ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the stageiness and artificiality of girl group songs can serve as a metaphor for the experience of girlhood. The girl group sound was predicated on the unpolished voices of girls like Shirley Owens, whose passion and earnestness prevent the musically conventional and formulaic songs from being empty and insipid. If we consider the politics of recording sessions from a singer's standpoint, the person occupying this role is far removed from the true production of music. Dismissing girl groups on the grounds that they are like wind-up dolls whose material is forced upon them by other, more creative minds ignores the parallels between girl music and girl identity in its largest sense. In important ways, the production techniques of girl group songs mirror girls' experience in a culture that confines them to safe, domestic spaces and hands them ready-made and obviously pre-fabricated experiences to make their own.
