The Girl Group Sound, made famous and unforgettable by acts like The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Supremes, and The Vandellas, took over the airwaves by capturing the mix of innocence and rebellion emblematic of America in the 1960s. As songs like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Then He Kissed Me," and "Be My Baby" rose to number one, Girl Groups cornered the burgeoning post-war market of teenage rock and roll fans, indelibly shaping the trajectory of pop music in the process. But the story of the Girl Group Sound is also one of race and power. The women, most of whom were Black and many of whom were only teenagers when their first songs were recorded, were cultivated, packaged, and sold by a music industry that cut them out of the lion's share of their profits. And though the women's careers would take them on tour with Civil Rights leaders and to performances at some of the earliest desegregated concerts, many found themselves cast aside as trends shifted in favor of the largely white British Invasion of the mid to late '60s.
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