Spice Girls: Good, Actually?

[DrGreggles]

Yep, great song.
Spice Girls songs don't come close to any of the GA singles mentioned.

To say that one had a cultural impact and one didn't is nonsense. GA were formed on one of the biggest TV shows of the decade.

[Utter Shit]

All right just went for a long nighttime walk and gave the girls an audit.

Better than I remembered. I still think the singing is distractingly weak, sometimes embarrassingly so, but the compositions of the songs themselves are effective and impressively varied. They do have more energy and personality than I gave them credit for, and they make good use of the five different voices.

I think they are testament to how far a good producer can take you. Britney Spears is the same - she doesn't even sound like she can sing on her albums, so however many takes she did of each line what you're hearing is the BEST she managed, and she still sounds shit - but you cannot tell me that Baby One More Time, Toxic, Everytime, Oops I Did It Again etc aren't bangers.

I don't mind Girls Aloud but I've never quite understood what it is that makes them considered acceptable even to 'proper' music fans in a way that the Spice Girls and others aren't. Their first song is decent but is a total rip-off of Addicted To Bass by Puretone, and The Promise and Love Machine are decent...but I don't really get why Biology is held up as one of the great modern pop songs.

Little Mix have a great hit rate IMO, consistently catchy tracks. Move is such a weird, fun song.

[sutin]

Sound of the Underground, Jump, The Promise, No Good Advice, Love Machine, Something Kinda Ooooh, all massive singles.

Never heard of any of them. Could name every Spice Girls hit 1996-1998 whether I care to admit it or not.

[Custard]

Were The Saturdays any good? Genuinely asking, as they kinda passed me by. Though I do like Vince Clarke's edit of their song Issues. Which apparently they consider their worst tune

[purlieu]

Never heard of any of them. Could name every Spice Girls hit 1996-1998 whether I care to admit it or not.

Fuck knows what rock you were living under then.

[Utter Shit]

They had a really good one called Issues that had a line people misheard as the singer saying she was considering stabbing her boyfriend.

Black Heart by Stooshe is another great pop song by a modern girl group.

[sutin]

Fuck knows what rock you were living under then.

I'm not sure where I was supposed to hear them. I don't listen to the radio and I don't  watch TV singing contests. It's easier than you think to avoid all  chart music in the internet/streaming media age.

[Brundle-Fly]

I remember liking 'Sound Of The Underground' and the one that sounded like the 'Blankety Blank' theme. Spice Girls made more impact worldwide compared to GA,  no? I always felt a bit sorry for Shampoo who had their 'Girl Power' phrase/ schtick stolen from right under their Plumstead noses.

[purlieu]

It's easier than you think to avoid all  chart music in the internet/streaming media age.

This might be the difference between knowing Girls Aloud and the Spice Girls then, surely?

[popcorn]

I also have absolutely no fucking idea what Girls Out Loud sound like, fwiw, but could hum all the Spice Girls chart-toppers. Might just have been more exposed to them at the time I suppose.

[sutin]

This might be the difference between knowing Girls Aloud and the Spice Girls then, surely?

Maybe, but i'm not exactly living under a rock, am I?

[sutin]

I also have absolutely no fucking idea what Girls Out Loud sound like, fwiw

Join the club. We've all had access to almost all the world's music for two decades, why would we hear Girls Aloud or whatever the fuck they are?

[Brundle-Fly]

Spice Girls existed just before the internet really took off in the mainstream. You'd hear them all the time on the radio and TV. Every other pop magazine had them plastered on the cover. The Post-Britpop 'Cool Brittannia' phase. They also had an aggressive marketing campaign and were doing adverts for quite a few big brands. People forget that nobody thought this new girl band would be able to compete with the likes of NKOTB, Backstreet Boys, Take That and East 17 because little girls wanted to get all gooey over 'non-threatening' or 'mildly naughty' boys. Spice Girls showed you could win those fans over and kicked open the door for the girl bands who followed. And of course, with a message that was important as Nelson Mandela's.

[Custard]

Sutin, do yourself a favour and get the Girls Aloud greatest hits. One pop banger after another. They were fantastic

[DrGreggles]

Might just have been more exposed to them at the time I suppose.

Nail on head

[purlieu]

Join the club. We've all had access to almost all the world's music for two decades, why would we hear Girls Aloud or whatever the fuck they are?

Because they're good?

[popcorn]

Because they're good?

oh come off it mate, you started off saying you had to be "living under a rock" if you hadn't heard Girls Aloud (you only need to not pay attention to UK mainstream radio, which hasn't been difficult for the last 20 years). It's really not astonishing for someone not to know about some comparatively inconsequential pop group, you don't need to have been a contrarian bastard to have dodged them, we're not talking about the Beatles here.

