Marvelettes please mr postman who sampled11/30/2023 ![]() “Wait a minute, Mister Postman!” Of course. Did you ever sing girl group music growing up? I was like, “Uh oh, is this gonna be super hard for me?” Then I started paying attention to groups. But honestly, it wasn’t until I was put in the situation of a group that I started paying attention to the dynamics of being with girls, because I never got along with women growing up. Patti LaBelle was one of my mom’s favorite singers. I didn’t know if I wanted to be in a group or just be an artist, period… But growing up in a band with my family, my mother and my father singing, of course I knew about the Ronettes. Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins: I don’t think we had girl groups on our minds at that time. Did you see yourself as fitting into that lineage when you were forming TLC? So much about TLC broke the girl group formula, but there are also aspects of your music that fall into the girl group history: harmonies, choreography, a sense of unity. I definitely think that it’s different and the struggle is not over, but not the same. It makes us feel really good when we hear someone like Lady Gaga thank us for paving the way for them. You had to fight a lot harder to make sure your voice was heard. I think it was definitely harder before we came out and during the time that we came out. Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas: Women have more of a voice now. In that time period, do you think it’s become any easier for women in the music industry to be independent, both artistically and financially? Kick Your Game: A Conversation with TLC Pitchfork: Next year is the 25th anniversary of CrazySex圜ool. And since the 7-inch 45 rpm record was so integral to the girl group boom of the ’60s, we decided to pay homage to them by selecting 45 songs.īut before we get to our chronological look at this music, let’s take a moment to hear from one of the most successful girl groups of all time. To that point, they must be primarily known as vocal act watching a group sing and dance in sync is different than watching a band play instruments onstage (sorry, the Go-Gos!). In deciding which artists to include in this list, Pitchfork editors first had to pin down our definition of a “girl group.” Ultimately, we agreed that an act must have three or more members, all members must be women, and they must record pop music with clear harmonies. ![]() Today, we see a resurgence of girl groups in South Korea, where the ever-expanding K-Pop phenomenon is beginning to challenge how gender roles and androgyny fit into this music. The Spice Girls used their infectious camaraderie to shout girl power from the rooftops, and Destiny’s Child brought steel spines to their cries for equality and financial independence. ![]() ![]() TLC burst onto the scene singing about safe sex, body image, and the cycle of poverty they brought rapping into the fold and showed their distinct, assertive personalities. In the ’90s, girl groups saw both a renewal and an upheaval of many of the style’s conventions. The style fell out of fashion in the ’80s, for the most part, with one or two interesting exceptions (enter: the temporary girl group svengali Prince). In the ’70s, the genre’s church-bred roots got to shine, with disco and gospel soul dominating the dancefloors, and dynamic women like the Pointer Sisters and Labelle bringing their pipes to pop. Groups like the Ronettes, the Supremes, and the Shangri-Las carved their fame through emotive hooks, dramatic instrumentation, trendy styling, and party-ready choreography, inspiring many in the nascent rock’n’roll scene along the way. Still, the singers’ charm and exuberance was impossible to fake. ![]() Though some of these enterprising young women wrote their own songs, most were penned by powerhouse pro songwriters and directed by male producers to reflect their visions. Even more significantly, many of these groups had women of color taking starring roles: Acts like the Crystals, the Marvelettes, and the Shirelles scored Billboard hits with their innocent, harmony-heavy tales of young love. Young women formed their own singing ensembles or were recruited by producers, marking some of the first instances of female artists making mainstream music in America. Borne of the late-’50s doo-wop scene, with a smattering of gospel and proto-rock R&B thrown in for good measure, girl groups fully developed as a radio phenomenon in the early ’60s. This is especially clear in the history of girl groups, which has offered a reflection of women’s evolving autonomy in America across the last 60 years. Similarly, when it comes to pop music, women have often had to fight twice as hard and be twice as savvy as men to triumph in an industry eager to minimize them. As the old joke goes, Fred Astaire was a great dancer, but Ginger Rogers did everything he did-backwards and in high heels. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |