Boiling Point: Finding The Girl Group Formula

LMAO! Nicole gave her the “no this bitch did not try to upstage me look!” And the way Beyonce looked at Farrah during one of the DC4 interviews right as Farrah is saying they are all friends. Classic! Girl groups never survive because of ego and because girls are catty! They cannot share the spotlight for too long. At some point, Kelly Rowland got tired of being Bey’s back-up singer.

I agree 100%. chemistry & identity can make anyone fall in love with a group. Thats the only way DC was accepted again as a trio! Great read as usual, Trent…. but SPORTY Spice was def the best!!! lol

I think a major downfall also is when too many girls are in a group. I feel like 5 is too many and Spice Girls are the only exception that I know of who has survived with that many members. I see that 3 tends to be the magic number for other girl groups such as Destiny’s Child and TLC. Honestly, the only girl group that could possibly come back would be Destiny’s Child because they didn’t end on bad terms and you can genuinely tell that they are all friends. Danity Kane had SOOOOO much potential to be one of the biggest girl groups ever but it just shows how tension and drama can destroy friendships and groups.

I LOVE Spice Girls and TLC, who all had prominent individual identities.

But EnVogue did not have a stand out member, some people say Dawn, but there wasn’t a strong distinguishable identity individually, but they were steel strong collectively.

I think the original DC had members with strong personalities (Letoya was crazy; Latavia was sassy), but once Michelle was inducted, it became The Supremes 2.0.

Danity Kane were amazing! And Xscape were super awsome.

But, I do notice that Xscape, DC, and 702 were positioned to have a unique sound that was based around lead singers; Xscape’s sound was based around Latocha and Kandi.

Melody was not so hot herself with those Christina Aguilera-like grunts and groans.

Wow another site stole your post Trent! You need to sue.

Great article by the way!

@Shea Butter – EnVogue was overworked employees for managers, producers, and writers, and couldn’t individually brand themselves like the Spice Girls to move on apart. If each member had a personality, I believe their fate would have been a much different story.

Yass Melody.

Your old partner in crime stole your idea and then blocked my post when I mentioned it.

Trent, I swear that you are reviving my love for the Spice Girls. I recently bought their greatest hits and have been having a great time. I used to love them so much when I was a youngin. I loved Scary, I wanted to be her.

I totally agree with this post. The members have to like each other or at least fake like they do. When there are issues within the group, it can show in the work and leads to terrible material which leads to low sales. And the whole identity thing, I can agree with it but it has to be implicit. The roles should be obvious but not verbalized.

I LOVE the Spice Girls, TLC, & En Vogue, all 3 groups were SOOO different and soo perfect, and fit everything.

If chemistry and identity, which are all too easy to fabricate, were the most important then there would be a million more successful girl groups. You didn’t even bother mentioning more important factors, ie vocal/ dance ability and proper imaging. Clearly you have no idea of how the inner workings of girl groups. It’s because of stupid outsider armchair A&R’s like you that won’t allow new groups to be successful when they don’t fit the Spice Girls/ Destiny’s Child/ TLC formula and knock them for trying to be original. If that was the case, Parade and Paradiso Girls (Spice Girl knock offs) and Rich Girl (Destiny’s Child knock off) would have blown up. And even when they do fit the mold, they are criticized for being knock offs of the group you wanted to compare them to in the first place. But, I guess since the whole “girl groups are dead” and “I miss the Spice Girls/ Danity Kane/ Destiny’s Child” is so trendy these days we have to live with stupid articles like this. I was hoping for something different.

Thanks Trent, that was brilliant. I really enjoyed that article. Maybe one of your best Loved your writing style too. Informative and yet you didnt come off partonsing. Plus, you had your usual humour in their. Good Job!
I hope Little Mix are well manage and understand their roles in a group. Also understand what they are trying to represent as a band. The Spice Girls were great because they stood for women of ALL ages and yet appealed to men. The Pussycat Dolls stood for being high class sluts and encouraging women to be valued for their appearance alone. Danity Kane managed to balance being sassy and pro-women. Something PCD failed to do.
Time will till if Little Mix can re-capture the brillance of The Girl Band Era.

Top 5 Girl Band
1) Spice Girls
2) Danity Kane
3) Sugababes
4) Xcapse
5) Destiny’s Child

I think Sophia Fresh has the talent, chemistry, and identity that you speak of, yet they are often overlooked. They’ve been together for years and while other groups come and go, they are still pushing. It’s a shame that the use of autotune, because of T-Pain being their EP, that people think they can’t sing. They have a lot of acapella/ live performances on Youtube that prove otherwise.

I think Trent forgot that. The big kicker in girls groups these days have always been EGO. TLC with Left Eye (reason why she wasn’t on most of the material in the last two albums b4 her passing), En Vogue with Dawn, Danity Kane (leave it open for interpretation) and Spice Girls with Ginger Spice. If you are going to be in a girl group then you have to realize your roles as Trent said and come to some type of agreement. Other groups broke up because one member wanted to go solo or be that star and even when the member came back things weren’t the same. (Some of the above and also Total with Pam, and 702 with Meelah). Chemistry and Loyalty is needed.