Archived Material
The Spice Girls
As with Madonna, The Spice Girls success story raises issues of the status of musical genres, image and representation, the commodification of popular music, and the nature and operation of celebrity in pop culture more generally.
The Spice Girls were originally put together by the management team of Bob Herbert and his son Chris. Chris drew up a flyer, which he distributed in London and the south-east of England: ‘R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance. R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated?’ Four hundred showed up for the auditions at Danceworks studios, just off London’s Oxford Street. The original five Spice Girls (including Michelle Stephenson, who dropped out and was replaced by Emma Bunton) met for the first time in March 1994. Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, and Geri Halliwell came from varying backgrounds, and the combination of personalities to make up the group were chosen quite deliberately. The press, and their fans, later referred to them as Posh (Victoria), Sporty (Mel C), Baby (Emma), Scary (Melanie Brown), and Ginger (Geri); labels which became pervasive public signifiers, and helped consolidate the Spice Girls’ image.
Chris Herbert used Trinity, a dance/rehearsal/recording studio in Woking, Surrey as a base for the group, who spent almost a year there, working on their singing and developing embryonic songwriting skills, and beginning the process of selling themselves to the music industry. The Herberts had no official contract with the girls, and were a relatively small company, and the band, now increasingly confident in their abilities, looked around for a deal that offered greater support to their increasing ambitions. In April 1995 they left manager Chris Herbert and signed with Simon Fuller’s 19 Management. In 1996, they signed to Virgin Records for a reported £2 million advance.
Fuller commissioned three teams of songwriters, all of whom had considerable music industry experience, credits, and success, to work with/for the group, to develop their song ideas. Their input is shown on the group’s debut album. Stannard and Rowe, who had previously written material/hits for East 17 and Take That, came up with three of the Spice Girls’ four number one singles: ‘Wannabe’, ‘2 Become 1’, and ‘Mama’, and also wrote ‘If U Can’t Dance’. Absolute (Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins) provided ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, ‘Something Kinda Funny’, ‘Naked’, and ‘Last Time Lover’. The remaining two songs on the first album, ‘Say You’ll Be There’ and ‘Love Thing’ were written by Eliot Kennedy (one with Cary Bayliss). The Spice Girls get songwriting credit on all of the songs on the Spice album, but Davis (1997) claims that they actually only got about one-twentieth of the composer’s royalties apiece.
The debut single ‘Wannabe’ was released in July 1996. It went to number 1 in the UK within a few weeks and stayed there for two months – a record for a debut single by a UK girl group. Subsequently it reached the number 1 chart position in thirty-one countries, including the USA, selling four million copies worldwide. The Spice Girls next three singles also topped the UK charts, making them the only group to have had four UK number 1s with their four first singles, and already the most successful British girl group ever. The appeal of the group was enhanced by their videos and energetic dance routines and performances on leading music television show Top of the Pops. The Spice LP went triple platinum in the UK within three weeks of its release, and by mid-1997 had sold over ten million copies worldwide. The Girls’ personal lives, notably earlier modelling efforts and personal relationships, came under intense scrutiny by first the British, then the international press, especially the tabloids. The group’s slogan, ‘Girl Power’,‘a hybrid of 90s good-feel optimism and cheery fun-pub feminism which alienates no one’ (Davis 1997: 35), attracted considerable debate (see Lemish, 2003).
During 1996 and into 1997, the Spice Girls solidified their success in Britain, and then tackled America. A carefully orchestrated marketing campaign was undertaken by Virgin in the US, partly to offset initial critical reception of the records. For example, the Rolling Stone’s negative March 1997 review of Spice, which labeled the music a watered down mix of hip-hop and pop, and accorded it only one and a half stars (on a five-star scale). ‘Despite their pro-woman posing’, wrote reviewer Christina Kelly, ‘the Girls don’t get bogged down by anything deeper than mugging for promo shots and giving out tips on getting boys into bed’ (cited Dickerson 1998: 205). Virgin marketed the band with heavy emphasis on their videos and the Girls visual appeal, largely avoiding the more potentially awkward print media. This meant ‘high profiles for MTV, short interviews for television, and staged events where cameras could only get passing glimpses of the Spice Girls in controlled situations’. MTV was crucial, ‘showing the Girls’ nipple-friendly video (for “Wannabe”) at every opportunity’ (Dickerson 1998: 205). In July 1997, Spice topped the Billboard album charts, and, Rolling Stone ran a cover story headlined ‘Spice Girls Conquer the World’, a nine-page article, which told readers everything they could possibly want to know about the Spice Girls (10 July 1997 issue). All this without playing a concert, and not playing live, except on the television show Late Night with David Letterman.
