Remember the joyous sound that was Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 “Girls Just Want to Have Fun?” Well, here we are in 2015, and not much has changed, girls still want to have fun, but updated, and the song that’s currently filing that niche is “Black Magic” by a British girl-group called Little Mix. It’s a very polished, tightly produced, bouncy, saucy song about girls having fun by getting boys to fall for them, via their magic potion.
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is a classic, one of those moments when it all comes together just right, and I, personally, don’t get that jolt from “Black Magic,” but that could be an age/generation thing. The “Black Magic” lyrics, while catchy, don’t always make sense, and it doesn’t have that intangible “something”—frisson—that gives “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” its universal appeal; even after 30+, years people still want to hear it.
Cyndi Lauper’s song was was magical. “Black Magic” is just very good.
Since being discovered on the X Factor UK, Little Mix has become an international sensation, gaining traction and pop fans in the U.S.
The group is four young girls who look like “teeny-boppers.” Two of the girls are white, two are not. Very London, very global, 21st century.