People have recently acknowledged the fact its now 20 years since the Spice Girls debuted, so I thought it would be a good idea to write about them in the next instalment of my Nothing Lasts Forever series.
Early on in 1996 many young females were devastated at the news that Take That had decided to call it a day. At the same time, many young males including myself were very happy to see the end of Take That. In July of that year though it became apparent that whilst Take That had finished as a group, their members hadn't finished and Gary Barlow went straight in at number one with his debut "Forever Love". What was yet to become apparent was that it wasn't the number one of that week I should be worried about, it was the new entry at number three which you've probably guessed was "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.
The following week the Spice Girls knocked Gary Barlow off number one and remained there for what seemed like an eternity. I thought this was bound to be a one hit wonder, or at the very least they'd follow it up with a couple of flops before disappearing. Even when I saw the TV debut of their follow up "Say You'll Be There" on The Noise (short lived music show presented by Andi Peters on ITV before The Chart Show) I thought it would flop, but no it went straight it at number one. After that I conceded they weren't going away any time soon.
They were a prime example of how marketing a band in the right way can bring great success. They were clearly there to fill the void left by Take That for the teenage girl audience, but gained a lot of attention from the male audience too which had nothing to do with the music. In those days, when you bought albums you'd often have a mail order card for additional merchandise, and the Spice Girls were no exception to this. One thing you could order was a poster of them in Baywatch swimsuits, when word of this got out many males would buy the album just to order that poster, I knew people who did that, no Google image search in those days. I even knew one person who bought the "2 Become 1" single purely because you could see Geris legs on the cover.
In 1997 the hype surrounding the Spice Girls just got ridiculous, it seemed anything which could be Spice Girls branded was. Then there was the movie which I happy to say that to this very day I've never seen. Music wise though, they only had three singles this year which all got to number one. This was the year they were at the peak of their success.
By 1998, although still hugely popular, the downward spiral would begin. First of all they had their first single that didn't reach number one which was "Stop" which got to number two being denied by Run DMC with "Its Like That". Then Geri Halliwell left the group, which musically wouldn't have made the slightest bit of difference, but it made people questioning whether the whole girl power concept was real or just a marketing campaign.
They finished the year with a Christmas number one with the appropriately titled "Goodbye". Whilst they weren't completely finished as a group, this really was the end of the Spice Girls era. Geri had gone, Mel B and Mel C had already begun their solo careers and both Mel B and Victoria were pregnant by this point.
In 2000 they did make a comeback and had a number one with "Holler", but I don't think too many people remember that. They also came back seven years later with a very forgettable song that failed to reach the top 10. There is also talk of a reunion to mark 20 years, but not all members will be part of it.
So the Spice Girls era may have felt like an eternity, but it only lasted 2 and a half years. Still, it's allowed them all to forge a lucrative career out of doing bugger all ever since so I don't think they'll be complaining.
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