From the Beatles, to the Supremes, to Destiny’s Child, it’s not uncommon for music groups
to have a clear favorite, or most popular member of the group.
Sometimes, The most popular member of the group is chosen organically, because of their
talent.
Other times, it seems like one member has an entire team behind them, and the label
has chosen them to be the one to market more than the other girls.
Such was the case with Destiny’s Child, the 2000s biggest girl group.
Though Beyonce is undeniably talented, its evident that she was the clear favorite in
the group, which was managed by her father.
Beyonce always seemed to be the front runner of the group and got the most attention, and
sang the majority of their songs.
Beyonce’s starpower eclipsed that of her other members and despite lineup changes,
Beyonce was always propped front and center of the group.
When Destiny’s Child broke up, Beyonce wasted no time working on her solo debut.
Her debut album Dangerously in love went number one, as did all 6 of her subsequent albums.
Beyonce is arguable the biggest pop star alive,and her solo career has lasted nearly 2 decades.
We’ve since come to call the standout in the music group as the Beyonce of the group.
It’s since been used to describe the most popular member of a group, or the one most
likely to embark on a successful solo career.
The term is even used amongst regular people, with many of us calling ourselves the Beyonce
of our friend groups, or of a project group for a class.
All it means is that the person is probably the most talented, most capable person of
the group, or at the very least the fan favorite who gets the most attention.
The Beyonce of the group isn’t always the lead singer (think Pete Wentz being the most
popular member of fallout boy) but sometimes the person who fans enjoy the most.
One of my subscribers asked me to dive into this, and with Liam Payne so publicly showing
his ass recently, I thought the timing was right.
So, let’s get into it.
It seems like calling someone the Beyonce of the group can have 2 meanings.
The first meaning is that the Beyonce of the group is simply the most likable and talented,
and this lends themselves to succeeding solo because they don't need a group to carry them.
The other implication of calling someone the Beyonce is they benefit from favoritism, and
have been given an unfair advantage to be the most successful member.
This could include being the only member who does solo projects, collabs with other artists,
or consistently having more lines in songs than other group members.
An important aspect of being the “Beyonce” of the group is the ability to successfully
carry a solo music career.
So that means, just because a member went solo, doesn’t make them a Beyonce if they
flopped.
So for example, Justin Timberlake would clearly be the Beyonce of NSYNC, despite some of the
other members pursuing solo music careers.
The first group I have to talk about of course is One Direction.
Despite Liam’s delusions, I think it was evident that Harry was the clear favorite
of the group, backed up by multiple fan votes showing Harry was the favorite.
He was the center in most of the photos, and played up to be the most fun-loving and teddy
bearish of the group.
This was evident by the amount of Harry fangirls were present in the 2010s and Harry being
the subject from multiple fanfictions from After to ones that shipped him with his own
bandmates.
Liam, ironically, was the least favorite.
Harry made his solo debut with Sign of the Times, and the song was received very well.
His self titled debut album followed.
He won a Grammy for his hit, Watermelon Sugar in 2021.
Over the past 5 years, Harry has managed to remain relevant and successful, expanding
beyond music and delving into the worlds of acting and fashion.
He’s just released his third album, and his song, As It Was is currently #1.
Though like Beyonce Harry was voted the most popular member of one direction, unlike queen
Bey he wasnt considered the best singer.
A UK poll showed only 32% of fans thought Harry was the best singer, while 47% of the
fans thought that honor went to Zayn Malik.
Zayn too was a well-liked member of the group, and at the expense of the racism he faced,
added a bit of diversity to the group.
Zayn caused an Internet meltdown when he announced he was leaving One Direction in 2015 due to
stress.
He went on to begin a solo career, while the
other 4 members of One Direction continued on together.
Since he was considered the best singer of the group, it seemed logical to assume he
would go on to have a successful solo career.
Zayn also said he suffered in One Direction when it came to expressing himself creatively.
He’d always wanted his music to take a more R&B route, while One Direction obviously had
a more mainstream pop sound .His debut album, mind of mine, debuted at number one.
Pillowtalk, the most successful single, showcased the R&B sound Zayn was after, and showed he
had a vocal range that wasn’t necessarily allowed to shine in One Direction.
He went on to collab with taylor swift on a song for 50 shades darker.
Zayns success was short-lived, though.
His next debut album, Icarus Falls was a commercial failure, selling less than 2 thousand copies
the week of its release and only peaking at Number 64.
The album does have good songs on it, but it seems like its all over the place, and
the promotion just wasnt there.
There’s also been speculation that Zayn is suffering from the RCA curse.
Many people believed his debut album was did so well mostly because he was the first 1D
member to go solo, and that by his sophomore album, interest had waned.
Zayn has also been hit with multiple allegations of being hard to work with and having substance
problems.
I do think the case of Zayn vs Harry does highlight something important.
The first person to go solo isn’t always the most successful.
Often when an artist leaves a group, if the group is still popular, they’re not going
to take the entire fanbase with them.
If anything, they now just have to compete against their former group.
Harry waiting until after One Direction was a smart move on his part.
