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 The Supremes, Destiny's Child, Bananarama, The Spice Girls, TLC, and more recently the Sugababes, Danity Kane, The Pussy Cat Dolls, and Girls Aloud.

Contents 1 Best Selling 1.1 Best-Selling Female Groups 1.2 Best-Selling Albums 2 Pre-girl groups 3 1950s and 1960s 3.1 High-end production 3.2 Fashion 3.3 Crossing ethnic and cultural boundaries 4 Mid 1970s - mid 1980s 5 Late 1980s and the 1990s 6 2000s 7 References 7.1 Citations 8 External links

[edit] Best Selling

[edit] Best-Selling Female Groups

Girl Group	Sales	Genere	Albums	Members	Years Active
1. Destinys Child	50 [1] - 60 Million [2]	Pop R&B	7	3	1997 - 2005
2. Spice Girls	55 Million [3][4][5]	Pop	3	4 - 5	1996 – 2001, 2007 - 2008
3. TLC	45 Million	R&B,	6	3	1991 - 2005
4. Bananarama	40 Million [6]	New Wave Pop	20	3	1979 - present
5. Dixie Chicks	36 Million [7][8]	Country	8	3	1989 - present

[edit] Best-Selling Albums

Girl Group	Album	Sales	Year Released	Genre
1. Spice Girls	Spice	23 Million [9][10][11]	1996 - 1997	Pop
2. TLC	CrazySexyCool	15 Million [12]	1994	R&B
3. Destinys Child	The Writing's on the Wall	13 Million [13]	1999 - 2000	Pop R&B

[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] 1950s and 1960s

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.

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

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. 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] 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 Spector, 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 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 risqué, 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] 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 and the 1990s

In the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United States, 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. 1990 saw the beginning of Destiny's Child, whose success through to 2006 rendered them as the best selling girl group of all time with sales between 50 - 60 million records worldwide ^[14][15] (not included solo carees), and one of the best musical trio's of all time according to Billboard^[16][17].

Many of the girl groups of the 1990s 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 All Saints, became one of the most successful British pop group of the 90's with 5 No. 1 in the Uk and two multi-platinum albums. "Never Ever", their second single, is their biggest hit topping the charts in UK and Australia.

The Spice Girls were one of the most influential pop girl groups around this time. They brought their slogan "Girl Power" to popular use, with 9 No. 1 singles in the UK, such as Wannabe, 2 Become 1 and Spice Up Your Life, sold-out concerts, advertisements, merchandise and even a film, became the most successful British girl group, and enormous success globally. The first album Spice is the best-selling album of the all time by a female group with worldwide sales of 23 million copies ^[18][19]. In total The Spice Girls sold in excess of 55 million records worldwide ^[20] became the biggest selling female group of the 90's, and one of best selling female groups in the history.

The 1990s also saw the era of TLC, who became one of the biggest selling girl groups of all time and whose sophomore album, Crazy Sexy Cool is the best selling hip hop and female r&b group album of all time, with sales of 15 million copies. Billboard also ranks them as one of the best musical trios of all time.

SWV another group from the nineties had songs that appeared in every genre. They are the third best selling female group to come out of the nineties after Spice Girls and TLC. Meanwhile, a group by the name of Jade was looking up to the success of TLC and SWV all three in the same genre of music.

[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 France 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.

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".

Creator of the Pussycat Dolls, Robin Antin created a new reality show in search of 3 lucky young talented women willing to compete to become a new R&B Pop girl group Girlicious, in 2008. At the finale, Antin named Tiffanie Anderson, Natalie Mejia, Chrystina Sayers and Nichole Cordova, as Girlicious.

Another creation of Antin, is the Paradiso Girls, the European version of the Pussycat Dolls, set to debut sometime in 2008. They included eight diverse members at first, but now have five founding members. One of the members is Chelsea Korka, one of the finalist from Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll. Each of the five girls represent 5 different countries. Another co-creation is Girlesque, somewhat following the footsteps of the Pussycat Dolls.

In Germany, Soccx, a new rising girl group, with 5 girls from the U.S., is on the rising scene. Starting from being a quintet, they are now a trio. They have two singles out, From Dusk till Dawn and Scream Out Loud, as seen on Youtube.

In Korea, many of the K-pop girl groups, such as Baby V.O.X, Fin.K.L, S.E.S, Wonder Girls and Girls' Generation, led K-pop boom in East Asia and contributed to Korean Wave, or Hanryu. In Japan, J-pop bands such as Zone (2000s), Onyanko Club (1980s), Morning Musume (late 1990s-present), AKB48 (late 2000s-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 their studio debut album "TCG", which debuted in the top 50 on the Billboard charts.

In 2005, MTV reality tv show, Making the Band 3, P.Diddy formed Danity Kane, with 5 diverse talented young women. Their very first album debuted at #1 on the main charts and went platinum. In two months, it sold 1 million copies world wide. Welcome to the Dollhouse was released on March 18th, 2008, and it also debuted at #1 on the main charts and has since been certified Gold, and in no time will be certified platinum. Danity Kane is the first girl group in history to have both there debut and sophomore album make it onto the main charts at #1 in its first week of release. They have since released two top 10 hits and are well on there way to becoming one of the biggest girl groups to ever break into the music industry bringing international pop back to radio.

Another girl group includes, R&B sensation Cherish.

Bands like The Raveonettes, Miss Derringer and the Detroit Cobras incorporate the sound of early-1960s girl groups.

[edit] References

[edit] Citations

[edit] External links

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