“Those Black girls ruled”: The enduring influence of 90s girl groups on modern pop culture
STYLING REBECCA PURSHOUSE
BY HATTIE COLLINS
90s girl groups TLC, En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa, SWV and Destiny’s Child did more than dominate the charts. They transformed fashion, beauty and female empowerment, creating a blueprint that continues to influence pop culture today.
I’ll never forget the day I discovered TLC. It was 1992 and I was in a janky pound shop that sold everything from discount stationery to cut-price skincare. They also occasionally sold cheap (usually water-damaged) vinyl and I would trawl through rows of rock, folk and classical albums until something caught my eye. During a very successful day of crate-digging, one particular 12” stood out. It featured three Black women dressed in bright baggy jeans, braces, huge hats and, wait, was that a condom dangling from the belt of the woman in the middle wearing the “Freedom Of Expression: If You Don’t Like It, Don’t Look” T-shirt? I excitedly stuck the record under my arm and raced home, playing the A-side, “Baby-Baby-Baby” before flipping to the B-side, “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” (the “Smoothed Down Extended Remix” because this was, after all, the 90s). I was instantly OBSESSED.
I hadn’t heard or seen anything or anyone that looked quite like T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli. They weren’t the first Black girl group in the 90s to make such an impression — it was around this time I also discovered Jade, SWV and En Vogue, whose masterful debut, Born To Sing I still own today and also still know every ad-lib and harmony to — but no one said what TLC said, quite like TLC said it. There’s a reason why they sold over 85 million records and remain the bestselling American girl group of all time.
FROM LEFT: TARA WEARS JACKET KNWLS. LAURA WEARS DRESS MIU MIU. REJOICE WEARS DRESS MCQUEEN
TARA WEARS DRESS TIDJANE TALL. SHOES ROGER VIVIER
FROM LEFT: LAURA WEARS DRESS BALENCIAGA. REJOICE WEARS SHIRT AND MATCHING SKIRT BOTH FERRAGAMO. TARA WEARS TOP AND SKIRT BOTH CFCL
When I interviewed Chilli back in 2006, four years after the horribly premature death of Left Eye, she reflected on their success: “The chemistry between the three of us made everything special. You could see it in the songs, in the videos, the way we looked, all of it. We were women speaking their minds and not afraid to stand up for what we believed in. We just didn’t back down. We didn’t care cause it was how we felt and what we believed in, and we stuck with it.”
Indeed, it wasn’t only that the tunes were so brilliant but the songs, many of them written by Left Eye, were incredibly informative on impressionable teenage minds like mine. They foresaw internet-based isolation and anxiety on “Fanmail”. They talked about self-preservation, self-validation, self-determination, and they were sex-positive decades before the phrase came into being; “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” was about them asking for what they wanted — sex — without shame. As long as it was safe. As well as the condom-wearing in the artwork and the videos, 1995’s global megahit, “Waterfalls”, was the first time someone alluded to AIDS in a number-one song.
FROM LEFT: REJOICE WEARS ZIP-UP SWEATSHIRT FIDAN NOVRUZOVA. SKIRT VAQUERA. SCARF DRIES VAN NOTEN. LAURA WEARS SWEATER DRIES VAN NOTEN. SKIRT RIER. TARA WEARS TOP AND MATCHING SKIRT BOTH JAWARA ALLEYNE
For many young people in the 90s, it would be the first time safe sex was presented in a serious but relatable, effective way. TLC talked about sex, masturbation, infidelity, cosmetic surgery, identity, femininity and feminism years before Amy Winehouse, Charli xcx or kwn came into being. They were a group ahead of their time in so many ways and the power of the trio resounds today; TLC remains timeless.
They weren’t the only Black women musicians fighting to promote awareness of HIV and AIDS. In 1986, Dionne Warwick’s Stevie Wonder-featuring “That’s What Friends Are For” raised $3million for amFAR. Neneh Cherry dropped “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” in 1990 and Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex” was re-released in 1992 as a PSA called “Let’s Talk About AIDS”. In 2001, writer and self-proclaimed media assassin Harry Allen noted that the New York rap trio possessed “an unrepentantly womanist agenda in the strongest musical terms. [They are] envoys for the empathy, warmth and holiness of black femininity.”
