Jem & the Holograms (renamed in 2004 from the original series name Jem) is a fictional all-girl rock band from the 1980's cartoon series. Jerrica Benton, the heiress of Starlight Music, adopts the alter ego of Jem with the help of Synergy, a holographic computer designed to be the ultimate visual entertainment synthesizer built by her father, who left it to her on his death. The other Holograms are Kimber Benton, Jerrica's younger sister, keyboardist and main songwriter for the band; Aja Leith, guitarist; and Shana Elmsford, who plays the synth drums.

Aja and Shana are also childhood friends & adopted foster sisters of Jerrica and Kimber. Shana briefly left the group in a two-part episode called "The Talent Search", where a new character, Carmen "Raya" Alonso, is introduced as her replacement. When Shana returns, Raya Alonso remains the Holograms' drummer while Shana takes up the guitar.

Only the Holograms are aware of Jem's secret identity, although Jerrica revealed it to the United States President in a season 3 episode, "The Presidential Affair", an old Tibetan woman in the episode "Journey to Shangri-La", and the princess Adrianna of Morvania (who is mistaken for Kimber) in the episode "The Princess and the Singer". Episodes of the series frequently revolve around Jerrica's efforts to keep her two identities separate. Jerrica's other main concern is Starlight House, a home for foster girls run by the Holograms.

The Holograms' main purpose is to fund the Starlight Foundation and support the Starlight Girls. Jerrica's childhood home, where the foster girls were housed was accidentally burned down by Zipper, one of Eric Raymond's not-too-bright henchmen. Jem and the Holograms later got possession of the Starlight Mansion when they won the Battle of the Bands as well as a movie contract which were offered by movie producer Howard Sands.

The Holograms' rival band are the Misfits: petulant rich girl Pizzazz (Phyllis Gabor) & her cohorts: no-nonsense Roxy (Roxanne Pelligrini) & kind-hearted, sensitive keytar player Stormer (Mary Phillips), who are later joined by the manipulative British saxophone player, Jetta (Sheila Burns). (This group should not be confused with the real-life band The Misfits, led by Glenn Danzig.) Most episodes of the series involve a plot by the Misfits to upstage Jem and the Holograms' latest glamorous escapade. This rivalry is encouraged and manipulated by their manager, the ruthless Eric Raymond.

In the middle of the third season a new group, the Stingers, appears and shakes things up for both groups. In the final episode of the series, all three groups seemed to have declared a truce between them.

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