Music 255 - Girl Groups Through History
Girl Groups Through History
Spring
2025
01
4.00
Allison Grace Monroe
F 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM; M 1:40 PM - 2:55 PM
Smith College
MUS-255-01-202503
Sage 216
amonroe@smith.edu
The term "girl groups" typically refers to the close-harmony all-women pop groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Yet groups like the Andrews Sisters, the Shirelles, and, most famously, the Supremes, represent only one manifestation of a centuries-long musical practice in which groups of young women have sung together, from enslaved women of the medieval Islamic world to Vivaldi's young pupils at the Ospedale della Pietà to Motown. For centuries, these groups have enthralled listeners and inspired composers. This course looks at the history of this musical phenomenon, with critical attention to its spaces, reception, and relationships and what they say about gender and musicking over time. Prerequisite:
MUS 102 or MUS 202. (E)