Tag Archives: detroit

The Golden Age of Girl Groups

The 1960s are the golden age of American girl pop groups. ( the ones that sing) They came in three to four girls, wearing similar outfits, and sometimes even similair hairdo’s.  The names of these groups started with The.  The Marvelletes, The Chiffons, The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Velvelettes, The Cookies, The Blossoms, The Exiters, The Shangri Las, The Dixie cups, The Sweet Inspirations, The Sensations, The Angels, The Orions, The Carefrees,The Jewels, The Chantels, and much much more (we’ve read that there were about 750 girl groups at one point)
Phil Spector was a big time producer of girl groups (The Ronettes, The Blossoms,The Crystals…) so was Motown (The Supremes, The Marvelettes, The Velvettes….)  60% of the top 100 singles released by girl groups during the sixties came from Hitsville, U.S.A., as Motown was called. 

Songs were written by professionals (such as Carole King, Nicolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Neil Sedaka) who could custom fit the music and lyrics to the needs of te teenagers.  Music was made (written, produced, sold, recorded, auditoned etc etc) in The Brill Building, it was the most prestigious address in New York for the music business

“Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky.  You’d sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours.  The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific”
-Carole King Quoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon FrithContinue reading →

Next to the main exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum, the museum and the greater city of Detroit also host a series of free city-wide public performances and staged events running through October.  Those “Here Hear” events kicked off April 10 with several pop-up photo shoots where Nick Cave performs in one of his Soundsuits. ( Read more at http://observer.com/2015/03/nick-cave-invades-detroit-prompts-citywide-reawakening/#ixzz3dWvztCVu ) Because Mr Cave is also trained as a dancer with Alvin Ailey, we’d like to mention the Nick Cave Dance Labs, one amongst other upcoming events: From July 13 to August 1, the Cranbrook Art Museum partners with MOCAD to present three dance labs designed by Nick Cave.  Mr Cave will pair local dance companies with musicians to create their own choreographed works with his sculptures.  The performances will be staged in locations throughout the city of Detroit.  Nick Cave was raised and educated in Detroit and now he’s turning the city upside-down!  Needless to say we are going to visit Detroit in a while!  It’s a must-see in our opinion. 

The Flower House

Florist Lisa Waud has bought 2 abandoned houses in Detroit (for $500,-) and created The Flower House Project.  In October 2015 she (and other florists) will fill the house with up to 100,000 flowers.  After seeing the photo’s above taken from the preview of this project, held in May 2015 with 400 flowers, we, at Mimi Berlin, know that is something we definitely would like to visit! 

The aesthetic part for this project was inspired by the art of Christo, and the couture 2012 Christian Dior show in Paris.  After the The Flower House event in October the abandoned houses will be taken down (and recycled) to make room for flowers to grow. 

“The hope that this deconstruction and land repurposing will inspire others to see abandoned structures as platforms for art and business, and to use them in an environmentally responsible way,” – Lisa Waud.