FEATURE:
Exploitation, Sexism and Racism Within New Jill Swing
Why the Incredible Women of a Brilliant Genre Deserve More
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THIS is inspired…
PHOTO CREDIT: DeMonica Santiago, Shireen Crutchfield and Joyce Tolbert (The Good Girls) in 1990 PHOTO CREDIT: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
by a recent article from The Guardian. I do lean on them a bit when it comes to features but, as a new album has come out that is definitely worth getting, I wanted to explore the idea more. The genre of New Jill Swing. How it was an incredible genre where amazing female artists ruled. However, for all the brilliant music they put out, there was exploitation, racism and sexism behind the scenes. The compilation, New Jill Swing: 1988-94 is out now on Ace Recorda:
“New jill swing was a cheeky response to the very male, late 80s world of new jack swing, and it was the dawn of a golden age for female R&B in the 90s.
The original source of new jack swing - or swingbeat - could be found in key records such as Janet Jackson’s “Control”, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, which mixed hard beats with soul, real R&B with 808s and a tough shuffle. Producer Teddy Riley took these sounds a step further at the end of the 80s, blending them with hip- hop because - strange as it now seems – hip-hop in the 80s was barely integrated into R&B.
Solo acts like Karyn White (‘The Way You Love Me’) and Jasmine Guy (‘Try Me’) followed in Janet Jackson’s future-perfect footsteps, inspiring a bunch of female groups who followed in the early 90s. The initial ground-breakers were a Motown act called the Good Girls who were set up to be a swingbeat Supremes, with the wonderful ‘Your Sweetness’ in 1989. 1990 saw the emergence of R&B superstars En Vogue whose confidence and style proved that swingbeat wasn’t just a genre for boy bands. Xscape (‘Love On My Mind’) followed in 1991 while SWV (‘I’m So Into You’) and Jade (‘Don’t Walk Away’) both had their first UK hits in the spring of 1993. These hits were also pop classicist in their melodies and lyrics, harking back to 60s girl groups as much as they looked forward to the 21st century.
“New Jill Swing” has been compiled by Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and is historically significant as the first ever compilation of the genre. New jill swing may have borrowed from hip-hop but it was more smartly stylized and consciously retro-modern in its look, whether that was in En Vogue’s Old Hollywood references, the Good Girls’ plaid skirts or Jade’s baseball caps and braids. It would also unwittingly lay down the groundwork for the ultra-modern sounds to come later in the decade from the likes of TLC and Missy Elliot”.
I think that there should be a book about the genre. The compilation will showcase the brilliant groups that were around through the 1990s and in the late-1980s. This opposition or alternative to the more celebrated New Jack Swing. Unlike the large swathes of male artists in that scene, life was much harder for their female counterparts. If the album puts out there the amazing music made by New Jill Swing acts, a lot of that success came at the expense of the artists. In terms of the contracts many signed and how there was discrimination and sexism. There is a lot more to discuss when it comes to New Jill Swing. If survivors such as SWV proved that they could sustain and overcome hurdles and challenges, a lot of other women were not so fortunate. Exploitation quite common. It is shocking that you can look through the new compilation and many of these acts are either short-lived or experienced so much abuse. Not taken seriously or made to sign bad contracts to get a label a quick hit:
“A flash of Technicolor fills the screen, as four women spin and glide in perfect unison. The bouncy crunch of drum machines collides with slick, soaring vocals, as the women then jump over one another’s heads. “I broke my ankle doing some of this stuff,” says Stacy Francis of the lively music video for You (You’re the One for Me) by her group Ex Girlfriend. “Some of what we were doing was unheard of at the time. There wasn’t anything like that before we came along.”
Populated by the likes of En Vogue, SWV, Pebbles, Karyn White, Jade, Xscape and others, this was new jill swing, the female counterpart to new jack swing, which exploded in the late 1980s and early 90s by fusing US hip-hop with pop and R&B. It would go on to shape R&B as we know it but came at a cost for many of the women involved. “It was an exciting road,” says Francis. “But it was also rough and heartbreaking. There was a lot of exploitation.”
“Hip-hop was still not completely respected at that point as an art form,” explains Tara Kemp, whose 1991 US Top 10 hit Piece of My Heart features on the compilation. Pop radio stations demanded a version with its rap removed. “A lot of people still didn’t think hip-hop was music,” Kemp says.
IN THIS PHOTO: Tara Kemp in 1991/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Natkin/WireImage
“It was like when rock’n’roll came around and your grandparents would be like: ‘It’s not gonna last!’” recalls Shireen Crutchfield, who was the lead singer of the Good Girls, a group who were marketed as the Supremes of the new movement. “New jack swing was definitely a generational thing – a distinct departure from what was before. Our manager wanted us to stay away from it because he was a lot older than us.”
The person who changed that mindset was producer Teddy Riley. “There was a snobbery around rap,” recalls Joyce Irby, one of the more experienced artists on the scene. In the early 80s she released her own rap track, A Wild and Crazzy Song, and joined pop-R&B group Klymaxx before becoming a solo artist on Motown Records. “But Teddy’s stuff was so musical. He really could incorporate and blend hip-hop with traditional R&B so that there were elements the old-school musicians could respect. His stuff was exquisitely done.”
