you can totally ignore this ask if it seems like too much work, but Im coming to you for girl group advice. specifically: I really want to like fifth harmony. I love girl groups in general and little mix in particular, but fifth harmony feels really ~~ to me. I've heard a handful of their songs, but havent loved any. do you have any advice on what will win me over? especially good songs? or especially endearing interviews?
Ooh, that is a good question.
I mean, I’m gonna be totally honest: I like 5H more out of principle than out of actually thinking their music is that great, for the most part. Like, PURELY based on music alone, they’re the 3rd or 4th best current English-language girl group, IMO, after Little Mix, TP4Y, and maaaybe The Janes if their original stuff continues more in the vein of “Can’t Let Go” than awful “She’s Crazy.” So. I mean, I will defend and support 5H because I will defend and support all girl groups that aren’t Literally Evil. (Like, when I was in HS, there was a rash of news stories about neo-Nazi record labels putting out girl groups/duos, and I would not support that. Or whatever. YKWIM.)
BUT! I will say that 7/27 is way, way, way better of a girl group album than Reflection was. It’s no Salute or Get Weird or The Writing’s On the Wall, but it IS probably as good as DNA, and 5H’s vibe is distinctly Modern Pussycat Dolls Club Music-y kinda stuff, so if that’s what you’re into, it’s worth a purchase. Also to Support All Girl Groups, it’s worth a purchase.
(Although if you’re going to buy only one girl group album from 2016 so far, make it Kisses by TP4Y. Just saying. It’s phenomenal.)
I think my top five 5H songs are:
Big Bad Wolf – If they continue on with this kind of vibe, I would love it, and I feel like it’s one of their most creative songs.
Miss Movin’ On – I KNOW IT’S VANILLA AS HELL BUT SO AM I TBH AND I LIKE THIS SONG
Bo$$ – Catchy af; name-checks powerful black women, they all sound good singing it, soundtrack of my summer 2014.
This Is The Life – Also catchy af; I enjoy songs with lyrics that are a lil dumb to fit the rhyme scheme and “eatin’ good/gettin’ lit” is… that.
Scared of Happy – I read a 7/27 review that said this song feels “dated to 2012,” and I can see that because of the ~BASS DROPpppp~ but I also jam out to this twice a day in my car, so. I like it.
Beyond that, it’s like… I love Normani and I love Lauren? And I feel badly for Ally and Dinah being the best voices in the group but constantly denied attention or a center position in the group because they’re, well, not Normani, Lauren, or Camila.
IDK, I just have a lot of super protective feelings about all women in the entertainment industry all the time ever unless they’re like, literally murderers or abusers (or… Kardashians… whom I just can’t seem to get behind I JUST CAN’T???) so. IDK. Protect All Girl Groups; Stop Rich White Men From Perverting Feminism/Sex-Positivity/Body Positivity So That They Can Manipulate Young Women Into Making Their Sexuality The Provenance Of Men And Money While Calling It Empowerment; Stop Calling Harmful Abusive Practices Nurturing/Nutritional/Necessary; etc. Whatever. I just have constant feelings about the role of media exploitation of women like literally all the time. So. SUPPORT ALL GIRL GROUPS, is what I’m saying. I like the (rare, but real) instances of both Lauren and Normani in particular standing up against how they’ve been treated in the music industry/media as women and as WoC – of course, very differently, since Lauren is white-passing Latina and Normani is a dark-skinned Black woman, but also differently because of their personal sexualities and boundaries and how those have an impact on, and make an impact on, the way they’re treated as WoC and as professionals, and just. I like that occasionally they’ll say something genuine that should be really listened to about that, and of course, they never are.
But like, girl groups are a category more than a genre, I feel? So 5H is just a genre within that category that is more synthesizer-driven, clubby music, and I don’t necessarily think that you have to love all girl groups’ MUSIC equally to give them all support and validation. YK?
THAT SAID: 5H, through Camila and Dinah, have had more than one instance of anti-Black racism come out to the public and afaik, neither of them has ever explicitly apologized (or even acknowledged that they said what they said?) and that is a perfectly fair and absolutely important, valid line in the sand to have to just be anti-5H as a whole as a result. I’m wary of both of them, and very disappointed that they haven’t apologized, but I am white, and I have the luxury and privilege of being able to be upset about it without being personally attacked by their use of the N-word. They both have two “strikes” with me, even though MAKING THE CHOICE TO USE THAT WORD ONE TIME IS TOO MANY, because I DO tend to give women more leeway than men with Being Problematic which might be a YFIP: Me trait and I’m aware of that, but again, that is entirely because I have white privilege and can see/listen to them without being exposed to personal, pointed, targeted pain because of their flippant use of that kind of language; I just keep hoping that they’re listening and learning and will not repeat their choice, the way that they listened and learned after being called out for homophobic language when they were first starting out? But. Again: 1000% a thing that SHOULD be taken into consideration about them as a group, and a totally valid reason to just… not like them until/even if they do apologize.
I don’t condone their words or actions, and I do think that they absolutely need to actually, explicitly, verbally apologize. And that is another reason that, for me, I find 5H to be 3rd or 4th tier of the current English-language girl groups, and I can’t be like, “OH THEY’RE MY FAVE” as people, either. No one, no matter how big a fan they are, should be defending those instances or trying to prove people hurt by their racism “wrong” for not “getting over it.”
