I heart the 90s. It was a time when music made sense, singers could actually “BLOW,” and female groups dominated the airwaves. It wasn’t enough to simply be an entertainer; these sistas actually had raw, effortless talent. The majority of my adolescent years were spent humming along to songs that lauded black womanhood and dripped with more sensuality than sexuality.
The female vocal group is now as close to extinction as any beautiful rare bird. Killed off by commercial demand and video vixens, for me, and my girlfriends, they will live on forever in our, “Girl do you remember…” conversations. It is their voices that made us proud to be young black women coming of age in the 1990s and this is what they meant to us…
Salt-N-Pepa= Swagger. Do you remember where you were the first time you hummed along to “Shoop?” I was in 7th grade and I spent long afternoons praying that someone would order the video on The Box.
The lyrics dripped with confidence mixed with just the right amount of sex appeal and a dash of cocky, giving birth to the idea of the female mack. Shoop was the epitome of “go for yours girl, because I’m surely going for mine.” These ladies made respect a requirement, not an option.
En Vogue= Sophistication. Who didn’t want to be Dawn, Terry, Cindy, and Maxine all at the same time? I practiced “Hold On” on a daily basis in my bathroom mirror in preparation for my sold out concerts on the playground during the summer of 1990. I wanted to emulate everything that I perceived En Vogue to be, beautiful women with extraordinary vocal talent.
Their words reflected self-esteem, self-worth, independence, and empowerment, all wrapped up in four lovely packages. True, I was only 8 years old and I couldn’t conceive the weight of the lyrics of “Hold On” until adulthood, even today, there still hasn’t been a group that’s had the same impact as En Vogue.
TLC= Sass. Crazy….Sexy…Cool…put ‘em all together and what did you get …T-Boz, Left-Eye, and Chilli. These sistas combined their individual talents to inspire girls all over the world to embrace their uniqueness and dare to be different. T.L.C. was unconventional in a funky and classy way.
While I love everything that T.L.C. has ever given life to, “Baby-Baby-Baby” will always be my number one. Talk about making somebody love you on your terms. You’d have to be dumb, deaf, and blind to miss the meaning of…
“Cause a girl like me, Won’t stand for less, I require plenty conversation with my sex…” enough said.
S.W.V= Soul. No talent show of the early 1990s was complete without at least two groups of girls performing one of S.W.V.’s songs, and it may have even been the same song. Sister’s With Voices stepped up the female vocal group game when they introduced emotion into the equation. To this day, I cannot sing “Weak” without closing my eyes and losing myself in the words of the song. We may not have understood what true love was, but baby we knew what it was supposed to feel like.
Destiny’s Child= Style. Before there was “The Beyonce”, there were four beautiful girls that sure could “sang” and looked good doing it. “No, no, no” was innocent and playfully flirty. Say what you want with your mouth boy, but your eyes are really telling the truth. Destiny’s Child (the first edition) was stylish without being tacky, seductive without being raunchy, and youthful with just the right amount of maturity. The last great female group of the 90s, Destiny’s Child will always be my very own dream girls.
And the tombstone reads, “R.I.P. Female Vocal Groups: Gone But Not Forgotten.”
Suezette -- Daily Venus Diva.
I grew up listenint to ALL of those groups!!! But you forgot ONE female R&B group. Xscape!! Another great group with an unforgetable sound!! And you were a seventh grader when “Shoop” came out?? SO WAS I???? My favortie would have to be EnVouge and their song “Never Gonna Get It”
All of these groups were great; my favorite was/is En Vogue. I wish there were still popular girl groups today in 2010. It seems their “time” comes and go– in the mid 1960s, there were some, in the late 1970s there were some, and in the early 1990s there were some. So maybe soon again the girl groups will rise again.
Hey there ! Yeah the 90′s girl group were tha SHEEZY mahn .
I love all these groups; Allure, 702, 4KaST, Pure Soul, BlackGirl, Blaque, TLC, SWV, Xscape, Total, En Vogue, Brownstone, Zhane, Changing Faces, Destiny’s Child, Phajja, Sa-Deuce, For Real, MoKenStef, Emage, E.V.E., S.H.E., Vybe, Shades, Before Dark, Y?N-Vee, Trina & Tamara, Forshe, Infiniti, The Braxtons, Willie Max, Assorted Phlavors, Sista, Divine, Premiere, Terri & Monica, 7669, Elusion, Ex-Girlfriend, Jade, Jazzyfatnastees. K.P. & Envyi, Salt-N-Pepa, Da Kaperz, Tha Truth, Trin-i-tee 5:7, Voices, and any other girl group that I forgot to mention.
And what’s great about these groups are because they all came out in the 90′s when music was REAL !
p.s. if anyone knows any other girl groups I’ve missed out than can you please write them down . thanx .
oops I forgot to mention the girl group Gyrl .
GREAT POST! I loved ALL of the groups that you mentioned, as far as singers go “En Vogue” was , and is, SECOND TO NONE! They were like the secular/pop version of the Clark Sisters or something! I too, sang “Hold On” in my school’s talent show when I was in 4th grade. That was back when “cassette tapes” were still in and I played that song until the ribbon came out of the tape! LOL! Then I rolled it back up & played it again! TLC helped me get through middle school! To this day I can quote Left-Eye’s verse to Waterfalls VERBATIM! Yes, R.I.P to all of the tallented, fly girl groups of the 90′s, and the male groups too! Boyz II Men, Shai, New Edition, Hi-Five, Dru Hill, and many others deserve their own post!
I guess the latest trend is to say that girl groups are dead, along with hip hop. Hip hop is alive and well if you know what to listen to. Girl groups are not dead. Sophia Fresh, Rich Girl, and Purple Reign, just to name a few, are out there working hard to make something. However, these groups will never make it if half of the audience hates on them for not being like Destiny’s Child/ SWV/ TLC/ En Vogue, and the other half hates them for being too “similar” in style and sound. Half hate for not being original enough, the other half hate for being to weird or out of the box. Truth is none of those groups are trying to be like anyone but themselves, with their own vision/ style. If you just let the music stand for what it is instead of trying to fit them in the box of years past, then it won’t appear that groups are close to extinction but rather developing a new breed.
En Vogue was and still is the shit. I don’t care for SUV too much and the rest but they still cool.
En Vogue is in the studio recording their new album,will be out late this year with a world tour. i’m fucking readdddddddyyyyyyyy!
Hey ya fanx fo’ tha comments
But yeah SWV will always be my favorite female group ! I just can’t wait for them to drop their anticipated 4th set which is due late this year, but I hope that this is not one of those lies that we here much often from artists now . lol .
Go SWV and drop us another RECORD . It’s about time we NEED a REAL female group up in the MARKETS !!!
p.s. forgot to mention Kut Klose too . lol
I love this!! I miss them painfully but I still play their music all the time and then in a flash I am back in the 90′s jammin and chillin with my girls! I loved the group brownstone, they were amazing.