Research Proposal

The topic that I intend to explore and discuss in my research paper is the girl-group music movement of the 1960s: more specifically, the relationships between female girl groups and their (often) male producers, as well as the relationships between the girl group performers and their audiences. I plan to proceed by gathering a variety of resources: first and foremost, I expect most of my sources to be critical books, articles, or essays on the subject. Secondly, I hope to obtain a video (or more, if more can be found) containing live footage of girl groups performing, which I believe will be of great importance in writing authentically and passionately about the subject. Finally, I hope to gain information through interviews, either from filmed footage or possibly conducting an interview with Jacqueline Warwick, one of the most prominent scholars of the girl group movement.

My tentative thesis is that members of girl groups rarely had free reign to exercise agency, and were often manipulated, if not completely controlled by the producer, to do his willing. My working definition of agency is a human’s capacity to act willingly in making choices and expressing them in the world as a rational, thought-out process. However, as detrimental as this was to the individual female performers, the music, lyrics, and marketization of the girl groups nevertheless transformed the perspectives of their female teenage audience, helping foster new discussion of gender, sexuality, and freedom that helped the teenage girls improve their senses of agency. In furthering the argument made in my thesis, I plan to discuss the treatment of and attitude towards “girl” groups, the power of the producers (in particular, Phil Spector and Berry Gordy Jr., two of the most famous producers of their time) and their manipulations of the groups, meanings within “trite” girl group lyrics, techniques used to market the groups (appearance and public image), and finally, the atmosphere of female teenagers before, during, and after the girl-group era.