They wrote their music, have gorgeous melodies and had a uniform yet distinct individual style. They matured too fast for their teen demographic buy Forever is an amazing and ahead of it's time album. They also took their hate and made it into a marketing goldmine...the scary/ginger/baby/sporty/posh names were originally bc the man writing for TOTP didn't bother to learn their names. Iconic. I know they had iffy politics and appropriated Girl Power from American Feminist Rock...but damn do I love them.
Well about the "appropriating" Girl Power motto, I think it's all perspective. The Punk scene saw them as capitalizing on their ideas and making everything "pretty" when reality for many women was bleak, and their message was one of outrage at the marginalization they faced. Another perspective is that they made an otherwise underground idea about female empowerment accessible to a population that couldn't have taken part in the Riot grrrl movement - teenage girls. It's not like they were profiting off an already big trend, nobody in pop was risking angering certain demographics by saying "Girl Power!". If anything, blame the system for not listening to the messages of punk rock just because it's "angry & disruptive". The Spice Girls were just as punk in spirit, just different in execution.
I’m actually a teen from Gen Z and I was born way after the years of their breakup, but the Spice Girls have been and always will be one of my all-time favourite girl groups. To say I wish I could’ve lived in the 90s to enjoy the hype of the group is an understatement. And I personally feel like the reason why they went viral is because they were the FULL package. Their music was always good, they had different personalities so everyone could relate to them and they weren’t afraid to break the rules. It’s crazy to think how the group only really lasted 2-3 years and achieved such a crazy amount within that time.
Trust me, you missed out! The Spice Girls were literally EVERYWHERE, I'm not kidding. They had all kinds of lollipops, snacks, lunchboxes, dolls, games, movies, clothes and endorsements after their brand. It was absolutely phenomenal.
I also like some groups from before I was born. I’m a 90’s baby, I lived the Spice pandemic (it was really a pandemic haha) and now I’m obsessed with the New Kids On The Bloc right from the 80’s. It’s cool to get out of your shell and discover another eras of music.
I feel you on this, because I was born during the late 90s, and I didn't even know who the Spice Girls were till 2007. I didn't pay much attention to groups growing up, not because I wasn't interested, it's just because my mind was focused pretty much on tv shows and my stuffed animals. Plus I was really young at the time, but it would've been really cool to have a lunchbox of your favorite group as a child.
Keep in mind, Emma was not an original member of the group. Her name was Michelle Steven’s. She left the group, she was not interested in what the other four were looking to do.
Manufactured in the pre debut era. They meet in an audition, saw the project, and leave the company who got them together. Then, they kept together, it was all about them... and the rest is history. Manufactured? I wouldn’t say that.
This group broke so many barriers and challenged so many societal norms and they did it unapologetically and authentic. They wrote their own songs and co-produced each one, they challenged the world and audience on equality and spoke out for women, blacks, LGBT, etc at a time when it was not socially understood or accepted with understanding as it is now. To say they are icons is understated I will always be glad I saw Spicemania take America. These girls worked hard and owned the music industry for two years solid when they broke. They sang most of their performances live. They aren't just a 90s fad they are legends and the best selling female group of all time. The Spice Girls are apart of music history and will be remembered for their music, style, rebellion, social contribution, and individuality. ❤️❤️❤️
They actually had half the album Spice written, and melody concepts made before they even worked with producers and a record company. they left their original management. they got a record deal by themselves with no ones help, they also found producer Elliot Kennedy and they persuaded him to work with them. there's a lot that the general public doesn't know about these girls. It's easy to scream manufactured but these girls are far from that.