Riley is the unquestionably the godfather of new jack swing: he was the force behind boybands Guy and Blackstreet, and produced early scene hits by Bobby Brown and the Get Fresh Crew. “At the time, nobody was coming with the authentic, eclectic, offbeat fusion styles,” he said in 1987. “We gave R&B a new lifeline.”
However, while Riley’s contributions to the genre have long been celebrated, along with producers such as Full Force, LA Reid, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Babyface and Bernard Belle, Stanley wanted to showcase the women from the era. “These groups were definitely treated as second class by the record companies and producers because they were women,” he says. “But they really laid the groundwork for a lot of the female R&B acts of the late 90s and early 00s and productions by the likes of Timbaland, Missy Elliott and Rodney Jerkins – basically, some of the most incredibly extreme music to become commercially successful in history.”
New jack swing was also known as swingbeat and on Irby’s track on the compilation, She’s Not My Lover, you can hear why. “I loved big band swing,” she says. “You can hear the influence in the horn lines on that song.” She worked as a co-writer and co-producer with another scene mainstay, Dallas Austin, and cites Motownphilly by Boyz II Men, “a track that he cut and then I edited. I was like: ‘You’ve got to put the real swing in from back in the day and merge that.’”
As the industry latched on, a lot of the women featured on Stanley’s compilation were spotted and signed up while they were young. Crutchfield, who was in high school and dancing on the TV show Soul Train, was signing a deal to Motown by the time of her 18th birthday. Francis was in a Broadway show at 16, then signed and in Ex Girlfriend by 18. Irby was spotted years earlier, aged 16, by George Clinton, while hanging around on the loading bay outside gigs, playing her bass guitar. However, while Clinton was supportive and nurturing, many of the others faced much more difficult situations.
“The whole industry is very toxic,” says Kemp. She was signed to Giant, a label run by Irving Azoff, who was best known for managing the Eagles. “He had wanted it to be a rock label but he hadn’t had any hits,” she recalls. “They didn’t really sign me to be an artist because he didn’t care about this type of music. He just needed a hit.” (When contacted via his publicist, Azoff did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
Her 1991 debut single, Hold You Tight, duly reached No 3 and was certified gold, but she faced hapless label ideas as they tried to rebrand her. “Their vision was for me to be wearing a black lace teddy carrying an Uzi and acting like a Black girl from the ghetto,” she says. “As someone who came up legitimately in R&B music, I was never about pretending to be something I’m not. It was really cringeworthy and horrible. When I heard that, I was like: ‘I’m out of here. This is not gonna fly.’”
Meanwhile, despite Motown’s girl group pedigree, the label were struggling with the Good Girls. “I don’t think they knew what to do with us,” says Crutchfield. “We weren’t appreciated as artists; we could have done so much more.” The group split in 1993.
Francis says Ex Girlfriend “were four young women from the ghetto who were taken full advantage of. If you look at any group on that compilation album and you go: ‘Hey, what happened to that person? Where are they?’ Most likely, they signed the most horrific record contract. Which is what we did. We didn’t have anybody that cared enough about us to say: ‘Wait for a lawyer.’” (Warner Music could not make anyone available for comment.)
However, despite the bruises from their experiences – Kemp alleges she ended up blacklisted from the industry, couldn’t get a deal, and was “literally not allowed to play” because of egotistical interference from her label after she negotiated an exit from it – there’s a huge pride in the music they presciently created. “We need those phenomenal songs from these talented women out there,” says Francis. “In many ways this is very bittersweet for me but to have our fingerprints on that new jack swing era and be pioneers of that – come on, it’s just epic. There has been a lot of hurt and healing to go through but no matter what you experience in life, no matter how many people come along and take advantage, that music still lives on. Art always wins”.
It is a shame that there has not been more discussion about New Jill Swing. Of course, this new curated compilation celebrates the music. Whilst we know of New Jack Swing and the best of that genre, maybe not as much focus is on the women of New Jill Swing. I wonder whether a modern-day revival and evolution could occur. I can hear the influence of New Jill Swing in modern artists, though it is not as prevalent and defined as it was in the 1980s and 1990s. It would be great to see a wave of new groups emerging that revive the brilliance and phenomenal sound of New Jill Swing. Whether keeping pure to the roots or adding in something fresh to give it a twist, there is that room for a revival. Both honouring the women who came before and carrying on the legacy. As brilliant as the music was that came from New Jill Swing, there are these stories of exploitation. More prevalent than many people are aware of. Quite a big problem for many. Such a discredit to these women. So many of these amazing acts that could have gone a long way only enjoyed brief careers. The women who were trailblazers and laid foundations for women of Pop and R&B that followed. Their stories need to be told. It would be good if there was a documentary or book where we could hear from many of the artists from New Jill Swing and their experiences. At the end, maybe a real celebration of how influential and important New Jill Swing was. The new compilation from Bob Stanley showcases a wealth of talent. Phenomenal cuts from queens of New Jill Swing. It is an album I would recommend…
EVERYONE picks up.