If Taylor Swift had been popular in the ’90s, she probably would have been part of a girl group. Back then, commercial music sold best when it had multiple voices.
Join us on a journey through time. Some readers will be able to remember, some will have to use their imagination. We are in a time when jeans sat so low on the hips that it was not uncommon for a thong to peek out underneath. Where girls wore lots of colorful clips in their hair, the more the better. An elastic plastic band on the neck. Platform on the shoes. At a time when Bravo was being read. From almost every young person in German-speaking countries. There you found out what was in, what you wore, what you listened to, who you thought was “cute” and who didn’t go at all.
On a Friday, March 4th, 1994, a casting was called at the Dancework Studios in London. The special feature: only young women were sought. For the first time, a female singing and dancing group was cast – until then a purely male recipe for success. Boys II Men, Boyzone, East 17, New Kids on the Block, Caught in the Act, Take That and what not all of them were called. The cast should be as heterogeneous as possible; as many young girls as possible should recognize themselves in one of the band members. Or at least use them as a role model and want to be like them.
Around 600 young singers auditioned. The girls should bring sheet music and a cassette for background music to the casting. The young entrepreneur Chris Herbert and his father Bob Herbert, a renowned talent manager, were cast. Three of the five young women who would later achieve world fame as the Spice Girls were found on March 4th.
“Mel B was the first person to impress me,” says Chris Herbert in the three-part documentary “Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain.” “She was totally confident.”
Dancing, singing, looks, personality
“Victoria was more classic. She had a bit of grace.” In his notes – he gave points from 1 to 10 – she didn’t do particularly well: “Dancing: 6, singing: 5, looks: 7, personality: 5.”
The choice fell on Victoria Adams-Wood, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Michelle Stephenson and Lianne Morgan. But Chris and Bob Herbert weren’t entirely happy with the final product – they later changed their mind without further ado. “I was selected, but a month later I got a letter,” recalled Morgan, who was 23 at the time. “They wrote that they liked me very much, but I looked significantly older than the others.” Melanie Chisholm was allowed to follow suit. She was younger.
But Michelle Stephenson, then 17, wasn’t convincing either. There was supposedly an argument in the band house where the “girls” were supposed to move together to be trained to become real pop stars. Instead of her, Emma Bunton, who had already starred in commercials and TV series, was used.
Since they didn’t want to sign the five women straight away in order to “foster their ambition”, the young women decided in 1995 to get new management. Simon Fuller, who later invented the talent show “Idol”, signed the Spice Girls – and thus concluded the deal of his life.
Which Spice Girl are you?
Despite all the planning, what followed was unforeseeable – and certainly exceeded all expectations. The Spice Girls achieved worldwide fame. The five worked well together. Also because each one embodied its own image: There was Scary (Melanie Brown), Ginger (Geri Halliwell), Sporty (Melanie Chisholm), Baby (Emma Bunton) and Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham).
And hardly a girl in the 90s wasn’t asked at least once who she was most like, or who she wanted to be: the sporty, cool one, always dressed in Adidas jogging pants? Or rather the sweet blonde with the babydoll dresses? The fashion-conscious person with the cool look? The freaky redhead with the loose mouth? Or Scary, where you didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to embody?
Image: Reuters
And the friendship thing was also somehow bought from them. Her first single “Wanne Be” was released in 1996 and reached number 1 in 30 countries. The albums “Spice” and “Spice World” quickly became bestsellers, and the film “Spice World – The Film”, of which the oversized brightly colored tour bus is particularly remembered, became a box office hit.
The “girls” take the girl power thing literally. In 1997 they fired Simon Fuller and took all the business into their own hands. The press sided with the fired producer and called the girl group “ungrateful.” Five women who achieved mega success without patronizing men – is that possible? Yes.
The loud, cheeky image was popular – and sold well. However, there were also downsides. A number of scandals, some of which were fabricated, were readily picked up by the tabloid press.
Image: (EPA)
In 1998, Victoria and Mel B became pregnant. “The Express” judges mercilessly: The women, then 23 and 24 years old, are to blame for the high number of teenage pregnancies in the country. Victoria Beckham’s weight was reported just weeks following giving birth to her son Brooklyn. “Not bad at all,” a TV presenter comments on the young mother’s body – a scale in her hand. A short excursion into the media of the 90s: weight, appearance, bulimia, anorexia, sexuality were still allowed to be made fun of back then without consequences.
Overall, the construct of the spicy girls was crumbling. The first was Geri Halliwell, who announced her departure from the band. To date, the Spice Girls are the most successful girl group of all time, with around 100 million records sold.
Author
Francesca Giles
Editor
Francesca Giles
