Collective Identities, Black Girlhood and 60s Vocal Groups

Publication Date

3-1-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Girlhood Studies

Volume

15

Issue

1

DOI

10.3167/ghs.2022.150108

First Page

105

Last Page

120

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with Black women who sang in all-female vocal groups during the late 1950s and early 1960s, I examine the important role played by integrated public and private schools in the formation of the 1960s girl group phenomenon. From talent shows to choir practice, locker rooms to hallways, Black girls took up audible space in institutions of higher learning whenever they harmonized with friends or acquaintances. The collective identities Black girls created in their vocal groups allowed them to challenge racial and gender stereotypes in the civil rights era while also modeling sisterhood and friendship for subsequent generations of girls.

Keywords

collective identities, girl groups, group harmony, integrated public schools, popular music, respectability, spatial entitlement, talent shows

Department

Film and Theatre; Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

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