Right in Tune: Pop Sister Acts

The Watson Twins

A recent TV Week blog entry asks, “Whatever happened to sister acts?” in a despondent sort of tone, remarking that sister acts—at least in their true form—no longer exist. As if the 1940s and 50s was the sole era with fertile enough ground to grow proper sister acts. Sure, the 50s saw wonderful singing and dancing sisters like the Andrews Sisters, the McGuire Sisters, the King Sisters, and the Lennon Sisters. And we often think of Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney’s portrayal of the Haynes Sisters in White Christmas (1954) as the quintessential sister act.

The Andrews Sisters

Certainly sister acts have existed as long as there were sisters and songs—long before the variety show era on television (although it is not nearly as well documented). Even today, sister acts are thriving, but with a very different face (and sound) than that of Clooney and Ellen. While the sisters of the 50s were marked by syrupy sweet smiles, and beautiful harmonies, they were also on the road to spinsterdom if they didn’t get married quick. And in the past 50 odd years, America has seen the evolution of the Sister Act within the evolving roles of women.

The Motown Sound and the Sixties

The Supremes

During the 1960s, women of color began to appear more consistently in the media in the form of all-female doo-wop groups. The first of these were acts such as the Chantels, the Supremes, and the Shirelles, whose presence soon encouraged the formation of African-American sister acts around the country. The Pointer Sisters, formed in 1969 as a quartet, would later become a trio and finally a duo, winning two Grammy’s for their track, Jump (For My Love). The Emotions, formed eight years later as a sister sextet, went on to gain widespread success after writing the song Best of My Love with Earth, Wind & Fire (which has since been anthologized on over 150 compilations of Soul, Disco and Funk). Sister Sledge, a sister trio formed in 1975, and born out of the influence of The Emotions and The Pointer Sisters, brought us the sister anthem We Are Family.

Mary Mary

While all-female groups became both more visible and widely celebrated in multiple genres of music, sisters acts have shown up in country music (à la Ennis Sisters and—our favorite—the alt country Watson Twins), playing folk songs (like the sister duo the Roches), belting out gospel tunes (as in Mary Mary, the Perry Sisters and the Clark Sisters), and even singing in support of white supremacy (in the case of teen sisters Prussian Blue). The recent craze for tween pop music has played into the success of contemporary sister groups like TruEmotion, a mainstay on Disney Radio. While that group’s bubble gum sound and gurl power look embody current mainstream ideals of what homegrown American teenage girls should be, these ideals actually have their roots in the Midwest-supermarket-chain- jingle-singing blondes known as the Kane Sisters, who, formed in 1952, were first noticed for their melodious shoe ads heard on radio.

Tegan and Sara

And if TruEmotion is the mainstream, then their counter-culture sister would have to be indie rock sister act Tegan and Sara, who have often been described as the “anti-Olsen twins.” Identical twins, Tegan and Sara have an edgier look, hail from Canada, and are both openly gay. Sara says that being a twin is “definitely weird,” but that it makes their music more interesting. Tegan and Sara seem to market their family resemblance in a different way than other sister bands: as a novelty rather than a special connection. Tegan and Sara’s decision to keep their music (and image) away from the sentimental side of sisterhood is something the McGuire sisters could have never done in 1952 when they performed Side by Side on the Jack Benny Show.

While no sister act today quite provides either the visuals of the Lennon Sisters’ matching hoop skirts or those sentimental four-part-harmonies, sister acts are certainly still thriving.–Anastasia Smith

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