There Will Never Be Another Girl Group Like Little Mix
Most Americans can name only one girl group from the U.K., and it isn’t Little Mix.
Of course, there are plenty of reasons why the Spice Girls loom so large in our cultural memory: in the mid to late ‘90s, those five Brits took over the world, deftly utilizing a blend of girl power, raw charisma, and clearly delineated personality traits. And here in America, their lingering influence has convinced many music fans that Posh, Baby, Ginger, Sporty, and Scary were the best to ever do it, even if they were only the beginning.
Little Mix, which currently consists of Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock (original member Jesy Nelson left in December of 2020), was formed on U.K. talent show The X Factor in 2011. Like boy band One Direction, who had competed the year before, the future members of Little Mix auditioned as individual vocalists before being grouped together by the show’s judges. And despite some truly regrettable styling choices, the chemistry between the girls was infectious enough to win the competition.
Like many American fans, I became a Mixer by way of One Direction, who had successfully shimmied their way into both my heart and my wallet. Both groups were signed to Simon Cowell’s Syco Music label after graduating from reality TV, and Perrie Edwards was even engaged to One Direction’s Zayn Malik from 2013-15 (unfortunately for Edwards, the artist currently known as ZAYN was having trouble sticking to his commitments at the time). But musically, these two groups took very different paths, largely playing to the strengths of their respective members. While One Direction relied mostly on personality and group chemistry, choosing casual chaos over perfection, Little Mix survived on individual vocal talent and persistent, uncompromising excellence. Each member of Little Mix has the huge voice and magnetic stage presence of a solo star, but in a crowded field of Main Pop Girls, they carved out a niche as an old-school group in an increasingly experimental landscape. Until now.
Last winter, almost exactly a year after Jesy Nelson revealed her departure from the group, Little Mix announced that they would be taking a break, which is industry-speak for “breaking up while keeping our options open.” It’s a tried-and-true method of saying goodbye that has worked for pop groups from *NSYNC to 1D – believe me when I say that the word “hiatus” still sends a chill down my spine. But while watching the live stream of Little Mix’s last-but-maybe-not-last concert on May 14th, I found myself wondering if the girls were actually being genuine about their desire to come back someday. It was a joyful, triumphant celebration of everything that has made this band work over the course of the last eleven years, and a bittersweet reminder that there are few acts left who can do pop on this level.
What’s most remarkable about Little Mix is how prolific they are, and how consistent the quality of their very large catalog has been. The average Little Mix album is 15-20 tracks long, and although each one certainly has questionable moments (their fourth LP Glory Days had a song about being horny in traffic), it’s exceedingly rare for the girls to record a total dud. During the live stream, I realized I had never before seen a concert where I knew every single song, and even two hours of relentless hits left a lot on the cutting room floor. What about “Hair,” their 2015 Sean Paul collaboration? No love for “No,” their unreasonably good penultimate single? What about the one about sending nudes??
Maybe these are just the thoughts that run through your head when it feels like you’ve run out of time with your faves. It’s a feeling that my decade of One Direction fandom has left me incredibly vulnerable to, and one that feels warranted in the case of a band that never got to reach its full potential. Little Mix’s lack of popularity in the U.S. has often been interpreted by fans as label mismanagement, but it could also be due to unlucky timing: Fifth Harmony, a girl group formed on the American version of The X Factor, was at the height of their popularity at the same time as their British counterparts. And while Little Mix hits like “Salute” (2013) and “Power” (2016) received a massive amount of airplay in the U.K., it simply wasn’t enough to compete with other imported pop acts like 1D and Lorde. Still, their farewell concert proved that it might be better to go out on top with the fans you already have, rather than spending years chasing what might’ve been.
The show opened with “Shout Out to My Ex” (2016), which the band has frequently invoked as one of their favorites, before moving on to tracks from their most recent LP Confetti (2020). The album was released only a month before Jesy Nelson officially left the band, and since then, Little Mix has recorded only a handful of tracks without her. It’s an absence that was keenly felt in the live performance, with the other band members struggling at times to match Nelson’s raspy lower register, but there were other moments when the loss felt almost liberating. Jesy has often described feeling out of place with the frothy, unapologetic girly-ness of Little Mix, saying in post-breakup interviews that she grew up on hip-hop and prefers to wear baggy clothes (comments that many have interpreted as blackfishing). But without Nelson, the rest of the band clearly doesn’t see a reason to dial back their signature style.
Little Mix has always strived to be larger than life, tapping into the musical legacies of everyone from the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud to Destiny’s Child and TLC. But unlike other icons of the girl group genre, Little Mix never sought out any genre in particular, and listening to a full album of theirs can sometimes feel exhausting: you’re being pulled in so many different directions, and every new idea feels like it could blossom into a full-on Era if given the chance. But in this show, the scaled-down version of the group is more focused than ever, determined to squeeze every last bit of spectacle out of their already impressive set list. At one point, the girls were lifted onto the stage on a trio of thrones, with Leigh-Anne rocking an outfit I can only describe as Slutty Elphaba chic. I noted at least five costume changes, and that’s not even counting the outfits worn by their squad of glistening, muscular dancers. Some of the routines were recognizable to longtime fans, but others felt wildly inventive, crafting memorable performances out of songs the girls have expressed disdain for in the past. Ed Sheeran-penned single “Woman Like Me” (2018) was reimagined a rock banger, while the sunny, carefree “Black Magic” (2015) abruptly transformed into a Weeknd-style strip club smoke show.
But as thrilling as the performance was, I also couldn’t shake the feeling that the slay-all-day girl power of Little Mix was an artifact from a bygone era, and that we would be seeing less and less of their diva aesthetic in years to come. Just look at last month’s Coachella headliners to get a sense of where pop performance is headed: Billie Eilish and ex-boybander Harry Styles both performed without choreography, backup dancers, or multiple costume changes, because the coolest kids these days never want to seem like they’re trying too hard. It’s an artistic decision that they have every right to make, but we shouldn’t assume that nonchalance always translates into soulfulness.
There's still cultural space for manufactured boy bands and girl groups, of course. Right now, it's dominated by K-Pop, a corner of the industry that thrives on artifice instead of shying away from it (some groups are even adding AI members). But in the English speaking pop world, artists are desperate for the stamp of authenticity, some sort of incontrovertible proof that an artist is in it solely for the art. Just look at the rabid online response to Damon Albarn’s comments that Taylor Swift doesn’t write her own songs (nobody but Oasis has ever gone after Blur so doggedly). Albarn was wrong, of course, but would it have been so bad if he was right?
It’s incredibly difficult to watch Little Mix perform and argue that they are lesser artists than a singer-songwriter like Swift, and the broadness of their approach shouldn’t count against them, either. Male critics like Noel Gallagher have long argued that artists who strive for mass appeal are somehow not worthy of the rewards they reap for it, when in actuality, they deserve far more credit than they usually get. Little Mix never got the warm U.S. reception that other Brits have enjoyed, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying, and it’s unlikely that a comparable group will wash up on our shores any time soon.
[Audrey Davis is a Los Angeles-based writer, improviser, and singer-songwriter. She makes music as Elle Toro.]