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I’ll start with some shameless self-promotion: my band Buttermother released our third single, “Phoebe.” We’re really proud of it; it’s been in the production pipeline since the summer of 2020, and in existence since the fall of 2019. “Phoebe” was written on the first day I met my bassist and guitarist and we jammed in their apartment, now my apartment. I wrote the lyrics over the previous summer:
My God I’m so lonely
Got friends but they don’t know me
inspired by Phoebe Bridgers’ “Funeral”:
Jesus Christ, I'm so blue all the time
And that's just how I feel
Obviously, “Phoebe” did not end up sounding like Stranger in the Alps (2017); it was inspired by production styles of Dua Lipa, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Rina Sawayama. In its current form, it speaks to the other side of my music taste, rooted squarely in pop. I especially love the vocoder effects in the chorus, the sax solo (thank you Bernard), and the disco strings in the second verse.
I spent a lot of time last week going down the rabbit hole of girl groups—their history, origins, public perception. Destiny’s Child and the Pussycat Dolls come to mind, as well as their predecessors, The Supremes and The Andrews Sisters. Of course, the quintessential example is the Spice Girls, with 90 million records sold. Girl groups are rife with controversy and often the focal points of drama regarding their validity as artists, their personal lives, and whether or not they actually like each other at all. Members split from these band to pursue solo careers, often to the dismay of fans, shattering the illusion of the best friendship which sells their music. The Spice Girls are no exception; speculations, recently confirmed, that members hooked up on tour fueled a resurgence of gossip that the dissolution of this Scary-Ginger relationship was the reason the band broke up in the first place.
With all their complications, girl groups are still incredibly popular. The most modern iterations on this template—women assembled by a higher music business power, given a marketing campaign, songwriters, and sometimes a fake background story—are often the products of talent competitions (Fifth Harmony, Little Mix), massive worldwide auditions (BLACKPINK, TWICE), or, most interestingly, hand selections by a label. For sake of example, I’ll focus on two of these cherry-picked groups on opposite ends of the quality spectrum: TRAMP STAMPS and Boys World.
I’ll start with the infamous fake punk trio TRAMP STAMPS, whose music will not be making an appearance on this playlist, or any other for that matter. As chronicled in a series of viral TikToks, the members of TRAMP STAMPS were criticized for being industry plants who lied about their politics and funding. The lyrics of the song in question, “I’d Rather Die”, center around sexual coercion. Their platform allegedly centers around women’s rights and empowerment, but they’ve been linked to Dr. Luke, a known abuser, among other grievances. They put out a defensive Notes app apology on their social media accounts in response to accusations of racism and performative feminism. In reference to their appropriation of the riot grrrl aesthetic, people have suggested calling the genre of music they make (because it’s certainly not punk) “grrrlboss.”
It’s easy to see such controversy surrounding a label-made band and think that they’re all as disingenuous and dishonest as this one. But around the same time as this “I’d Rather Die” drama was unfolding, I discovered another girl group whose online presence radiated authenticity and whose music was actually good. Enter Boys World, the five-piece pop band congregated by KYN Entertainment, an independent label. The members are open about their unconventional origin story, and tell it often in Q&As and interviews: they were contacted via Instagram and asked to move to a house in Los Angeles where they would train to be the world’s most powerful girl group.
They received vocal and dance coaching, started cultivating a robust Internet following, and learned how to live and work together. This process began in 2018 and they’ve just now released their first EP, While You Were Out (2021). I’m enamored with their silly social media presence and how much it seems that they genuinely like and care about each other. I worry that they are so young, that they will fall prey to some horrible manager who promises them fame. But it seems like they have strong support systems from their various families, who make regular appearances on their vlogs, and that the label that brought them together has their best interests, musically and personally, in mind.
I think after all this research and writing, I’ve formed a pretty solid opinion—being an industry plant is just fine (you’d be hard-pressed to find an indie artist who’s not, by connections, “industry”), and the problem with girl groups like TRAMP STAMPS is one of poor management and plain old bad politics, issues which plague solo artists and traditional bands as well. Critiques of girl groups aimed at their lack of talent or work ethic are often sexist, but the criticisms levied against musicians for their bad behavior are no less valid or necessary than those against politicians or celebrities. Holding musicians accountable for the appropriate use of their platforms and acting in a way that is reflective of their purported values is just one facet of a music industry reckoning that is hopefully just around the corner.