The 90s - Girl Groups and Girl Power

Girl groups in the 90s were very popular, and almost all for different reasons. Some of the groups had obvious influences, whilst others attempted to create their own, new type of girl group.


A major girl group of the 90s was "The Spice Girls". With a total of over 65million records sold, they are the most succesful girl group ever and the most successful group since "The Beatles". There are many reasons why The Spice Girls were as successful as they were, with the main reasons being their style and look as a group. Every member of The Spice Girls dressed differently and had a unique stage name, "Scary Spice", "Baby Spice", "Posh Spice", "Sexy Spice" and "Sporty Spice". By having this The Spice Girls were enabling themselves to be more likeable, as every fan had their favourite. The band also attracted a lot of male attention, especially with some of their more revealing outfits.




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Another very popular girl group of the 90s were Destinys Child. They had been influenced greatly from bands such as "The Ronettes", following their uniform appearance and group choreography. They had one main singer and two backing singers. This can be found in many bands especially from the 60s such as, "The Ronnettes", The Supremes" and "The Three Degrees". En Vogue were another band which were heavily influenced, with the uniform appearance and group choreography, however they did not have a lead singer, but had a lot of harmonising and certain band members taking the lead roles for different parts of the song.



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Many of the girl groups of the 90s were making music about feminism and how women/girls can do things better than men. A major song illustrating this point was called "Girl Power" by a girl group called "Shampoo" in 1995. The song simply states how much better it is to be a girl then a boy, and how girls can do boys things too, with the opening lyrics as "I don't want to be a boy, I want to be a girl".



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In agreement with this was the riot movement which consisted of underground punk girl groups such as, "Bikini Kill" and "Jack of Jill". Their songs would often contain lyrics addressing issues like female empowerment and sexuality. Writing songs about these issues was their way of getting their message across the world. In most songs they would put their points across quite aggressively just as the usual punk band would, with a "don't-care" attitude.

As well as being a very well known producer and manager, Phil Spector played an important role for the girl groups of the 90s. He was the recruiter of many famous girl groups of the 60s such as, "The Crystals", "The Ronnettes" and "The Blossoms", and was the pioneer of the 1960s girl group sound. Without him the girl groups of the 90s may not have existed in the way that they did.


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Many of the 90s girl bands have influenced the girl bands of today. The Spice Girls have undoubtedly influenced Girls Aloud, a fun sexy band consisting of five female singers, each with their own unique style.


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The 90s was a big time for girl bands, a whole lot of attitude and feminsim. The whole point in most of the girl bands in the 90s was to get the point across that girls are better than boys. However the actual musical content was very simple and repetative, with very repetative lyrics and a cheesy hook. The chord sequences were very simple along with a simple catchy melody, and a dancy rhythm.

The girl groups of the 90s were undoubtably both influencial and outstanding in the way they performed, having a vast potential for fans, they were always going to be successful. Some groups were more popular and successful for different reasons. I think certain groups like destiny's child and eternal could have been a lot bigger, however there were too many all girl groups alike them at the time. This is why the spice girls were so popular and successful, because they were different and unique. I think that the most powerful thing that the girl groups of the 90s had was their lyrics and hooks in their songs. Without the lyrics the song would sound very simple. Some songs such as "C'est la vie" from B*Witched contained a very catchy melody aswell as the predictable lyrics and cheesy hook.

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The 90s was a good time for Girl groups.

List of Information Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Power
http://www.girl-groups.com/

Initial Pop Music Influences Assignment:

My Chemical Romance is a heavily based rock band, and has been going now for 8 years. Straight away, just shortly after forming the band, they signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album, “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love”.
My Chemical Romance has been categorized as “Emo” and “Alternative Rock”, however lead singer Gerard Way is said to have publicly rejected the term “Emo”. They have come across to the nation with a “we don’t care” attitude which could be said to have been taken from many previous punk bands as well as others. A lot of the music created by Gerard and the band is about problems and illness, which is written from the heart of Gerard, based on his home life problems which are expressed through his music.

In an interview with the lead singer Gerard Way, taken from metalunderground.com, he states that he was inspired at an early age by Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), “'cause he's a great frontman, a great singer and I've always been influenced by the way he sang”. I think that this comes across much in the way Gerard performs, by leaping across stage and being a very good frontman, just like Bruce Dickinson. I also think that the style of songs has been influenced by Iron Maiden, with loud energetic heavy tracks, contrasted with the soft melodic tunes, often played on guitar. I think that the drummer uses a lot of fast powerful fills which can be heard in Iron Maidens tracks also, by Nicko McBrain. The whole band setup is the same as Iron Maiden, with two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a singer, and is used in the same way. But the main influential part has to be the singing, with the use of screaming in tune and shouting down the microphone.

The bands album artwork also reflects how they have been influenced by iron maiden, with deathly pictures, such as skeletons and blood, and abstract artwork, coming across as a dark band. The bands artwork uses a lot of dark colours and some strange pictures, creating eeriness about it.

Another band which has said to have had a great influence on My Chemical Romance is “Thursday”. Both bands were from New Jersey and both had recorded for Eyeball. Both bands also combined punks’ aggression, with deep powerful lyrics. Also the record “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” was produced by Geoff Rickly, Thursday’s lead singer.

The bands fashion style is very much like The Cure’s, with dark clothes and makeup. I think they have taken this look from the cure and I feel that they want to express their feelings through the way they dress, almost circus like.

I think that My Chemical Romance have taken many features from bands and mixed them together, creating a new style of band which effectively will appeal to most people. I like the band for their attitude and deep lyrics, and think that they are a very influential band themselves.