Sonic Youth Gossip - Who were the first ever Boy band/Girl group?

Sonic Youth Gossip (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/index.php)

- Non-Sonic Sounds (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/forumdisplay.php?f=4)

- - Who were the first ever Boy band/Girl group? (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=15325)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookie

And they were rubbish like any other manufactured boy band.

Not worse than The Clash.

ps: What's with the A Taste Of Honey avatars and the threads about rockabilly? Are you turning into Morrisey?

They didn't really make it with Warhol to be fair.

And having a good/successful manager isn't enough alone to make you a boy/girl band, Toto.

I'm sure it made a difference putting his name next to a banana.
Make or break for the VU at the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

Not worse than The Clash.

ps: What's with the A Taste Of Honey avatars and the threads about rockabilly? Are you turning into Morrisey?

I just watched A Taste of Honey again recently.
And I just got a lot of r&b/rock 'n' roll/rockabilly CDs back from somebody I lent them to and so we were playing them.
AND I was looking at the Ken Russell 50s pictures, and I loved the teddy girl ones:

Yeah, it did. Maureen Tucker once said that the money that she made with the Velvets at the time was barely enough to buy herself perfume, a packet of cigarettes and the train journey home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookie

That's a gorgeous picture.

She's 14 there apparently.
Here's another:

If by boy/girl band you mean manufactured, then the quality of the band is going to be determined by the manufacturer - some of whom, inevitably, have more talent than others.

This talent doesn't have to relate directly to music; it can be about having a vision. People like Kim Fowley and Malcolm McLaren, for example. Both geniuses, in their own way.

I guess any Motown band was a boy/girl band.

Quote:

Originally Posted by swa(y)

the beatles

Ding Ding. Of course it'd be nice if one of the boy bands to follow were interested in pushing the envelope as the beatles became when they got bored with the screaming girlies. I can't think of another one where that happened for some reason, must've been the acid.

Anyone remember Blazin' Squad?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danny Himself

Anyone remember Blazin' Squad?

Yo! The Walthamstow massive!

MC Spike-Eee — real name Sam Foulkes — chosen because he has spikey hair.
MC Reepa — real name Stuart Baker — chosen because he liked the sound of it.
MC Strider — real name Mustafa Omer — chosen because he is a fast runner.
MC Krazy — real name Lee Bailey — chosen because he has mad moments.
MC Freek — real name Oliver Georgiou — chosen because his favourite pirate station is Freek FM.
MC Melo-D — real name Chris McKeckney — chosen because he liked the sound of it.
MC Kenzie — real name James MacKenzie — chosen by splitting his surname. Kenzie was the runner up in series 3 of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2005.
MC Plat'num — real name Marcell Sommerville — chosen because he liked it (originally was Rocky-B because he liked rocky movies). MC Plat'num was runner-up in Channel 4's TV show The Games.
MC Flava — real name James Murray — chosen because he likes different flavours of music.
DJ Tommy-B — real name Tom Beasley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazin'_Squad

There used to be a guy who worked in one of the bars in this building who would hang out with them. He had the decency to keep some distance, after a while. Wicked!

I have never seen a group of young men more undesirable than the blazin squad.

You can say that out loud.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_group
(females sing (generally harmonizing together) but do not play any or all the of the instruments)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_band
(a type of pop, R&B or hip hop group featuring three or more young male singers)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-women_band
(musical groups in which females sing and play all the instruments)
There is no listing obviously for "all-male rock band" as it is superfluous.

Given these terms, The Marvelettes on the Motown label were the first "girl group." They hit #1 with "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Other early examples include The Supremes, The Ronettes and Shangri-Las. Although, predating these groups by a good bit were outfits growing out of the vaudeville tradition like The Boswell Sisters and later, The Andrews Sisters.

The Monkees would be the first "boy band" if not for a couple of conditions. They did learn to play their instruments in the end. Also, none of The Monkees were teenagers when the show first aired in 1965.

New Edition is cited by wiki as the first "boy band" along with New Kids On The Block next.

I'll hold, however, that Menudo (from Puerto Rico (as pictured in Tokolosh's post)) were first since the original line-up was formed in 1977. But Menudo really didn't break in the U.S. until on into the eighties and they never became a huge draw outside of Latin America in their history really.

They never had a private jet like Menudo, but
Musical Youth (a band of talented British schoolchildren known for their 1979 international smash "Pass the Dutchie" based on the Mighty Diamonds' "Pass The Kouchie" (a reggae song about cannabis)) are also worth mentioning. A Peel Session got them signed to MCA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_Youth

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookie

...they [VU] can hardly be described as a pop band.

VU's third album is all about pop choruses. My personal interpretation is that everything they did was, depending on the elasticity of your interpretation, a pop song. Even if you don't agree with my self-confessed 'liberal' interpretation of pop, can you really say Sunday Morning is not a pop song? I'm sticking with you? All tomorrow's parties? I'm waiting for the man? VU took pop to other places, and it's easy to conflate the idea of rock music (which follows the verse/ chorus/ verse or verse/ bridge/ chorus [etc] model) with non-pop when pop has, in a huge amount of cases, exactly the same musical structure as 'rock'.