ABSTRACT
Well established by 1972, therefore, the trio of non-white, female backing vocalists remains a standard feature of contemporary music, whether the "girls" are backing rock bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers or jazz/pop crooner Norah Jones. These unnamed and usually undifferentiated women provide support to famous performers, in a relationship that can be understood to symbolize the unacknowledged female drudgery behind male success that is critiqued by Marxist feminist writers, and that depends on knee-jerk assumptions about race in order to make sense. Although personnel in the Blossoms changed from time to time, the group's most consistent members were three young African American women from various musical and cultural backgrounds. The group's ability to sing so many different styles was, of course, a crucial component of their professionalism and appeal. James's analysis of what she did in order to sound white hinges largely on the notion of control.