Former Directioners were going to eat up any content they could from ex-members, and Harry
being a fan favorite led people to flock to him, especially since there was no pressure
to support 1D as a group anymore.
I don’t want to spend a bunch of time addressing Liam’s comments, because we’ve all seen
them.
But from his perspective, he was supposed to be the Beyonce of the group.
According to him, he was told early on in his One Direction days that he was meant to
be the breakout star, and the other boys essentially were just supporting members.
While it is a common industry tactic to form a group around one artists who’s intended
to go solo, I think we can all agree that Liam is living in a different reality than
the rest of us.
If that doesn’t prove how delusional he is, Liam also claimed to have outsold his
former bandmembers, as his single was the only of their debut singles to hit 1 billion
streams.
In reality, his song was the only one that didn’t hit one billion.
We can tell his career didn’t pop off, because over the years, he’s had a lot of time to
talk shit about 1D members, and it seems like thats the only time people are checking for
him.Harry has grammys and Liam is doing a podcast with Jake or Logan Pual.
I dont care.
The next group I want to about is 5th Harmony.
I think this is an interesting case where Camila wasn’t necessarily the fan favorite
of the group (or the group members) but she was the one that was pushed to be the quote
on quote Beyonce of the group in terms of marketing.
I was a casual 5th Harmony fan when they were big, and it was so obvious that the label
they became an actual group, never switched up their marketing strategy.
They seemed to have already determined Camila was going to be the favorite and do whatever
necessary to make it happen..
I feel like most people’s favorites were either Lauren or Normani.
The Line distribution in 5th Harmony’s songs was heavily skewed toward Camila, seemingly
another tactic to establish her as the frontrunner of the group.
Camila was also the first to release a song outside of 5th Harmony, increasing allegations
of favoritism.
In 2015, she released I know What You Did Last Summer, a collaboration with Shawn Mendes.
The other members of 5th Harmony were shocked, as Camila hadn’t even told them she’d
be working on a collaboration.
There was talk of other discord within the group, and efforts to go to counseling to
work out problems.
Within the year, Camile announced her departure from 5th Harmony and embarked on her solo
career.
Similar to the deal with One Direction, the other 4 girls continued on as a group.
They released their final album, and it didn’t perform well.
Soon after, they went on an indefinite hiatus.
Camila has had the most successful solo career out of all the former 5th Harmony members.
She’s the only one of the 5 to have a number 1 Hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and has a
higher net worth than the other 4 girls combined.
Despite allegations of racism (because why are we still expecting cancel culture to work)
She’s released three successful albums and starred in the billionth remake of Cinderella.
I don’t think that’s for lack of trying on the other girl’s parts, as they’ve
all released solo music (were still waiting on your album Normani) as well as collaborations.
However, I do think Camila having an entire machine behind her helped.
In addition, her getting the most lines and usually the songs chorus meant most people
associated 5th Harmony with Camila’s voice, and knew what to expect from her vocally.
This is similar to how Beyonce got the majority of the choruses in Destiny's Child, giving
fans the opportunity to love her voice more than her other group members.
I’m not going to act like I don’t understand that groups have lead singers, but I think
in 5th Harmony it was to the extent that the other girls didn’t get to shine as much
vocally.
Also to my knowledge, 5th Harmony didn’t have a lead singer.
Like I said, I don’t think this is because Camila was inherently more talented than the
other girls.
I think from the beginning, she got a push that the other girls didn’t get, as well
as opportunities to grow that they didn’t get.
Though she wasn’t most Harmonizers’ favorite member, she was the most commercially recognized
member of the group, which usually helps translate into a successful solo career.
This could change, honestly, but who knows.
Normani seems like the only member who could potentially dethrone Camila in this regard,
and she’s yet to release her debut album.
In a sense, we could say Ariana Grande was the Beyonce of the Victorious cast.
Liz Gillies would be more of a Kelly Rowland, and Victoria Justice is Michelle.
Ariana was a fan favorite as Cat Valentine, and then went on to become one of the biggest
pop stars of our time.
I know you guys are going to say what about Leon Thomas, but I would say calling someone
a Beyonce implies more household name status, while he’s more behind the scenes.
Since music groups have declined in popularity in the West in the past decades, I thought
it would be interesting to look at this phenomenon in KPop too.
In a lot of comments you see netizens saying, “oh this person is the beyonce of their
group”.
Though KPop groups typically have more established roles, making it clear who the vocalists,
dancers, visuals, and other roles are, this doesn't eliminate favoritism by any means.
It also doesn't stop fans from having favorite idols, or drawing comparisons between Western
group dynamics.
I think a good example of this right now is how netizens view the treatment of IVE’s
Wonyoung.
Wonyoung is currently a vocalist in the girl group IVE, and was formerly the center of
IZ*ONE.
Lately, Wonyoung has been criticized for benefiting from favoritism.
I do want to point out this criticism should fall on her company, Starship Entertainment,
because Wonyoung doesn’t control her styling, line distribution, her appearances or any
of that.
