Best Girl Bands Of All Time
Girls Aloud After forming on ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals back in 2002, Girls Aloud became the first hugely successful group to have their origins in a talent show. The group enjoyed incredible success, recording 20 consecutive top 10 singles and four number ones, beginning with Sound of the Underground in 2002.
Little Mix As well as releasing some of the most memorable pop songs of the last few years – Black Magic, we’re looking at you – the X Factor-formed group have always been vocal in their support of body positivity and girl power.
The Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters first formed way back in 1969, but the group still perform and their legacy lives on to this day. The group achieved their commercial peak in the mid 80s, with the release of I’m So Excited and Automatic in 1982 and 1984 respectively.
The Bangles Pop-rockers The Bangles established themselves as one of the biggest acts of the Eighties after releasing the hugely popular singles Walk Like an Egyptian and Manic Monday. The songs announced them on the world stage in 1986, but it was 1989 number one Eternal Flame which really cemented their legacy.
The Shangri-Las Hugely influential girl group the Shangri-Las made their name with melodramatic, epic pop songs in the Sixties and left a truly inimitable impression on the pop landscape. Their music was concerned primarily with troubling themes and dark subject matter: the unforgettable Leader of the Pack tells the story of doomed teenager couple Betty and Jimmy.
All Saints While All Saints formed back in 1993, it was only after the arrival of Canadian twins Nicola and Natalie Appleton that they really begin to find success. After their debut album arrived at number two in the UK charts it was the use of Pure Shores on the soundtrack of Leonardo DiCaprio’s film The Beach put them firmly at the forefront of the pop culture zeitgeist in the early Noughties, and they went on to sell 12 million albums.
The Supremes Any number of girl groups on the Motown label in the Sixties could have made the list, not least Martha and the Vandellas and The Marvelettes, but The Supremes are without a doubt one of the most influential groups of all time and thoroughly deserve to be recognised as such.
TLC As well as releasing No Scrubs, one of the greatest songs of the Nineties, TLC were far more culturally significant and influential than your average pop group. In fact, few best-selling songs are as impactful as TLC’s huge hit Waterfalls and its accompanying video, which makes references to the AIDS crisis and the illegal drug trade in the US.
Destiny’s Child Before Beyoncé became the iconic feminist megastar we know and love today, she was one third of Noughties pop stalwarts Destiny’s Child. Accompanied by Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams in the group’s most widely recognised lineup, Destiny’s Child achieved a string of hits from 1997 to 2005, including Survivor, which has to go down as one of the most empowering songs of the Noughties.
Spice Girls Not only are Spice Girls the most commercially successful girl group of all time, with 80 million records sold during their career, they’re also by far the most influential of modern times.