Pop Culture Flashback! Jem: Truly Outrageous

When you’re young, it’s natural to fantasize about being someone else. As a teensy girl, I stared at Mary Lou Retton flipping across our television screen during the Olympics and aspired to one day segue from Tumblebees class to gold-medal glory. I also danced through our family room to Bonnie Tyler and plotted to someday join her band.

Now that I’ve grown up a bit, my dream of morphing into someone else has faded. However, on days when it isn’t so fun to be Angie C. Marek, I still dream of one childhood hero whose life I wouldn’t mind adopting. That person is a rock star, a philanthropist and a successful CEO all wrapped into one neat, pink-haired package. That person is Jem.

“Jem and the Holograms” was a group of five dolls originally created by Hasbro in 1985. When Jem first debuted on shelves, she was meant to serve as the antiBarbie and had a lot more going on than the other dolls in her cohort. She even came with a nice little background story to prove it. Little girls everywhere were fed the tale of Jem: pop diva by night, successful Starlight Records CEO Jerrica Benton by day. Always generous, Benton even donated all of the profits of Starlight Records to an orphanage. But the coolest part about Benton was her transformation—after having her computer Synergy project a hologram over her body, she would emerge as Jem, the hottest, most talented rock star of her day and Starlight’s most lucrative act.

I’m still stunned by my childhood superhero, especially when I consider her deftness in the art of multi-tasking. In her world of non-reality, Jem did more for orphans than most dedicated volunteers. But even with these achievements, Jem inspires my adoration for a different accomplishment—namely, being the best female role model in the rock industry I’ve seen to date. Her personal life was intact and PG—we all knew that Jerrica/Jem would be forever faithful to her hunky boyfriend-cum-stage-manager Rio. Even when Jem whipped out the overly-skimpy clothes, she couldn’t scandalize loyal watchers. After all, baring leg is somehow forgivable when your legs are a product of animation.

Jem’s greatest contribution, however, was her ability to show young girls they could exert influence in the world that was the 1980s. Jem came out just four years after the birth of MTV, and her cartoon show demonstrated that female-dominated bands could have kick-ass rock videos. The hour-long show was specked with music video sequences, each one carrying the mark of MTV. Even Starlight Records was a beacon of hope to young women. Through her work as Jerrica the CEO, Jem showed young girls that the booming big business world of the ’80s was not a male-only affair.

As little girls today look up to the ever-troubled and half-naked Britney, the not-so-there-anymore Spice Girls or the (gasp) billion-dollar grossing Olsen twins, I’m still standing behind Jem. And somehow, I don’t think that’s so truly-truly-truly outrageous.

Q&A: Britta Phillips

When other 21-year-olds in the ’80s were crushing on Michael J. Fox, Britta Phillips was getting paid to be the singing voice of Jem. The current bassist for the band Luna—fronted by Harvard’s own M. Dean Wareham ’85—looks back on her fast times as a singing diva on the USA Network and reflects on Jem’s ongoing influence.

The Harvard Crimson: What have you learned from the experience of working on this show?

Britta Phillips: Well, most of what I was learning was about singing, about being professional and hitting the high notes. It was a great confidence booster, and it really gave me the feeling that I had made the right decision when I decided to come to New York and pursue a career in music. I didn’t really watch the show because I was out partying every night and it was on at eight in the morning, but I watch the show now with my four-year-old niece and I know she thinks the whole thing is incredibly cool.

THC: Do you think you have anything in common with Jem?

BP: Well, it really depends on how you define the Jem character. Jem was very good—I would say she was probably a lot more self-sacrificing than I am. I feel like I’m a good person, but I don’t have an orphanage, and I don’t devote a huge part of my time to a cause outside myself.

THC: How do you think the lifestyle presented in the Jem show differs from how things are in a real-life band?

BP: From what I recall, the Jem singers fought a lot and then worked things out. I think that’s accurate, but every band differs. Luna is really fun with lots of really fun, funny, smart people. The first band I was in, though, was a nightmare. I guess it really just depends on the people involved—some people are darker, some more mature. Being in a band is like being in a family, or a gang, and that can be great but it can be claustrophobic at the same time.

THC: How were things different when you were with all girls?

BP: I don’t know if being in an all-girl band makes that big of a difference, but I definitely enjoy touring with girls. When I first started out with Luna I didn’t really miss it, but then this summer we toured with a female keyboardist. She and I would talk about girly things, while the guys taunted each other.

THC: Do you think Jem is a good role model?

BP: I’m not an expert on Jem [but] I know she’s a good person, so I guess she’s a good thing to admire. The people who made the show made an effort to round her out, so she wasn’t just a glamour puss.

THC: Do you think the show was heavily influenced by MTV?

BP: I’m sure they were. The musical bits even had the little MTV titles. The songs I sang for the doll series were made into trippy ’80s-style videos, like fantasy pieces. They had all those insane colors, and makeup that looked like war paint, which was of course totally ’80s.

THC: Did your friends at the time think you were a badass because you did the Jem show?

BP: I think they were impressed that I was getting paid to sing, but people my age didn’t know about Jem. They’re much more excited about it now than they were at the time. My brother and his friends were really into the fact that I worked on the show. They used to make me sing whenever I came home. It was great.