Geri and Emma did NOT audition for the group, they came later, Geri just showed up at the top 12 audition and charmed her way in and Emma replaced a girl named Michelle Stephenson who was in the original 5
@@andrewbloom7637 the endorsement deals they did was Walker crisps, Channel 5 (they did the launch theme song for a UK channel that's defunct), chocolate bars, Tesco, Asda huge UK shopping chains..apparently in 97 Christmas season in the UK they were so much Exclusive Spice girls deals that parents had a hard time Keeping up with the demand of all the exclusive merch, the backlash on the girls was so swift cos it was so hard to keep up on all the merch. Even the Pepsi deal in the UK offered an exclusive Spice girls cd for drinking 20 cans of Pepsi with special pull tabs, you sent them and got a free Spice girls single of a brand new song exclusive from Pepsi, which they did the official campaign for the generation Next. Step to Me and Move over were the two songs the Spice girls did for Pepsi. Move over is available on Spiceworld while step to Me was offered to Japan as an exclusive bonus track on their version of Spiceworld
um... sorry are you insane??? "they made it OK to do endorsement deals"?????????? Literally this ALWAYS was done?? I mean Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, MADONNA, Whitney etc they were already doing endorsement deals in the 90s, 80s and 70s??? Hell, James Brown was making them in the 60s??? Elvis in the 50s??? how did the Spice Girls "made or ok"??
@@blameitoncapitalism I think they meant that the spice girls did so many in such little time. The other musicians you mentioned were around for longer than the spice girls were.
Mentioning the fact that the media made it seem like they were industry plant makes me realize that the industry plant have always been and increasing become a racist/sexist backlash against black hip hop artists, KPOP idols and female pop artists, especially those who enjoys overnight success. Like I remember reading an article about that last month and dismissed it but that article made some good points about this, I initially was someone who played a part in it and threw industry plant to anyone who’s enjoyed massive success but after the debate concerning Olivia roderigo’s rise to fame when drivers license and looking back into more introspectively I feel giving artists of marginalized groups in particular industry plants titles is unnecessary
Even if someone is a industry plant, if they have talent shouldn't they be endorced? Take Whitney and Mariah. Both clive and mattola really worked hard to and focused on getting their name everywhere. And they had talent to back it up. So should they be called industry plants or talented people getting promotion ?
Artists of marginalized groups could still be industry plants. None of us never know so cherry picking and thinking one can’t not judge or comments based on their background is too safe. We can share opinions without being nasty. Like lately people have been thinking non black people have been enjoying Dababy’s down fall too much but why not he’s an idiot 😆
@@suoutubez19 you may disagree but it was a simple example because some people be taking too much offense when it comes to public perception thinking there is always racist undertones.
I was devastated when Geri quit. I had tickets to their concert already too .. was my first concert .. also the same night mel b and Victoria announced they were pregnant 🤰…memories 🥰
They were everywhere for two straight years, impossible to avoid even if you didn't listen to the radio or watch TV, their image was everywhere. It was fun! The "Spice Girls" effectively ended when Geri left and most people pretend Forever doesn't exist. The first album is still amazing and deserved the 23+ million sales.
I was born at the end of 90s, right in the prime of teen pop music. Spice Girls truly started the teen pop movement before the Americans decided to capitalise on Spice's success.
spice mania was real and i never have and probably never will experience anything like it. looking back, the whole thing lasted only a couple of years, but let me tell you, spice girls were EVERYWHERE. every piece of merchandise you can imagine, it existed. every store, including the smallest shop around the corner carried some spice merch, and i vividly remember buying a can of spice girls lolipops from this tiny store on our block. the spice girl perfume smelled really great, we collected stickers, we collected newspaper clippings, had shirts, kids stacked rocks on top of eachother on the playground at school and pretended they were platform boots, it. was. insane. i was hyped af when they released the movie, and i remember jokingly telling my schoolmate that Mel B actually blew up that building in the movie and they took her to jail because of it, and i remember her started crying on the school enterance because of my stupid joke. like, people were invested, and when Geri left, we were devastated. no one knew why, we were kids in elementary school, forming these parasocial relationships with the biggest pop group, so of course it was like a knife through a heart. and although they only released three albums, so it doesn't seem it could've been that crazy in retrospect, it was something you had to live through.
@@OOOO0OOOO0001___ it wasn't the Europeans either. Racism is as old as human existence and that means people from Africa were obviously the first to do it. But that is hardly relevant.
I personally consider their last two albums, spice world and forever, are their best works, particularly spice world that album is so amazing and have great songs like stop and spice up your life. The spice girls growing up posts-1990s as a Gen Z member they changed my life I love their music and empowering message as well as the diversity and individuality of each of the members, they’re also very underrated as a vocal group compared to other girl groups like destiny’s child, en vogue, the Andrew sisters and little mix, their live vocal harmonies were 🔥🔥🔥🥰🥰🥰
No matter what anyone says or thinks spice girls are the greatest girl group. None of the other groups mentioned had equality or actual chemistry within the group. There was always a hierarchy. Little mix is the only one who allowed all members to shine like the spice girls which is one of the reasons why little mix have done very well. However, they won’t ever touch the spice girls or surpass them and no other girl group will either.
