Girl Groups

Girl Groups

During the 1950s and 1960s music was evolving, rock and roll had first begun it journey, and female pop music groups were becoming extremely popular with American teenagers. Although “girl groups” were becoming increasingly popular with teenagers, many parents were worried about how their little girl was behaving in the world they lived in.

In the 1950s and 1960s many groups, especially girl groups, had lyrics that were naïve and adolescent, but like the times, the lyrics started to show a yearning for a better way of life (Clemente, n.d.). Even though the lyrics were unsophisticated and simple on the surface, the subtext was there for every teenager to consider. The lyrics reflected all the adolescent problems from a female viewpoint like boys, the strictness of parents, sex, etc. (Stos, 2012). During this time period, young females were “bombarded with society’s idea of the ideal woman” (Stos, 2012, p.123). Women were to be at home, always smiling, cleaning the house, cooking meals, always wearing a dress, and were never allowed to know, or lead on that they knew, more than the men in society. Through feminist lyrics that different girl groups sang, young females saw their lives in a different perspective and knew that they could change how they were being treated. Lesley Gore, a white, middle-class, Jewish teenager, debuted with her number one hit, “It’s My Party”, and her second biggest hit, “You Don’t Own, Me,” was a “feminist recording that challenged a girl’s submissive role in a relationship and indicated her desire to play the field” (Stos, 2012, p. 124). In this song, Gore sang:

You don’t own me

I’m not just one of your many toys

You don’t’ own me

Don’t say I can’t go with other boys

And don’t tell me what to do

And don’t tell me what to say

And please, what I go out with you

Don’t put me on display.

This declaration of freedom and independence was echoed in other girl group lyrics of the time as well. Lyrics within girl...