Netizens cite examples like Wonyoung getting multiple opportunities to emcee, getting more
camera time and more ending fairies as proof of favoritism.
However, the most obvious example of favoritism seems to be in the styling for IVE.
Wonyoung seems to receive more eye catching outfits than her group mates, and often seems
like she’s intentionally styled to standout.
Sometimes, the outfits are so biased toward Wonyoung it looks like the other members are
her backup dancers.
The same was said about Beyonce’s styling in Destiny’s Child.
Fans often said Beyonce got the most flattering outfits, and contributed it to her mom being
the group’s stylist.
Looking at both, Destiny’s Child outfits seem cohesive and Beyonce’s outfits don’t
look that much better to me.
The Wonyoung examples are way crazier in my opinion, and she stands out so much more in
a lot of these.
Netizens have speculated that Starship’s endgame is a solo career for Wonyoung, and
IVE was created just to promote her.
The majority of times Wonyoung was called the Beyonce of IVE, it alluded to what many
viewed as unfair favoritism, similar to what Beyonce received while in Destiny’s child.
TWICE’s Nayeon has also been called the Beyonce of her group.
Nayeon is a lead vocalist and typically both opens twice songs and sings the chorus.
She is also the center of the group, and one of the most popular members.
Nayeon was also predicted to be the first member of twice to have a solo debut.
Netizens were right, as Nayeon’s solo mini album is dropping in just a couple weeks.
In this instance, calling Nayeon the Beyonce of the Group isn’t said as an insult, but
just a reference to how Beyonce was a standout girl group member who went on to have a successful
solo career.
It’s meant as a compliment to Nayeon, saying that she shines in her group and is a talented
member.
The phrase Beyonce of the group can be either a compliment or an insult, depending on the
group dynamics.
Sometimes its a reference to a well-deserved, well- anticipated solo career.
Other times it's a reference to unfair advantages because of favoritism..
It’s also important to remember that just because an artist leaves a group, that doesn’t
necessarily mean that they’re the Beyonce of the group.
Beyonce never left Destiny’s Child, she pursued her career after they broke up.
Likewise, just because someone pursues a solo career doesn’t make them a Beyonce.
Calling someone a Beyonce of the group means that they stand out in the group, and because
of that, they’re able to have a successful solo career.
To me, an indicator whether someone is a Beyonce of their group is just how well the group
would do without them.
Destiny’s Child would have crashed and burned if Beyonce left.
When Camila left, for better or worse, 5th Harmony went downhill and disbanded shortly
after.
One Direction still did well without Zayn, but I don’t think they would have done as
well had Harry left.
That’s another reason why when it comes to One Direction I would say Harry is the
Beyonce of the group.
Yeah, Zayn was the best singer and went solo first, but he ultimately never went as far
as Harry, and hasnt been able to sustain a solo career.
At least that’s how I interpret it, let me know what you think in the comments.
A good example of someone I don’t think was a Beyonce of her group is Jesy from Little
Mix.
Yes, she went solo first and was considered a talented singer.
However, she wasn’t the best singer in little mix, nor was she the most popular.
She hasn’t made any remarkable success from her solo debut to now.
Allegedly, her label rejected the songs on her most recent album and told her to go back
to the drawing board because they weren’t good.
Jesy definitely didn’t carry little mix the way beyonce carried destiny’s child.
Little Mix was just fine, and arguably better without her, maintaining their status as one
of the world’s biggest girl groups in her absence.
Little Mix just ended their Confetti tour and are going on indefinite hiatus to pursue
solo careers.
Perrie and Leanne are mothers now, so they probably want time with their kids aside from
working on music.
The group hiatus wasn’t due to Jesy’s leaving.
Other than Jesy, I don’t think Little Mix has a Beyonce.
I think they’re a good example of a group where they shine equally, and the fanbase
appreciates Jade, Perry, and Leanne as a group.
Typically in groups, only the most and second most popular members stand a real chance of
a successful solo career.
This is usually for obvious reasons like them having the most fans, being the most talented,
or because they’ve been marketed well by their label.
In some groups, it’s hard to imagine certain members going solo, or being successful at
it.
It seems like some members more than others seem to “need” the group to support them.
Whether that's because they weren't as talented, or just didn’t get the opportunity to develop
an individual fanbase and persona, it sometimes depends.
I do also want to say that just because a member of a group benefits from favoritism,
this doesn’t always mean they’re not talented, just that they have an advantage over their
other group members to showcase that talent.
Another interesting thing is that it seems like the Beyonce of the group is always the
most successful one long term.
It’s not like Harry was the most popular member of One Direction when they were together,
but now Niall is outselling him.
I can’t think of a single group where one of the least popular members is one of the
most successful soloists.
If you can, let me know in the comments.
Let me know what you think makes someone the Beyonce of their group.
This was kind of something that I thought was easy to come up with examples for, but
hard to put in words, so I hope I explained myself well.
Still, I’d be interested to know what you think, and what other examples are out there.
As always, if you liked this video, be sure to like comments, and subscribe, and I’ll
see you soon.
Bye!