Spice Girls: "Say You'll Be There"

Alright, so I know this is a sharp veer away from the summer's mission to barrel through all the artists playing at Lollapalooza this summer. But the thing is, I really like the Spice Girls.

They're not very good singers. They sound timid live, probably because they're young and inexperienced. They each answered an ad in a theater trade magazine: "WANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated? Heart Management Ltd. are a widely successful music industry management consortium currently forming a choreographed, singing/dancing, all-female pop act for a recording deal. Open audition. Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street. Friday 4 March. 11 am-5:30 pm. Please bring sheet music or backing cassette."*

I mean, how creepy is that?

The ad promised fame, and it delivered. Of course, that was after the group had split from Heart Management, taken all the routines and songs they'd learned, and showed them to Simon Fuller, who got them a deal at Virgin Records -- so, you know, it was a winding road. They made millions of dollars and revolutionized pop merchandising and bestowed a British-flag-and-"Girl Power"-emblazoned umbrella over the decade. Then Ginger effectively broke the spell by leaving the group after just two years of international stardom, Posh (the worst singer, in my opinion) married Beckham, and their lives are forever interesting to us because of what they did in their teens and twenties.

For teen pop, it really is good music. I listened to this song with my roommate tonight, at top volume and dancing as we made lunch for tomorrow and got ready for bed, and damn if I don't remember every single word. It's catchy, it's happy, and I realized it was the Spice Girls who first taught me how to appreciate harmony.

Sorry, Beatles. Sorry, Aerosmith. Sorry Crosby, and Stills, and Nash. It was Sporty, Baby, Posh, Scary, and Ginger whose songs I sang, whose harmonies I improvised, whose music video dances I learned. (Did you know the "Wannabe" video was filmed in one, unbroken shot?)

It was probably a good thing I didn't watch them live. They really are sort of awful.

But you have to admit, that was some career to stumble into after answering a classified ad promising a recording deal. In the age of American Idol and the X Factor and the Voice and is there something called Duets now? I can't keep track. But these days, you don't get famous by answering a classified ad -- at least, not in a way you'd write to mom about.

But back in my day, in the mid-nineties, when I was singing Hanson into a hairbrush and wearing out my VHS copy of the girls' awful (but sort of wonderful) (but actually awful) full-length feature film Spice World -- a girl could dream.

The stance of Girl Power. Via The Guardian

* Note: All quoted history taken from Wikipedia, so, you know, I'm fairly sure it's accurate. Why would Wikipedia lie to me, right?