[purlieu]

Yes, it was a bit of a silly flippant comment. I think the original post just reminded me of people who barge into comments threads saying "Who?" or "Never heard of them!" as if not knowing things is something to be proud of.

That said, the only time in my adult life I've listened to mainstream radio was ten months I spent working in an office in 2008-2009, but I was very familiar with a number of their songs through use on telly, played in shops, seeing snippets when visiting friends who were watching music channels, etc. Sound of the Underground and The Promise, in particular, seemed to have been just about everywhere when released.

[popcorn]

I remember being aware of Girls Aloud at the time, and yet not a single one of their hitz seems to have seeped into my brain. Been going through Spotify and nothing rings a bell. I wonder to what extent I would have known the Spice Girls' hits if I wasn't being driven to school with the radio on, ... as another poster said, though, they did absolutely cunt the zeitgeist, I wonder if they would have penetrated my 6music bubble somehow.

Speaking of which, I've been spending the pandemic with my dear old dad and he sits around all day with Radio 3 on. (Is Radio 3 the one I mean? The ultimate MOR BBC station that plays pop all day and people phone in with their opinions about barbecues so on.) And I haven't heard a Spice Girls song on it ever. I wonder exactly which part of the music canon they've come to settle in.

[sutin]

Maybe the Spice Girls were the last pop band to have that kind of cultural impact. Because of how we've had access to everything since the early '00s, it's impossible to be that ubiquitous again.

[sutin]

I've been going through their hits on Spotify too. It's all completely new to me for sure. I'll concede that they're not awful either, although I doubt i'll ever listen again.

[Gulftastic]

Girl Thing were a weird attempt at tailgating the Spice Girls. Absolute ton of money spent on promoting them, but failed pretty miserably. Their second single 'Girls On Top' sounds like it was written by a committee nicking bits from other hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk5KzORWxrk

[Better Midlands]

Only one mention of Sugababes?

About You Now/Push The Button/Round Round/Freak Like Me (granted that came ready made) are fantastic.

[Custard]

Sugababes were indeed great too. Their greatest hits is also well worth a listen

[Jockice]

Bet you've all forgotten about Supersister though. I like my men like I like my coffee. In cappuccino sachets.

[Urinal Cake]

Maybe the Spice Girls were the last pop band to have that kind of cultural impact. Because of how we've had access to everything since the early '00s, it's impossible to be that ubiquitous again.

BTS? And they're not singing/rapping in English most of the time too.

Sugababes, sound pretty dated but I think it's just memories. Girls Aloud seem to have better longevity.

[The Culture Bunker]

I was born in 1981 and the Spice Girls, as much as I loathed every one of their hits, certainly had a level of ubiquity those that followed could never get close to. I have vague memories of hearing Girls Aloud's 'Love Machine' are not being impressed at all. Sugababes, I remember hearing one of their early hits and thinking it was OK, but anything after they took on the revolving door recruitment policy I found to be wasted on me. I only remember 'Freak Like Me' because of the Tubeway Army link, but even with that I'd much rather hear the original mash-up as the singing is better.

Probably some sort of point in that era where I really was able to completely tune out of whatever was happening in modern pop. I sort of link it with all those tedious indie bands (like the Libertines, the Vines, the Stokes) that made me almost exclusively start buying albums from the past.

[idunnosomename]

Girl Thing were a weird attempt at tailgating the Spice Girls. Absolute ton of money spent on promoting them, but failed pretty miserably. Their second single 'Girls On Top' sounds like it was written by a committee nicking bits from other hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk5KzORWxrk

funnily though, same writing outfit as the main spice girls hits (absolute)

its just a fucking disco song though. its kinda ok but it's not Song #2 single material.

i remember the Vigilante 8 title screen had an "ooh ooh" hook like that

[sutin]

BTS? And they're not singing/rapping in English most of the time too.

Sugababes, sound pretty dated but I think it's just memories. Girls Aloud seem to have better longevity.

I've only heard of BTS because of one person I follow on Twitter posting about them all the time. I've never seen that name anywhere else.

[Custard]

Though I find most of the Spice Girls' solo offerings a bit rubs, you could probably scrape a decent compilation/playlist out of the best tunes

Victoria's Out Of Your Mind is a cracker. Just pretend Dane Bowers isn't there

Geri had a couple good uns. Bag It Up, Mi Chico Latino

Emma had What Took You So Long and the Tin Tin Out one

Mel C had the Bryan Adams one, and the fantastically atrocious (yet good) Going Down

Mel B probably had the weakest offerings. Can't think of any of hers I like. I remember her dire cover of Word Up, but that can leap in bin