The Spice Girls filled a market niche. As Chris Herbert observed:
The whole teen-band scene at that time was saturated by boy bands. I felt that if you could appeal to the boys as well, you’d be laughing. If you could put together a girl band which was both sassy, for the girls, and with obvious sex appeal, to attract the boys, you’d double your audience. (Davis 1997: 35)
The Spice Girls also provided an antidote to the ‘laddish’ culture of UK Brit pop in the early 1990s, associated with performers such as the Gallagher brothers (Oasis). The Spice Girls were the subject of considerable hostility from many ‘rock’ critics/fans, who saw them as a media artifact, a view underpinned by the historical denigration of dance pop as a genre.
Their success was made possible by a combination of their music, their marketing, and their personalities. The Spice Girls’ music is ‘a mixture of dance, hip-hop, R&B, and smooth-as-silk pop ballads. Technically solid. Middle of the road. Nothing extreme’ (Dickerson 1998: 203). This is to overlook the appeal of the clever and catchy lyrics of songs such as ‘Wannabe’, with its catchphrase ‘Zig-a-zig-ah’ for sex, and the highlighting of ongoing friendship and a streetwise attitude toward relationships.
However, this well-crafted pop is not the foundation for their mega-success, which was due mainly to the band’s public image, which they partly created for themselves through force of personality and an irreverent attitude to the music industry and the media. They were seen as five ‘sassy’ individuals who combined girl next door appeal with considerable sex appeal. ‘They introduced the language of independence to a willing audience of pre-teen and teenage girls – girl power’ (Whiteley, 2000: 215). In a discourse reminiscent of Madonna’s early career, critics pointed to a contradiction between the Spice Girls’ self-expression and their subversion of standard ‘feminine’ images, and their incorporation into a male-dominated industry. The group themselves, and their defenders, in response claimed that this was of their own choosing and on their own terms.
The franchising (through product endorsements) of a huge range of Spice Girl products added to the Girls’ ubiquitous presence through 1997 and 1998. In December 1997 Q magazine rated the Spice Girls the ‘biggest rock band in the world’, based on the amount of airplay they had received, total income from record sales, concert tickets, etc., and the number of appearances on national magazine covers (both music and ‘general’ titles). In 1998 the Spice Girls released their second album, Spice World, again topping the charts internationally, and a movie of the same name. In August 1998, ‘Viva Forever’ became their seventh UK number 1 single, and they sold out a forty concert ‘world’ tour. During 1999 and into 2000 the group’s momentum eased: Gerry departed, and was not replaced; the remaining members devoted themselves to individual projects (e.g. Mel C’s Northern Star); and Victoria and Mel B became mothers. A third Spice Girls album was released in November 2000; its limited success contributed to the effective breakup of the band.
On her way: Shania Twain
Country emerged in the US as a major market force in popular music in the 1990s (see Sernoe 1998) and classic stereotypes associated with the genre (especially its maudlin themes and limited appeal) no longer hold up. Billboard placed Garth Brooks as Top Country Album Artist and Top Pop Album Artist for the years 1990, 1991, and 1993. In 1993, all six of his albums were included among the 100 most popular albums of the year, with two – No Fences and Ropin’ the Wind – having sold about ten million copies each. His crossover success opened the way on the pop charts for other country artists, often referred to as ‘new country’, with Billy Ray Cyrus, Dwight Yoakum, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Reba McEntire among the best-selling artists of the early to mid-1990s. At the same time, country radio became the second most listened to music format in the United States, second only to adult contemporary, and video channel CMT (Country Music Television) achieved a significant market share. The success of Shania Twain during the late 1990s was in part made possible by this aggressive resurgence of country music, and the receptive context which it created. Her crossover to the commercial mainstream and massive success, however, lifted the ‘country’ tag from her, and by 1998 she was an international pop star.
Shania Twain was born in Canada. Her life story has, slightly cynically, been compared to a fairy tale: ‘A country girl from Timmins, Ontario, is raised dirt poor, starts performing in bars as a child, loses her parents at age 22 when their car collides with a logging truck, sings to support her three teenage siblings, then finds her prince – reclusive rock producer Robert John (Mutt) Lange – who gives her a studio kiss of stardom’ (Brian Johnson, ‘Shania Revealed’; cover story in Maclean’s, Canada’s leading magazine, 23 March 1998; Hager 1998, provides a detailed and balanced biography). Her success is based on a combination of her songwriting, her striking and attractive looks, her music videos, and, as Johnson suggests (above), the role of Mutt Lange in her recordings. The weighting variously accorded to these factors, illustrate the controversy that has surrounded her status as a star and a popular music ‘auteur’.
