Question - Supremes vs Destiny’s Child

[jobeterob]

I’m not very knowledgeable about music after about 1990

How did the other members of Destiny’s Child fare after Beyoncé left or the group dissolved or whatever happened?

It seems to me Kelly Rowland had much more commercial success than any of the Supremes other than Diana.

There were 2 others - how did they do?

I wonder if it’s easier to market yourself after a breakup today because it seems to me the members of Destiny’s Child did better than Mary or Florence or other Supremes

[reese]

Kelly had a big hit with DILEMMA featuring Nelly. She's also acted in quite a few films/tv movies and has been a judge on some televised talent shows.

Michelle did some acting as well, in film and on stage. She has also had some successful recordings, both pop and gospel.

Letoya Luckett has also been a successful actress.

[marybrewster]

If social media and TMZ had been around in 1967, 1970, and 1977, who knows what successes Flo and Mary might have achieved.

[sup_fan]

most of the other members of DC had some degree of success. i think Randy summed it up wonderfully in his Beyonce book.

one of the key differences is that the other two DC members [[Kelly and Michelle, i'm skipping the others right now) at least had SOME degree of career management and SOME interest by management [[in this case Matthew Knowles) in their future plans and career. And not saying this in terms of the financial or critical success of their post-DC plans but in the attitude of the girls. he was able to avoid much of the internal strife and animosity that existed between DMC. when DC finally broke up, B and Kelly and Michelle were much closer friends and colleagues. each girl at least had some degree of acknowledgement that they had talent, that there was something compelling about that talent and they were encouraged to pursue that talent.

Now if you were to compare the 70s supremes to kelly or michelle's post-DC career? you could probably make some correlations. i don't really think motown actively conspired to destroy the 70s supremes as of the morning of Jan 16, 1970 after the Farewell was over. yes mistakes were made but that's life. and maybe later on politics started to enter the equation.

but in both situations, you had a mega star emerge from within the confines of a group. and once that mega star went out on her own, the other members were always going to be unfairly compared

the 70s sups did a lot of amazing music, had some really big sellers. and both K and M have had some nice and big successes of their own

[marybrewster]

Unlike Berry Gordy, Mathew Knowles was brilliant in that he saw stars in each member of DC3. When Beyonce' took off like a rocket, he also paid attention to Kelly and Michelle, and found their strengths, executive producing their first solo efforts, which resulted in #1 singles and #1 albums.

That's not to say Mary or Cindy were ready to leave the Supremes with Diana's departure, but I think BG was too focused and intent on making Diana a star. Sure, "Up the Ladder" and "Stoned Love" were Top 10, but BG didn't truly capitalize on the name and the value of the "background singers".

[khansperac]

I remember reading an article back in the day. Basically girl groups of the past- specifically The Supremes were the blueprint for Destiny’s Child. Matthew took what worked, and more importantly what didn’t work, to build a successful group. He didn’t want Beyoncé to receive any of the kind of backlash Diana received going solo. In a nutshell, he learned from Berry Gordy’s mistakes. However it was inevitable. It happened with the changing group members. However once Beyoncé’s solo career took off, Matthew made sure they would record together again and also perform together. Other group members also pursued solo careers. It’s not that Matthew saw stars in Kelly and Michelle, he just didn’t want anything to mess up what he had planned for Beyoncé. Again he learned from Berrys mistakes.

[sup_fan]

I remember reading an article back in the day. Basically girl groups of the past- specifically The Supremes were the blueprint for Destiny’s Child. Matthew took what worked, and more importantly what didn’t work, to build a successful group. He didn’t want Beyoncé to receive any of the kind of backlash Diana received going solo. In a nutshell, he learned from Berry Gordy’s mistakes. However it was inevitable. It happened with the changing group members. However once Beyoncé’s solo career took off, Matthew made sure they would record together again and also perform together. Other group members also pursued solo careers. It’s not that Matthew saw stars in Kelly and Michelle, he just didn’t want anything to mess up what he had planned for Beyoncé. Again he learned from Berrys mistakes.

perfectly said. learning from your predecessors. of course there really were no role models for the motown crew. they've even said this many times in interviews. no one had ever done this before.

i know only a bit of the DC history. when the first 2 girls quit, their angst and complaints most definitely hurt the group's reputation. not to mention that one of the replacements ended up repeating much of the same. makes you wonder if that didn't also trigger some of this in Matthew. perhaps had he taken the same positive approach to the 2 originals that quit and helped them like he eventually would with Kelly and Michelle, then the original quartet might have remained intact. perhaps B would have left and the remaining trio could have continued on.