TARA WEARS COAT GUCCI
When I met them in a west London hotel, Salt summed it up simply: “Man, we was ahead of our time. I think the stars align… Besides the fact that we’re beautiful and we’re talented and we’re sexy and we’re fabulous and we did great records,” she laughed, “Pepa and I had this amazing chemistry, and we empowered women. All of those things came into play, but also the stars lined up. Some things happen at a certain time and I don’t believe any of this could have happened at any other moment.”
Black American girl groups weren’t only concerned with positive messaging: Brownstone, Jade, SWV, Total, En Vogue, Xscape, Blaque and 702 dominated dancefloors, radio, Walkmans and youth club discos throughout the decade with songs about oral sex (SWV, “Downtown”), attachment styles (Jade, “Don’t Walk Away”) and, in retrospect, Trad Wife Life (Xscape’s “Just Kickin’ It”). But there was a strong sense of self-empowerment running through most of these bands that was relatable to all women and Black women in particular. TLC’s “Unpretty” challenged Eurocentric beauty norms while En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind” attempted to accept our differences and set aside stereotypes. “I like rap music, wear hip hop clothes, that doesn’t mean that I’m out sellin’ dope, no no no,” sang Dawn Robinson.
En Vogue’s Cindy Herron attributes her band’s success both to vocals — “At the time there weren’t many female groups out and especially female groups where each member sang lead, plus we had a really great, unusual, hot sound. We took a chance” — and style. “You have four young women wearing skintight dresses. It really cemented the whole thing in your mind. I think all of those elements caught everyone’s attention — what we were wearing, our hair, the videos, the visuals, and we had that female empowerment element that came with our music and our image. A lot of young ladies identified with us and appreciated that.”
All of these Black American women were at the forefront of influencing fashion and beauty, both in the 90s, and today. We can thank Salt-N-Pepa for gold teeth, customized leather bombers, bamboo earrings, gold rope chains and asymmetrical hair. “We always said we brought fun, fashion and femininity to hip-hop. Nothing with Salt-N-Pepa was ever planned,” Salt once told me. “Like Pep’s asymmetrical hair, that happened when her sister, Jean, was training to be a beautician and used Pep as a dummy and burned her hair.”
Years before a nail salon opened on every high street, the girls of SWV (and later Lil’ Kim and nail technician Bernadette Thompson) helped to popularize nail art and design. While En Vogue gave glamour — red lips, power suits, the shortest of short skirts — TLC were CrazySexyCool in Cross Colours and Karl Kani, Tommy Hilfiger and silk tuxedos, crop tops and parachute pants. T-Boz got the girls in baggy clothing, though Chilli credits Left Eye with a lot of the customization. “Lisa used to live with me when I first got in TLC,” she remembered. “I would be upstairs in the kitchen cooking something and she’d be in my basement spray-painting clothes. She would have all this cool stuff hanging around, like overalls, and airbrush would be everywhere cos she used to spray paint.
Back in those days, in the early 90s, those bright colours was in and we took advantage of it — big time!” Describing them in VIBE magazine’s November 1994 issue, Jamaican-American writer Joan Morgan said: “The trio damn near led a grass-roots womanist revolution, banji-girl style.” Later, they refined their style somewhat, channelling The Matrix and wearing silk pajamas.
FROM LEFT: REJOICE WEARS COAT AND BOOTS BOTH ALAÏA. TARA WEARS COAT AND SHOES BOTH STELLA MCCARTNEY. LAURA WEARS COAT VALENTINO
The UK, of course, had brilliant Black girl groups and Black women in girl groups; teenage trio Cleopatra were signed by Madonna, while Honeyz scored a top 5 with “Finally Found”. It’s also fair to say that Eternal never got the credit they deserved — though it was disappointing to learn of some of the members’ opinions on trans rights. By the time the Spice Girls, who clearly owed a heavy debt to TLC, came about, Girl power was established; although it was the All Saints singer and songwriter Shaznay Lewis who delivered substance and style to British girl bands.
As the decade came to a close, there was one other girl group who changed the course of history: Destiny’s Child debuted with “No, No, No” in 1997 and closed the decade with “Independent Woman (Part 1)”. Girl Power on steroids, essentially, the song promoted female empowerment and financial autonomy as they side-eyed the gender pay gap.