@@misterbee66 Spice was raw, lots of R&b, and bass. Spice World was more polished, bubble gum, and not in your face.. Spice World didn't have edge or attitude. but it was still full of diverse tracks and great bops. each song is single worthy
why did i cry with nostalgia!!! thank you, SPICE GIRLS FOREVER! Takes me right back to 8th grade😩😩😩 My cousin and I went to see Spice World 3 times! 👏🏾 Thank you, excellent video!
FINALLY!!! I was waiting for this omg about time a new video came. Also I think they were the first girl group to capitalise on the teen pop movement before it became a whole new trend. So ahead of their time for a girl group honestly. People dismiss them for TLC copies sometimes, which is so not true. TLC was R&B and were a movement of their own
In a way they were though. They were repackaged TLC but with two extra members and being more bubblegum but black artists like TLC had the girl power friendship thing down-pact. Teen pop was heavily burrowed from black artists. Before Britney there was Aaliyah, Brandy and Monica. Before NSYNC and Backstreet Boys there was Boys 2 Men, Jodeci, and many other new Jack Swing groups. The whole teen pop sensation thing started from black artist. And usually vocally the black artists were way more talented but the GP and record labels prefer white artists.
Plus R&B music is music. The issue is that the music industry is heavily segregated so when a white person is singing "R&B" they call it pop. I think a lot of the times people confuse R&B music for Soul.
Thank you for summing up their significance for people who are still confused about their legacy and their status as a "manufactured band." They literally did everything to serve their interests as girls and women first, rather than being the cookie cutter sex kittens we see today who are contractually bound to be a certain weight, get implants, not get married or become pregnant..hell some of them even have to do those weird satanic hand gestures.. Im glad the spices will forever remain the OGs who wrote the rules, and lived life with integrity snd in their own terms. They will only be 5 spice girls and i wish each of them to leave the world with a lot of good Karna snd blessings snd being remembered as amazing role models who had a message to convey through even the mess they made
They really were a force of nature. I grew up in the 90s and they truly made girls everywhere feel like girl power was a real thing. I loved them from the moment I saw them and was heartbroken when they broke up.
Listening again to Geri Halliwell's reason for leaving the group reminds me of why Jesy Nelson left Little Mix. It's the same story all over again. The music industry does it to its singers. The Spice Girls were unique because they never listened to their managers. Taylor Swift in a way follows that thinking. They did show that pop is successful in a short time bubble.
Growing up as a child in the late 90s, I remember how huge they were back then. The best girl group ever existed! It's fun how British music industry wanted to replicate their success with All Saints, Girls Alound and Little Mix, but none of these projects is a real match for Spice Girls!
Yeah, and no one but us seems to be bothered by that in the slightest. I was personally affected by this as in 97, I was studying in London (Academic year abroad) and people either saw a resemblance and decided to tease me about it (that I still don't see, I think it's in the vein of "all black people look the same") or genuinely thought I was her. Bottom line, everywhere I went I had someone calling me scary spice. Yuck!
Actually... Sporty was called Sporty because of how she always called others as "Old Sport". And the other girls hated it and start calling her Sporty. And Baby was called that because of her fondness for babies and for how natural her hands are for taking care of babies, and how she is literally the youngest member of Spice Girls.
It's no wonder why their the biggest selling girl group of all time till this day. I don't think they even realise that themselves what an impact they've caused
Manufactured? They were in control of their own image/s. No man or other woman or corporation told them how to dress or what music to sing etc they wrote their own music, sang amazingly together and made really good music. That’s why they went “haywire” or better yet why they became the most successful and legendary girl group of all time in music (critically and commercially)
@@robertprice4826 Not by me, speak for yourself!! That album is bad and dull. Emmas A girl like me is so much better !! The 3d spice girls album is Forever
I was born in 02' so I grew up in what I like to call the "aftermath of the spice girls" I kept on hearing Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life, kept on hearing people talk about them. Long story short, as a young girl and hearing about girl power made me loose it 😂😂 like holy we have the power
Their pre-debut story is exactly how k-pop is done. I know that Lee Soo Man got his ideas from American and British pop groups, but I didn't realize it was almost an exact copy.
