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The Bridge: Girl Groups (Lindsay’s Version)

New York Times critic Lindsay Zoladz says girl groups may fade into history, but we can still playlist our favorite bops.

[This edition of my Hit Parade—“The Bridge” bonus series is available to Slate Plus subscribers only. A link to the episode show page is below. To sign up for Plus—and tell Slate that Hit Parade sent you!—visit slate.com/hitparadeplus.]

In this mini-episode of Hit Parade, host Chris Molanphy is joined by New York Times pop critic Lindsay Zoladz, writer of the paper’s music twice-weekly newsletter The Amplifier. Six years ago, when Lindsay was still at The Ringer, she wrote that girl groups were being extinguished by solo careers. She now says, in the mid-2020s, that the situation for female vocal combos hasn’t gotten much better, but perhaps K-pop will keep the girl group alive.

Next, Chris quizzes a Slate Plus listener with some music trivia, gives him a chance to turn the tables with a question of his own, and previews next month’s full-length episode. Slate Plus members can sign up for a chance to be our trivia contestant on a future episode here.

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.