act Eternal scored a string of hits while one of the most successful American R&B girl groups of the early '90s was vocal quartet En Vogue. Later, Irish girl group B*Witched enjoyed chart success with four No. 1 singles in the UK.

The Spice Girls were one of the most influential pop girl groups around this time. They brought their slogan "Girl Power" to popular use through several number one pop singles such as "Wannabe" and Spice Up Your Life, sold-out concerts, advertisements, and even a film.

In the 1990s, TLC became one of the most successful girl groups in history.

At the same time, a rival British/Canadian quartet All Saints also found success with a more street-oriented, R&B sound.

[edit] 2000s

In the early 2000s, girl groups again increased in popularity, spawning such bands as California-based Dream, the Swedish quartet Play, Chinese pop band S.H.E and the UK/U.S. quintet No Secrets.

The reality TV show, Popstars, produced some short-lived girl groups: in Australia, Bardot, in the U.S., Eden's Crush, in Argentina, Bandana and in Canada, Sugar Jones. In Germany, "Popstars" produced the girl groups No Angels, Monrose and the already disbanded group Preluders.In Francia produced the girl groups like L5 and Diadems.

The Pipettes, one of the newest girl groups, self-reflexively mimic the girl group sound from the 1960s coined by Phil Spector in an effort to modernize the original girl group sentiments. Today's most commercially successful girl groups include British groups such as Sugababes, Girls Aloud and Atomic Kitten

Pussycat Dolls, an all-American girl group gathered worldwide success with their #1 hit "Don't Cha" they burst into the music scene, and following songs such as "Stickwitu", "Beep".

In Japan, J-pop bands such as ZONE (2000s), Onyanko Club (1980s), Morning Musume (late 1990s-present) and SPEED were all popular girl groups.

In 2005, came the birth of The Cheetah Girls, a girl group spawned by two successful TV movies on Disney Channel and two Platinum selling soundtracks. The group's 2006 tour was the most successful in Disney Channel history and a year later, they released they're studio debut album "TCG", which debuted in the top 50 on the Billboard charts.

Lately, bands like the Raveonettes, Miss Derringer and the Detroit Cobras incorporate the sound of early-60s girl groups.

[edit] Contemporary R&B and the girl group sound

Starting in the mid-1990s, many bands began to combine hip-hop with the girl group sound with great commercial success. En Vogue was one of the pioneers in this respect.

TLC released some of the most successful R&B and Pop singles of the 1990s such as Waterfalls, Creep, and No Scrubs.

[edit] See also

• Boy band

[edit] References

fr:Girl group nl:Meidengroep pl:Girlsband sv:Tjejgrupp zh:女子音乐组合