I was a huge fan as a little gay boy ! Ginger was of course my favorite! I remember I loved collecting their picture cards ! They were kinda like Pokémon cards.
Because they had grown to be so successful, by spring 1997, there were tribute bands popping up all over London and no doubt the rest of the U.K. with ads seeking girls who could cosplay as the real girls to tour nightclubs. They all had ridiculously similar names, one being the Spiced Girls. My attention was drawn to this back in the day, after I had been approached several times in clubs or in the street and even in the audience of a recording session for channel 5 for my supposed resemblance to one of the original band members. I wasn't a fan at that time so I was truly not interested in joining any tribute band. I was only there for a few more months as a student in an international language school. I don't know if the hype of tribute bands died down after the band stepped out of the limelight but these were crazy times...
I absolutely love that they hijacked the studio to 'steal' back their records. What made it even funnier is that Geri shoved them down her knickers in case their old management gave chase.
There’s some inaccuracies here, the biggest probably being that Emma was an original member at the auditions. Originally it was Michelle and they replaced her with Emma. Also Geri didn’t attend the open auditions she was added in the later rounds.
Originally manufactured but became their own unique entities. There will never be another. Perfect blend of campy and sexy with feminism at their core. What made them so special is they characterized themselves, they were cheeky and full of charisma. The sexuality was never put on or taken too seriously. They weren’t vulgar, they were playful. Seems like record companies (especially American ones) don’t understand that if you just put three, four or five girls together that are purely for the male gaze selling unrealistic beauty standards to young girls, that it isn’t gonna work. Not for longevity anyway. The Spice Girls were for girls, gays and also appealed to hetero boys too but only incidentally. GIRL POWER! (they were my first concert when I was ten. Geri just left the band and I was heartbroken!!! The show is still a fond memory though. I was totally obsessed as a kid. Floor to ceiling posters and cut outs.)
Really sorry, but there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings in this documentary. They indeed became very close and most of the ‘design’ of their ‘brand’ was thanks to themselves and even their mothers! At the beginning it truly was a close nit family, because they all wanted the same thing after all.
@@JenniferBrigitteOpticalVortex umm lmao no disrespect to Geri at all. But Geri was not a singer, dancer, or writer before the spice girls… All 5 girls wrote all of the music together. It’s been said by them all plenty of times.
Nice intro video for the band. As a Spice fan, i will say that you show massive respect. Thx But You forgot to mention, that there was another original member that Emma Bunton replaced, Michelle Stephenson. By her good looks alone you could tell she would have made a great spice Girl. But if not for following her heart, we wouldn't have Baby's Sultry & Sweet Vocals.
You better make a video about lana del Rey she's one of the most interesting figures that emerged from the pop landscape of 2010s A very interesting video by the way ♥️
I DONT CARE WHAT NOBODY SAYS, I STILL AND ALWAYS LOVE WHAT THE SPICE GIRLS STOOD FOR! LOVE THESE LADIES XOXO #GIRLPOWERFOREVER DEFINITELY RIGHT ABOUT ICONIC!
A couple of facts you actually missed: There was a prior member, Michelle Stephenson that was fired and replaced by Emma Bunton and The Were originally called "Spice" but there was an American Rapper called Spice 1 and also an *ahem* Adult Cable Channel at the Time called Spice in America. And They were one of the first Teen Band ,that the term "Branding" was associated with
Even though they appropriated the term girl power, i think that they made it justice in some way. I consider it an important step for the girl power idea to spark a feminist idea (as miniscule as it may have been) in young girls minds in a massive way. Maybe the fact that they don't give credit to the riot grrl movement was sad but, and let's be honest here, it wasn't marketable at the time and not even now bc of how society fears such level of dissidence in women.
Guys and girls other than the girl groups you mentioned did anyone ever consider that there was a girl group here in America for a while their name was Innosense and a lot of their original members went solo