LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS: AMY WINEHOUSE, JOSS STONE, LILLY ALLEN AND "GIRL GROUPS, GIRL CULTURE"

I just finished reading Jacqueline Warwick's "Girl Groups, Girl Culture," a text book in the making about the influence of the girl groups of the early-to-mid 1960s on their female audience, and how the singer's images and songs subtly prepared them for the sweeping social changes of the near future, including women's liberation and extreme role differences. While the book is a bit dry at times and reads like an elongated thesis, Warwick does have the power of conviction in her point of view, and it is fun to read her analysis of he Marvelettes, Ronettes, et al. She makes a strong case for reevaluating this brilliant and often trivialized era of music and raising it to the heights it deserves.

I wonder what Ronnie Spector thinks about British soulster Amy Winehouse's music. I read an interview with Ronnie in the New York Times where she said she was leafing through a magazine and came across a photo of Winehouse and, not wearing her glasses, thought it was herself and got real excited. Winehouse does appropriate The Ronettes' look and her producer, Mark Ronson, apes and updates the girl group sound for her second CD, "Back to Black" as immediate and arresting a record as has been released this year. Her UK debut, "Frank," while jazzier and a somewhat better vocal showcase, initiated the often blunt bordering on profane stance of this exciting, fresh and thrilling new talent.

Also a real aural treat and also from the UK is Lilly Allen, a decent singer, fabulous songwriter and real voice for urban females on her debut, "Alright, Still." Her lyrics are quite amazing and her melodies draw on hip hop as well as Europop, with plenty of girl group references thrown into the mix. I love her record as well.

Allen and Winehouse have very different voices, but one element they appear to have in common is brutal honesty. Joss Stone, on the other hand, while unquestionably a superb soul singer, seems to fall short in that area. Her albums have been polite showcases for her old school R&B sound, and the coaching from Betty Wright and Angie Stone has borne some serious fruit. Joss' current CD, shimmeringly produced by beau Raphael Saadiq, is chock full of Aretha Franklin styled grooves and Stone pulls them off. Much of the material is quite horny, and I guess that is representative of a young Hollywood starlet, but there is a sameness to most of "Introducing Joss Stone" (our third intro, by the way) that causes the record to slip into the background.

Joss Stone, Lilly Allen, Amy Winehouse, three white women from the UK who are conquering the US airwaves and music buyer's hearts, while genius African American singers and songwriters like Kelis and Fantasia languish here, relatively speaking, in terms of sales, media attention and airplay. This is just more of the status quo since the 1960s, when Dusty Springfield and Lulu slavishly imitated black singers and morphed themselves into big international careers, followed by Lisa Stansfield and countless others. I wonder just what that really means...