Twain moved to Nashville in 1991 after signing a deal with Mercury Nashville, changing her name from Eileen to Shania, which means ‘I’m on my way’ in Ojibwa (the language of her foster father). Her self-titled debut album (1993) featured only one of her own compositions, her producers opting instead for songs from established songwriters, a common practice in Nashville. The debut was respectable, without making a major impact: it sold around a hundred thousand copies, two singles from it got to number 55 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart, and Shania made Billboard’s 1993 list of promising new artists. The accompanying music video for ‘What Made You Say That’, her own composition, broke with country tradition, celebrating her ‘wholesome’ sexuality, as she frolicked on a tropical beach with a male ‘hunk’. It featured her bared navel, which became a ‘trademark’ on later videos and magazine covers. Screened on CMT Europe, the video also brought Shania to the attention of leading English producer Jeff ‘Mutt’ Lange. The two started collaborating on songwriting, became close friends, and were married in December 1993.
Shania’s second album, The Woman in Me (1995), was produced by her husband, who also partially financed it. Featuring a number of the songs turned down for the first album. The Woman in Me took a year and a half and more than half a million dollars to complete, a recording effort which stunned Nashville, where budgets of one-tenth of that amount were standard (Hager 1998: 54). It sold twelve million copies by the end of 1998. Of the twelve songs, ten were co-written by Shania and Lange, and there was a solo contribution from each. As Hager describes it, this was a creative collaboration, with each contributing from their strengths and complementing the other. In producing The Woman in Me, Lange drew on the ‘rock’ style which he had used for very successful records with Def Leppard, AC/DC, and Bryan Adams. The album was a combination of ‘Irresistible songs, sassy lyrics, all backed by Lange’s onion-skin production, which reveals more of each song with each play’ (Q review, November 1999). Her third album, Come on Over (1998) sold 4.2 million during its first five months of release. The first single from it, ‘You’re Still the One’, topped the Billboard country chart in May 1998, and went on to reach number 1 on the pop chart. Both the album and the several singles from it topped charts internationally.
This success was achieved, her critics observed, without Twain performing ‘live’. This claim conveniently overlooked the fact that she had been performing in public from the age of three, but really referred to the singer not initially undertaking a concert tour to promote her albums. Instead, Shania did a series of promotional appearances, in shopping centres, on talk shows, and at industry showcases. This led to claims that her songs were largely the product of the recording studio, and raised questions about her ability to present them in performance. Twain was also frequently accused of being a ‘packaged’ artist, created by her high-powered management (Jon Landau, who also represents Bruce Springsteen). The success of her extensive touring in 1998 and into 1999, and the quality of her stage performance, erased these doubts. The tour also enabled the production of a best-selling concert video.
Cover stories (for example, Rolling Stone, 3 September 1998; Q, November 1999) accentuated Shania’s ‘natural’ physical appeal, particularly her bare midriff, a feature of several of her early videos. In her songs and videos, Twain combines a flirtatious glamour and self-empowerment: ‘a country singer who looks like a supermodel’ who ‘on camera projects a playful allure that is part come-on, part come-off-it’ (Johnson, Maclean’s, 23 March 1998: 50). This is feminism very much in the mould of the Spice Girls.
Her songs, mainly co-written with Lange, reinvigorate tired county formats. They range from ballads of domestic bliss (‘You’re Still the One’), and feisty reassurance (‘Don’t Be Stupid. You Know I Love You’), to clever assertions of women’s rights (‘Honey I’m Home’, is a neat role reversal). Within its pop ballad format and catchy tune, ‘Black Eyes, Blue Tears’ alerted listeners to domestic violence.
Come On Over established Shania Twain as a successful crossover artist. Remixed versions of singles from the album placed less emphasis on country style instrumentation, creating greater airplay on non-country radio. Her next album, after a two-year ‘time out’ suffering from exhaustion, continued this marketing strategy. Up! (2002), a double album, featured 29 songs in a country mix on one disc, and the same songs in pop mixes on the other. The album, and several singles from it, topped the charts. A Greatest Hits album, in 2004, maintained Twain’s commercial success. Over the next few years, the singer took ‘time out’ to become a mother, divorced from Lange, and published her autobiography. In December 2012 she will start a two-year residency in Las Vegas, with a show ‘Shania: Still the One’, and is planning to record again. Shania Twain is a popular music auteur whose work and marketable image made her a star, although her success illustrates the frequent contribution of others to musical authorship.