“There have to be more justifications for dancing,” said the man with the cigar, firmly.  There was a chart in the back of his head, in his mind’s eye, that he referred to, mentally, when he said, “Dancing has been dropping every year since the war ended.  This is unacceptable.  It’s downright un-American!”

 

Men with cigars usually have assistants.  This one was no exception; he had a fleet of subordinates, all with different titles, but with only one responsibility: keep the man with the cigar happy.

 

The skinny one dashed out and dashed right back in again with a list of new instruments.  “All these instruments,” he said nervously, “have been invented since the decline of dance.  It’s my theory that they haven’t been properly utilized.   If we can just get enough electric tubas together in a barn, then…”

 

The swarthy one dashed out and dashed right back in again with a treatise.  “The decline of love,” he cleared his throat. “The decline of romantic love is responsible directly responsible for the plummeting popularity of dancing.  I recommend we commence – immediately! – desperate measures to save romantic, heart-heaving love from modernity!  There’s only one boy for every girl, one ‘one and only’, for every girl!”

 

The plump one dashed out and dashed right back in, out of breath.  “It’s the girls that account for it.  They don’t want to be led, they want to lead!  They want to take, not be taken!  And the boys can’t dance with themselves, can they?  Can they?”  he implored the others.  “Of course not!  So we gotta make some songs that make them feel like it’s their music they’re dancing to, like they’re the ones controlling the fantasy and the close, breathy dancing on floors that are already scuffed by the shoes on the feet of many prior dancers!”

 

The man with the cigar regarded his three assistants warily.  The skinny one gulped.  The swarthy one coughed into his fist, discreetly.  The plump one put his hands in his suit pockets, then took them out.

 

“I like it!”  he said, “I like all of it! Miller – rent a recording space and fill it with newfangled instruments.  Benitez – write some songs that make people fall in love again!  And Lewis – get some girls!  Some good ones!”

 

This is how girl groups were invented.