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The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City, is an object of exploration. The Brill Building, home in the 1960s to much of New York's publishing and songwriting community, was where the artists, the producers, and the publishers of many Girl Group hits did their work. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, among others, created the songs that gave rise to a new, particularly female, voice in Pop music. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by Goffin and King and record by the Shirelles, exemplifies the Girl Group tradition. Emotional, direct, intimate, establishing an unambiguously female perspective, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is the sound of young women, teenagers from New York City. As the first lesson in the chapter establishes, the song arrives at radio in the very moment that issues around women's rights are beginning to hit a new high point.
In future lessons, groups like the Shangri-Las, and with them producer "Shadow" Morton, will offer case studies of Girl Group music. With its melodramatic storyline and elaborate production, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" offers a remarkable example of an emerging female perspective that is very much contingent on male power. If the Girl Group era signaled growing changes in the realm of gender and sexuality, it was only in measures. But those measures were crucial to the shifts happening in American life.
lesson:
The Rise of the “Girl Groups”
Were the Girl Groups of the early 1960s voices of female empowerment or reflections of traditional female roles?
Video
video:
Brill Building
<p>The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City, is an object of exploration. The Brill Building, home in the 1960s to much of New York's publishing and songwriting community, was where the artists, the producers, and the publishers of many Girl Group hits did their work. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, among others, created the songs that gave rise to a new, particularly female, voice in Pop music. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by Goffin and King and record by the Shirelles, exemplifies the Girl Group tradition. Emotional, direct, intimate, establishing an unambiguously female perspective, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is the sound of young women, teenagers from New York City. As the first lesson in the chapter establishes, the song arrives at radio in the very moment that issues around women's rights are beginning to hit a new high point.</p> <p>In future lessons, groups like the Shangri-Las, and with them producer "Shadow" Morton, will offer case studies of Girl Group music. With its melodramatic storyline and elaborate production, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" offers a remarkable example of an emerging female perspective that is very much contingent on male power. If the Girl Group era signaled growing changes in the realm of gender and sexuality, it was only in measures. But those measures were crucial to the shifts happening in American life. </p>
video:
In the Studio
<p>The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City, is an object of exploration. The Brill Building, home in the 1960s to much of New York's publishing and songwriting community, was where the artists, the producers, and the publishers of many Girl Group hits did their work. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, among others, created the songs that gave rise to a new, particularly female, voice in Pop music. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by Goffin and King and record by the Shirelles, exemplifies the Girl Group tradition. Emotional, direct, intimate, establishing an unambiguously female perspective, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is the sound of young women, teenagers from New York City. As the first lesson in the chapter establishes, the song arrives at radio in the very moment that issues around women's rights are beginning to hit a new high point.</p> <p>In future lessons, groups like the Shangri-Las, and with them producer "Shadow" Morton, will offer case studies of Girl Group music. With its melodramatic storyline and elaborate production, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" offers a remarkable example of an emerging female perspective that is very much contingent on male power. If the Girl Group era signaled growing changes in the realm of gender and sexuality, it was only in measures. But those measures were crucial to the shifts happening in American life. </p>
video:
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
<p>The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City, is an object of exploration. The Brill Building, home in the 1960s to much of New York's publishing and songwriting community, was where the artists, the producers, and the publishers of many Girl Group hits did their work. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, among others, created the songs that gave rise to a new, particularly female, voice in Pop music. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by Goffin and King and record by the Shirelles, exemplifies the Girl Group tradition. Emotional, direct, intimate, establishing an unambiguously female perspective, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is the sound of young women, teenagers from New York City. As the first lesson in the chapter establishes, the song arrives at radio in the very moment that issues around women's rights are beginning to hit a new high point.</p> <p>In future lessons, groups like the Shangri-Las, and with them producer "Shadow" Morton, will offer case studies of Girl Group music. With its melodramatic storyline and elaborate production, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" offers a remarkable example of an emerging female perspective that is very much contingent on male power. If the Girl Group era signaled growing changes in the realm of gender and sexuality, it was only in measures. But those measures were crucial to the shifts happening in American life. </p>
