Girl Groups, Girl Culture

by Jacqueline Warwick

Then He Kissed Me , He's A Rebel , Chains , Stop! In the Name of Love all these songs capture the spirit of an era and an image of "girlhood" in post-World War II America that still reverberates today. While there were over 1500 girl groups recorded in the '60s--including key hitmakers like the Ronettes, the Supremes, and the Shirelles - studies of girl-group music that address race, gender, class, and sexuality have only just begun to appear. Warwick is the first writer to address '60s girl group music from the perspective of its most significant audience--teenage girls--drawing on current research in psychology and sociology to explore the important place of this repertoire in the emotional development of young girls of the baby boom generation. Girl Groups, Girl Culture stands as a landmark study of this important pop music and cultural phenomenon. It promises to be a classic work in American musicology and cultural studies.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Research, History, Gender, Pop Culture, Gender Studies

286 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2007

Reviews

[mia]

definitely changed the way i engage with girl groups Also now i wanna make a playlist

[Bridget]

Pre-Goodreads

[Jonathan]

I learned a few things about girl group music that I previously didn't know, although they somewhat escape me here. A whole chapter about the Shangri-La's, though! Altogether its assertions were pretty persuasive, and though its roots as a thesis were perhaps a little obvious, it wasn't overwhelmingly academic, and likely this realm was in need of some scholarly attention.

[Vikki VanSickle]

I loved this book. It was informative, fascinating, and very accessible. It made me go out and download tons of music from itunes by the bands mentioned. This also proved to be a very useful resource while I was working on my novel Summer Days, Starry Nights, set in the early 1960s.

[Meaghan]

SO excited to read this book!