Destiny’s Child is the most important girl group since The Supremes.

Push your thick-rimmed glasses back upon your straight-edge nose. You read that correctly.

After convincing a generation of seven-year-old girls to demand their boyfriends pay off their own exorbitant long-distance charges (“Bills, Bills, Bills”) and express feelings of love (“Say My Name”), Destiny’s Child then convinced females between the ages of 4 and 74 to ditch the aforementioned boyfriends for a much-needed girls’-night-out rendezvous at the local club (“Jumpin’, Jumpin'”). Not to be outdone by music alone, Destiny’s Child then entered the media circus with a bunch of hoopla for firing two of its four members. After the grand shuffle, the public was left with BeyoncŽ Knowles, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland – three lean, mean vocal machines with odd matching outfits and a strange in-family management team.

Enter a little film called “Charlie’s Angels,” get honey-voiced BeyoncŽ to pen a ditty encouraging women of all ages and occupations to feel good about taking care of themselves and watch the song be their first to hit the #1 spot on Billboard. Any problems caused by the rearrangement were, to be succinct, solved.

On Tuesday Survivor hit stores, already with two Top 10 hits to its not-yet-released status. The album is more of the same ready-for-Revlon, glossy pop feminism, but Destiny’s Child is, shall we say, getting in touch with its sultry side, as songs like “Bootylicious” illustrate. Songs touch on familiar ground, but Ms. Knowles has a definite knack for writing pop music. And even if you hate the go-get-’em-girl pop anthems, isn’t music supposed to bring everyone together, from the beer-loving sorority girl to the obese diva in lower management?

You might hate everything about pop music, but there’s no doubt that Ms. Knowles is a force to be reckoned with. While the rest of us 20-year-olds bike around campus in the sun, Ms. Knowles has written and produced every song on this album – a claim Diana Ross could never make back in her days of Motown glory. Destiny’s Child might seem like just another product of the Hollywood machine, but I’m certain they’re more than just survivors.

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