video:
(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman
<p>The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City, is an object of exploration. The Brill Building, home in the 1960s to much of New York's publishing and songwriting community, was where the artists, the producers, and the publishers of many Girl Group hits did their work. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, among others, created the songs that gave rise to a new, particularly female, voice in Pop music. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by Goffin and King and record by the Shirelles, exemplifies the Girl Group tradition. Emotional, direct, intimate, establishing an unambiguously female perspective, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is the sound of young women, teenagers from New York City. As the first lesson in the chapter establishes, the song arrives at radio in the very moment that issues around women's rights are beginning to hit a new high point.</p> <p>In future lessons, groups like the Shangri-Las, and with them producer "Shadow" Morton, will offer case studies of Girl Group music. With its melodramatic storyline and elaborate production, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" offers a remarkable example of an emerging female perspective that is very much contingent on male power. If the Girl Group era signaled growing changes in the realm of gender and sexuality, it was only in measures. But those measures were crucial to the shifts happening in American life. </p>
video:
Now: Women’s Liberation
<p>The Girl Groups chapter and its related lessons, most coming in phase two of this project, investigate both the groups of the era, including the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and others, and the institutions behind those acts. In particular, the legendary Brill Building, located in New York City, is an object of exploration. The Brill Building, home in the 1960s to much of New York's publishing and songwriting community, was where the artists, the producers, and the publishers of many Girl Group hits did their work. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, among others, created the songs that gave rise to a new, particularly female, voice in Pop music. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by Goffin and King and record by the Shirelles, exemplifies the Girl Group tradition. Emotional, direct, intimate, establishing an unambiguously female perspective, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is the sound of young women, teenagers from New York City. As the first lesson in the chapter establishes, the song arrives at radio in the very moment that issues around women's rights are beginning to hit a new high point.</p> <p>In future lessons, groups like the Shangri-Las, and with them producer "Shadow" Morton, will offer case studies of Girl Group music. With its melodramatic storyline and elaborate production, the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" offers a remarkable example of an emerging female perspective that is very much contingent on male power. If the Girl Group era signaled growing changes in the realm of gender and sexuality, it was only in measures. But those measures were crucial to the shifts happening in American life. </p>
Print Journalism
article:
Leiber And Stoller : The Blues (1950-1953) & The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years
JERRY LEIBER AND MIKE STOLLER. They rank alongside Berry as rock ‘n’ roll’s wittiest composers and their influence as record producers has been immeasurable. As writers they were the first to bring satire and a social conscience to rock; as producers they ushered out the simplicity of an era in which groups were pulled off the streets to "doo-wop" and "doo-wah" into a microphone for three minutes. From these primitive beginnings to monaural overdubbing, the very first eight-track studios and on into the realms of the technological future-shock, Leiber and Stoller have directed all the phases of post-war record production....
article:
Phil Spector
ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED MOMENTS IN late-Sixties rock comes at the beginning of 'To Be Alone With You' on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album. As the guitars begin to strum, Dylan drawls, "Is it rolling, Bob?" "Bob" is Bob Johnston, Dylan’s producer. With that single question Dylan brings to our attention Johnston’s role in the singer’s recording career. The producer is here acknowledged as a crucial part of the whole undertaking — as necessary as the tape machines, microphones, and instruments...almost as important as the singer himself. By the end of the Sixties, most rock fans could give you the names of...
article:
How The Other Half Lives: The Best of Girl Group Rock
GIRL GROUP ROCK flourished between 1958 and 1965, and though, with the passing of the Brill Building and the coming of the sophistication of the soul beat, the tradition thinned out, it’s still around. I don’t mean Shirley Alston puffing her way through greatest hits medleys on late-nite TV, the Three Degrees flashing pubic hair inside their latest offering, or even an authentic throwback like Spring – I mean the songs are still in the air, and sometimes even on the air: they’re at the heart of the Dolls, all over any John Lennon vocal, and of course there’s Bette...