You have to go back to the late-1990s and early 2000s to find the last time that boy bands and girl mathematical group were both topping the pop music chart . Hitmakers like ' N Sync , Destiny ’s small fry , TLC , Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls wereMTVstaples — this was before YouTube , child , when medicine videos were alone on cablegram goggle box ! — and both the girl and guy groups each had their fanatic fans .
But then everything change . Most of the power station girl groups disband or derailed , and no serious replacements emerged ( we articulate " serious , " Danity Kane ) . Meanwhile , young boy ring like the Jonas Brothers and One focussing raced to fill in the teeny - bopper gap as the elderly groups fell out of fashion .
Today , the son band world is govern by the K - pop music juggernautBTS , who in 2019 became thefirst stria since The Beatlesto land three albums at No . 1 on the U.S. soda water chart in the same twelvemonth . And the video for their hit single " Boy With Luv " set a newfangled phonograph record for the most YouTube view in a single Clarence Shepard Day Jr. at 74.6 million .
But where are the girl supergroups of yesteryear ? Female stars like Beyoncé , Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift are crushing it unaccompanied , but gone is the collective " girl office " vibe . It ’s easy to blame shifting melodic taste for the demise of the little girl group , but there may be deeper societal effect at play — the same force that have undercut the success of girl groups for decades .
Where the Boys Are
The steady prayer of son bands is pretty straightforward . bulge withthe Beatlesin the 1960s , every generation of young girls have employed boy bands as safe crushes to prove drive their issue gender . When male child bands are produce , each member is marketed as having a distinct personality — the bad boy , the shy one , the funny guy — and pre - teen fans can gauge their attraction to each of these male guide .
Over at NPR , music diarist Jason Kingbroke downwhat separates a boy band from a " man stria " : members are unremarkably in their previous teen / other 20s ; their material appeal to teen and preteen young woman ; there ’s usually a handler who puts the group together , as oppose to it arising organically . " He ’s creditworthy for the sound and the feel and the casting of the band . The band often has interchangeable members so there ’s a good deal of turnover . " Also , members rarely play instrument or spell their own songs .
" Boy circle fandom has do as an well approachable identity - construction physical exercise among teen girl for decades,“wroteSasha Geffen in Fader . " There is no combining weight for straight teen son , who may identify with male musicians but are not expected or encourage to empathise with woman in any way . "
Girls Up Front
Some little girl grouping like the Spice Girls were also put together by a Svengali - type managing director . But for music journalistEvelyn McDonnell , daughter groups have always carried a unlike , but no less muscular appeal for young female fans finding their interpreter and place in the world .
" Rather than having compaction on the members , they see [ girl groups ] as talk to their own experiences and someone they could be onstage with , " sound out McDonnell , an English professor and managing director of the news media plan at Loyola Marymount University . " They project themselves onto the stage with the girl groups , as fight down to project themselves into the bedroom . "
McDonnell ’s own lean of favored all - girlfriend ring includes the Runaways , a bonafide " girl group " from the 1970s assembled by producer / promoter Kim Fowler that let in a teenage Joan Jett in its lineup .
Girl Power as a Threat
The Runaways made a plash with the raucous teenaged hymn " Cherry Bomb , " but the band ’s run did n’t last very long . McDonnellwrote a bookabout the Runaways , who she believes fall victim to sexist personal attacks and outside pressure not experienced by all - manful groups .
" They were treated horrifically by the press , promise ' squawk ' in reviews , accused of not being able-bodied to play their pawn , " say McDonnell . " That does n’t boost groups to stick around together . "
McDonnell think that one of the grown understanding why missy groups have not attain the same levels of winner as boy bands is that both male devotee and male euphony industriousness executives are inherently threatened by a bunch of women in a position of ability .
She maneuver to the golden era of girl groups in the sixties , when the Supremes were recordingas many No.1 songs as the Beatles . One of the reasons girl chemical group were allowed to prosper in the 1960s is that the creative person were subservient to their manly producers , who dictate what they wore and the words they sang .
" Those women really had to toe the line in terms of decorum and style , and seem very non - minacious and groomed , " say McConnell . " They wereliterallygroomed . "
New Flavor of Feminism?
Sasha Geffen at Fader has another account for the disappearance of girl groups since the prime of the nineties . Back then , the " girl world power " call up vociferation felt fresh and untried fans were drawn to onstage sistership that celebrated this form of feel - respectable feminism .
Geffen cogitate that 20 class down the line of credit , the girl office message has turn a loss some of its relevancy , replaced instead by what she calls " a more individualistic popping feminist movement . "
" The posse has drop off its power , and the female executive has arise in its place , " compose Geffen in 2018 . " Sheryl Sandberg ’s ' Lean In ' philosophy inform mainstream imaginings of the woman in a man ’s world . Wonder Woman only becomes a superhero once she leaves her Sapphic Zion to fight alongside humankind ; and immensely potent female Isaac M. Singer command historic numbers on the Billboard charts , if sporadically . "
For McDonnell , who redact the anthology"Women Who Rock " — which chronicle the influence and impingement of distaff musicians from Bessie Smith to Beyoncé — there will always be a special draw to all - female musical deed , whether it ’s a classic R&B girl grouping like TLC or bands from the Riot Grrrl scenery of the 1990s .
" I love seeing womanhood making artistry together and supporting each other , " says McDonnell . " I know that my girlfriend and I have unbelievable tycoon together and I love to see that presented in our polish as well . "
