The groups, usually made up of three to five singers, often formed through glee clubs and high schools, with many having backgrounds in church gospel music.
Their songs employed a lead voice with backup harmonies, and the music was a hybrid of soul, rhythm and blues, pop and 's doo-wop. So they're sitting at home or gathering at a friend's house or they're sitting on the bench during basketball practice at school, and doing the same kind of thing—harmonizing and making up songs. It wasn't uncommon for a group to get its big break at a high school talent show or, like The Dreamettes in the movie Dreamgirls , at a local talent contest.
In the oral history Women of Motown by veteran music critic Susan Whitall, former Marvelette Katherine Anderson Schaffner talks about her group's Motown break: "We all sang in the [Inkster High] School glee club; that was one of the classes we had together. They announced that they were having a talent show. When they announced that, Gladys asked why don't we go ahead and be a part of the talent show. But because of our performance, one of our teachers…when it came time to audition for Motown—because that was a part of what your winnings would be, to audition for Motown—she recommended that they take the top five.
And we were fourth. The girls went to Detroit for an audition, and eventually, they kick-started the Motown hit machine that would later call itself "The Sound of Young America. The success of girl groups had much to do with the market. The post-war baby boom had produced more teenagers than ever before, and the s brought the explosion of a new teen culture with its own music, clothes, movies and dancing. Teenage life became synonymous with pop culture, and with many of these teenagers having money to spend, the record market flourished.
Teenagers listening to popular music during this time heard songs with voices that sounded like their own. They watched performers on stage who were their age.
For American girls to see female groups was something new. In Motown, founder Berry Gordy aimed to make music with widespread pop charts appeal.
Certainly whites particularly young people had been listening to black music before girl groups came on the scene, and black artists had made the pop charts before. Yet before girl groups, it was easier for a song to cross over than for artists themselves to do, says Warwick. And, of course, white artists also re-recorded songs done by black artists. Little Richard's song 'Tutti Frutti' [could] access that white suburban middle-class audience, but Little Richard himself [couldn't] do that.
With girl groups, that becomes more possible. That isn't to say teenagers weren't also listening to the original Little Richard. But in Motown, Berry Gordy knew he could achieve both the musical and social aspect of crossover with well-groomed, sweet young girls.
Girl groups subject matter articulated a common teenage experience, regardless of race, even as the culture around them was slow to catch up. They sang to mixed audiences about courtship, boys, parties, parents and parents not letting them go to parties to court boys. But they also sang about love and crushes, mostly from the position of a patiently waiting, yearning girl. This seemingly passive attitude and general lack of depth in song subject matter makes it easy to dismiss girl groups music as trivial and, in contemporary terms, less than radical.
But the songs were sometimes closer to real life than expected. And he did have a long-standing affair with Ross. How did Jimmy Early die? Jimmy Spicer, who in the protean era of recorded hip-hop released a handful of songs that would become part of the genre's bedrock, died on Friday in a Brooklyn hospital.
He was His daughter Leticia Ricks said the cause was lung and brain cancer. Is Dream Girls true story? The movie, based on the Broadway play, tells the story of a small black record label and its star singers whose success crosses over to the pop charts. Although loosely based on The Supremes, the movie is a work of fiction. The real story of the s girl groups, however, changed American music forever.
How did Effie White die? Cardiovascular disease. Did Curtis ever love Effie? Curtis never loved Effie. He was a snake, just like Mary said. Who married Diana Ross? And I am telling you, I did not want to go.
The genre that falls directly into my sweet spot is classical. This was way before she broke me with Lemonade. And, although Eddie is a living legend, the last thing that stuck in my mind about him was the transsexual hooker he got pulled over with.
It was prominent in my mind because it happened very near my studio apartment and all I could think was this is where Eddie hangs out? But there have to be better pickup locales. After that, Eddie was pretty low-key. Jamie Foxx, however, had had a huge hit in Collateral with Tom Cruise and then knocked us all out with his Oscar-winning role in Ray.
So, yeah, that may have given me pause, but you know what? I came to LA to do my best among the best. I got my start in entertainment doing stand-up at a sorority charity event when I was a junior at Duke University. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I just got up there and winged it, regurgitating funny stories my younger brother had told me about him and his friends.
I had one goal in mind. I wanted my own sitcom — The Retta Show. In , I packed my leased car and moved to LA, armed with a stack of unfortunate head shots and a book titled Your Film Acting Career. I auditioned for anything I could, and fine-tuned my stand-up. Your girl husssssstled and that shit paid off. The New Faces showcase was a huge deal because all the television development execs in Hollywood go to see the talent. This was an iconic piece of black theater. And as my manager kept pointing out, it was going to be Big.
You transcend it. There are white comics who do black shows and kill. A beloved character. An iconic character in the black theater canon. Giving me the chance to finally be recognized by the black audience. My original goal was to be a sitcom star. Now I was being offered an opportunity to be a movie star? Yeah, a movie star.
For them to hear. With their ears. As many times as I had auditioned in my career, I still felt sick every time. This would be infinitely worse. Because this was going to be Big. That motherfucker was in my head. The fear of rejection is real, my friends.
After I immediately said yes, she told me the character was a lesbian. Okay, just give me a job! But before I could, I panicked. This was cable.
Lots of nekkidness. Instead, she decided she wanted to do a dramedy about a wealthy Texas family and called me up again with the pitch, which was also being developed for HBO. And her name is Retta. The suits at HBO were nervous. Sex and the City was ending and they were looking for another hit. Or so I thought. It turned out I was gonna have to audition for the part.
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