girl group

Girl group UC3 sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

A girl group is a musical group featuring several young female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is generally not applied to girl bands or all-women, in which women play instruments as well as sing. Destiny's Child are the best selling female group of all time.

Top selling girl groups

Girl Group	Sold	Genre	Members	Years active
1. Destiny's Child	60 Million	R&B	4-3	1997 -2006 - present (9 Years)
2. Spice Girls	50 Million +	Pop	5 - 4	1996 - 2000 & 2007 - present (5 Years)
3. TLC	43 Million +	R&B	2 - 3	1991 - 2005 (14 Years)
4. Bananarama	40 Million + [1]	Pop	2 - 3	1981 - present (26 Years)
5. En Vogue	20 Million +	R&B	3 - 4	1990 - 2005 (15 Years)

Pre-girl groups

During the Music Hall/Vaudeville era, girl groups were mainly novelty acts singing nonsense songs in silly voices. One of the first major exceptions was the Boswell Sisters, one of the most popular singing group from 1930 to 1936, with over twenty hits, and one of the most important bands of the twentieth century. 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.

Early girl-groups

While the above groups were the most successful as far as money is concerned, the term "girl groups" are usually associated with the early 1960s. Phil Spector handled much of the output of the Ronettes, while Gerry Goffin and Carole King handled much of the output of The Cookies. Other important girl group songwriters included Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. The Motown label also masterminded several major girl groups, including the Supremes and The Marvelettes.

The Supremes A' Go-Go (1966) was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.

Besides harmony singing, girl group songs of the time were characterized by high-end production, and producers were often as important to the recordings as the artists themselves. Spector was the most famous 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 that many individual singers were considered to have the "girl-group sound." Lesley Gore and Little Eva were solo artists, but are generally considered part of the girl group phenomena. Other groups, such as Ruby and the Romantics and The Essex, had the "girl-group sound," even though they were not entirely comprised 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.

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.

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.

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".

UK duos Mel & Kim and Pepsi & Shirlie found varying degrees of success, but the New Wave / Europop trio, Bananarama, also from the UK, 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.)

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.

Rap duo Salt-N-Pepa, who later became a trio, were one of the first female rap acts to hit the charts with songs like "Push It" and "Let's Talk About Sex". One of the most inspirational girl bands was titled SWV standing for Sisters With Voices, with many hits throughout the 90s.^{[citation needed]}

In Canada, a pop duo of twin sisters, Tú, and the R&B/rap duo Love & Sas found short-lived success.

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, sold-out concerts, advertisements, and even a film. Their 1st single Wannabe entered #1 in 31 countries. Their album Spice sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

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

In the early 2000s, girl groups again increased in popularity, spawning such bands as California-based Dream, the Swedish quartet Play, the Russian duo t.A.T.u. 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 has gathered worldwide success lately; with their #1 hit Don't Cha they burst into the music scene, and following songs such as Stickwitu, Beep, etc. made them sold more than 6 million copies in 2005-2007.

4PG,an American girl group discoved in Atlanta,GA there first hit song Got it going on sold 1.2 million copies in America

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

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

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.

In the 1990s, TLC became one of the most successful girl groups in history. Their second album, CrazySexyCool sold 15 million copies worldwide.^[2] and is one of the most successful R&B albums ever released. The group's third album, Fanmail, debuted at number 1 in the U.S. and sold over 10 million units worldwide. TLC released some the most successful R&B and Pop singles of the 1990s such as Waterfalls, Creep, Baby-Baby-Baby, Unpretty and No Scrubs. Worldwide, TLC have sold over 43 million records. Other girl groups in this vein included 702 and Total; both groups were often produced by Missy Elliott.

The biggest selling girl group of all time is Destiny's Child, whose 1999 album The Writing's on the Wall produced two No.1 singles Bills, Bills, Bills and Say My Name, sold over 13 million copies worldwide ^[3], and was certified 9x Platinum by RIAA^[4]. In the year 2000, Destiny's Child released the longest running single at No.1 by a female group or band on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart with Independent Women Part 1, which was No.1 for 11 consecutive weeks. The single also debuted at No.1 in UK, becoming the first all-American female group to do so. Destiny's Child's third album Survivor (2001) debuted at No.1 with over 660,000 copies sold, and produced two more No.1 singles Survivor and Bootylicious. The album sold 10 million copies worldwide and was certified 4x Platinum by RIAA. Recently, Destiny's Child was honored with a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. In total, Destiny's Child's sales exceed 60 million units worldwide.

See also

• List of all-women bands
• Boy bands

References

1. ^ Central Station: Bananarama 40 million sales
2. ^ RIAA List of Diamond Awards
3. ^ TicketNest: Biography on Beyonce
4. ^ [www.riaa.com/gp/default.asp RIAA Searchable database]

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