A ‘girl group‘ is a music act featuring female singers who harmonize together. Girl groups have been popular at least since the 1930s, but ‘girl group‘ also denotes the wave of American female pop singing groups who flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s, between the decline of early rock and roll and the British Invasion. The girl group template includes disco, contemporary R&B, country-based formats, and pop.
The Boswell Sisters
. . . became one of the most popular singing groups from 1930 to 1936 with over twenty hits. The Andrews Sisters started in 1937 as a Boswell tribute band! They recorded and performed through the 1940s into the late-1960s, achieving more record sales, more Billboard hits, more million-sellers, and more movie appearances than any other girl group to date!
The Andrews Sisters had musical hits across multiple genres, which contributed to the prevalence and popularity of the girl group form.
The Shirelles had the first sustained success in the girl group genre. They reached the Top 40 with Tonight’s the Night; in 1961 they became the first girl group to reach number one on the Hot 100 with Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (by Gerry Goffin and Carole King). Over the next two and a half years, The Shirelles had five more top 10 hits, including the smash hit Soldier Boy.
Please Mr. Postman by The Marvelettes
indicates the racial integration of popular music; it was the first number one song in the US for Motown Records. Motown would mastermind several major girl groups, including
Martha and the Vandellas
and The Supremes.
Songwriters and producers in the US (including Phil Spector) and the UK quickly recognized the potential and recruited existing acts record their songs. Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ used layers of instruments to create a more potent sound allowed girl groups to sing powerfully and in different styles than earlier generations.In fact, over 750 girl groups were able to chart a song between 1960 and 1966.
In the early 1990s, the British music scene was dominated by boy bands, but the ‘Second British Invasion’ saw the UK’s Spice Girls
turn the tide in the mid-1990s, achieving ten number 1 singles in the UK and US. The Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase. (Members: Mel B, Melanie C, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, and Victoria Beckham.) They sold over 100 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling girl group of all time.
Several new Japanese idol groups appeared in the 2010s and created a fiercely competitive situation in the music industry. From 2009, the Korean wave and K-pop became increasingly significant in the entertainment industry. From the second half of the 2010s, new generations of Korean girl groups emerged and enjoyed great success as the Korean wave’s globalization accelerated. The early 2020s saw a lack of prominent girl groups in Western culture. East Asian girl groups continued to dominate globally. “Girl power” and feminism were highlighted, even though the beginning groups were very structured in their femininity. Like any other musical movement, there was loads of variation in what was being sung. A prominent theme was often teaching “what it meant to be a woman.” Girl groups would exhibit what womanhood looked like from the clothes they were wearing to the actual lyrics in their songs. Girl groups served as beacons and examples of certain types of identities.
Fifth Harmony: Ally Brooke, Normani, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui,
Camila Cabello
Interview on Kelly Clarkson with Ann Wilson from Heart, who wrote Barracuda after being in a meeting where she was disrespected by record industry males: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1359746694494535
Destiny’s Child is one of the best-selling girl groups of all time, with estimated sales of over 60 million records. They are credited with helping shape the sound of late-1990s and early-2000s R&B and considered pioneers of the 1990s girl-group resurgence.
