She's So Fine: Reflections on Whiteness, Femininity, Adolescence and Class in 1960s Music (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)

"She's So Fine" explores the music, reception and cultural significance of 1960s girl singers and girl groups in the US and the UK. Using approaches from the fields of musicology, women's studies, film and media studies, and cultural studies, this volume is the first interdisciplinary work to link close musical readings with rigorous cultural analysis in the treatment of artists such as Martha and the Vandellas, The Crystals, The Blossoms, Brenda Lee, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Tina Turner, and Marianne Faithfull. Currently available studies of 1960s girl groups/girl singers fall into one of three categories: industry-generated accounts of the music's production and sales, sociological commentaries, or omnibus chronologies/discographies. "She's So Fine", by contrast, focuses on clearly defined themes via case studies of selected artists. Within this analytical rather than historically comprehensive framework the book presents new research and original observations on the 60s girl group/girl singer phenomenon.