Global InformationGirl group information
A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of whom were influenced by doo-wop and which flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s between the decline of early rock and roll and start of the British Invasion.[1][2] All-female bands, in which members also play instruments, are usually considered a separate phenomenon. These groups are sometimes called "girl bands" to differentiate,[3] although this terminology is not universally followed.
With the advent of the music industry and radio broadcasting, a number of girl groups emerged, such as the Andrews Sisters. The late 1950s saw the emergence of all-female singing groups as a major force, with 750 distinct girl groups releasing songs that reached US and UK music charts from 1960 to 1966.[4] The Supremes alone held 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 during the height of the wave and throughout most of the British Invasion rivaled the Beatles in popularity.[5][6]
In later eras, the girl group template would be applied to disco, contemporary R&B, and country-based formats, as well as pop. A more globalized music industry gave rise to the popularity of dance-oriented pop music[7] led by major record labels. This emergence, led by the US, UK, South Korea and Japan, produced popular acts, with eight groups debuting after 1990 having sold more than 15 million physical copies of their albums. With the Spice Girls, the 1990s also saw the target market for girl groups shift from a male audience to an increasingly female one.[8][9] In the 2010s, the K-pop phenomenon led to the rise of successful girl groups including Girls' Generation, Blackpink, and Twice.[10]
- ^ Rutledge, Meredith E. (15 April 2013). "The Fabulous Girl Groups | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rockhall.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- ^ "Girl Groups - A Short History". History-of-rock.com. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- ^ Claudia Mitchell, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (1 January 2008). Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313339080. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ "Girl Groups". Girl Groups. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, Inc.com. pp. 950, 959, 964, 967, 969, 970, 983, 984, 988–990. ISBN 978-0-89820-155-0.
- ^ As evidence of the popularity of the Supremes, during and after the British Invasion, on 21 May 1977 edition of American Top 40, Casey Kasem noted that the Supremes, more than any other act, dethroned the Beatles from the Hot 100's summit three times.
- ^ Held, David (1999). Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture - Google Books. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804736275. Retrieved 4 June 2014 – via Google Books.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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andrewsmithwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Aniftos, Rania (27 May 2022). "Billboard Explains: The Evolution of Girl Groups". Billboard. Archived from the original on 27 May 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.