The drive that Destiny’s Child had was clear; it radiated from every pore of their House Of Deréon-clad bodies. When I interviewed the band backstage at the O2 in 2005, Kelly, who was essentially raised in the Knowles household, reflected on their upbringing. “We were some odd kids,” she remembered, laughing, of the amount of work that went into creating the band. “When all those kids were outside playing, we wanted to be inside rehearsing. We were 11-year-olds with goals — we just wanted to sing.” It’s not lost on them that they might have had to work harder being women, and, though we didn’t say this at the time, especially Black women. “Sometimes it’s a little harder to gain the respect,” said Beyoncé. “Everything we have we deserve. We worked hard for it and we earned it and sometimes you do feel you have to prove yourself a little harder and work more than men do. But the crazy thing about life is that you never stop proving yourself. As soon as you prove something, there’s something else you gotta prove to other people and that’s why you have to enjoy and love who you are and what you do.”
FROM LEFT: LAURA WEARS DRESS OTTOLINGER. SHOES NEOUS. REJOICE WEARS DRESS MAISON MARGIELA. SANDALS GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI. TARA WEARS DRESS AND GLOVES BOTH GIVENCHY BY SARAH BURTON
FROM LEFT: REJOICE WEARS JACKET, SKIRT AND SHORTS ALL DSQUARED2. TOP ALFIE. NECKLACES, WORN AS BELT, BOTH GOOSSENS. TARA WEARS BODYSUIT BEVZA. DENIM SKIRT MISS SIXTY. EARRINGS PORTUGAL JEWELS.LAURA WEARS TOP RIER. JEANS MISS SIXTY. NECKLACE GOOSSENS
In the 00s, everyone from Justin Timberlake and Britney to Adele and Amy Winehouse would launch solo careers with hefty nods to Destiny’s Child, the Spice Girls and TLC. In the 2010s, The Internet, Frank Ocean, and Kehlani all paid their respects while Drake covered TLC’s “Fanmail” as “I Get Lonely Too”, before rapping, “Late night, like Left Eye, I’m creepin’” on 2018’s “After Dark”. He’s also sampled SWV, on 2011’s “Shot For Me”, as has Kendrick Lamar, who sampled “Use Your Heart” (1996) on 2024’s “Heart Pt 6”; Kenny also namechecked TLC in 2015, on the remix of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”.
Sabrina Carpenter did a mash-up of “No Scrubs” and Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” early on in her career and the “Espresso” singer has spoken of the direct influence Beyoncé has had on her career, particularly “Lemonade”. There are few contemporary musicians that haven’t been swayed by Bee in one way or another; the staccato style she perfected on The Writing’s On The Wall has been replicated by everyone from Taylor Swift to Drake and Miley Cyrus. Although Ariana may get many Mariah comparisons, she insists it’s DC, not Mimi, who have had the greatest impact on her vocals.
SWV’s influence is still clearly felt; their recent superb Tiny Desk, NPR’s video series of intimate office concerts, saw them perform “Weak”, “I’m So Into You” and (maybe one of my favorite tracks of all time) the Michael Jackson-sampling “Right Here”. The performance has so far clocked up over seven million views, much higher than the average, with the trio announcing a forthcoming tour with Xscape, 702 and Total. Who knows what TLC might be doing if Left Eye was still with us, and while En Vogue and Destiny’s Child are on permanent hiatus, their legacy lives on (not least via Beyoncé whose impact on the industry is unparalleled). Scan the pop landscape right now and it will be almost impossible to find a pop star that isn’t influenced by those Black women who changed the course of history in the 90s: Charli, Raye, Olivia Dean, Ariana Grande, BTS, Blackpink, Tems, Tyler, the Creator, Lil Nas X, kwn, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo all owe a debt to these brilliant, bold Black women pioneers. Back then, as now, those Black girls ruled.
LAURA WEARS TOP AND HAT BOTH BOTTEGA VENETA
PHOTOGRAPHY JUSTIN FRENCH
FASHION EDITOR REBECCA PURSHOUSE
HAIR AMIDAT GIWA USING WELLA PROFESSIONALS EIMI
MAKEUP MAELYS JALLALI USING MAC COSMETICS AND VIOLETTE
NAILS DANIEL SMEDEMAN AT FRANK AGENCY USING MANICURIST
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AMY GALLAGHER AT WEFOLK
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LIGHTING AND PHOTO ASSISTANTS NICOLAS DARDE, SHANE WOODWARD
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MAKEUP ASSISTANT SOPHIA ELQORCHI
MODELS LAURA SAVY AT ELITE
REJOICE CHUOL AT SELECT
TARA FALLA AT WOMEN
SHOT AT MAISON LOUIS CARRÉ WITH THANKS
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