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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Spice Girls, The #45 Female Artist of the Rock Era

Here we have the top female artist of all-time to only release three albums.  Unfortunately, we are left to wonder what they could have achieved had they stayed together.


In the mid-1990's, the management team of Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon set out to create a girl group to compete with the popular boy bands that dominated the pop music world at the time (Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and Take That).  The team placed the following ad in The Stage 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"

Approximately 400 women answered the ad.  Auditions included dancing and solo performances and in April, the list was down to 12.  From there, the women went to Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush and continued to audition.  

Finally, the management team decided on five women.  The Spice Girls officially formed with Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice") and Victoria Adams (Beckham) .  But the five became dissatisfied with what they felt was the management team's unwillingness to listen to their ideas, and they parted ways.  The Spice Girls met with producer Eliot Kennedy, who was familiar with their sound, and eventually hooked up with manager Simon Fuller. 

The group signed a recording contract with Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996. "Wannabe" debuted in the U.S. at #11, the highest debut ever by a non-American act.  The song reached #1 in 31 countries, became the top-selling single by a female group in music history and established the Spice Girls as a global phenomenon.


"Wannabe" reached Platinum status, while the debut album Spice became the top-selling album of 1997 and has now sold over 28 million copies worldwide.  It is the best-selling album by a female group in music history.  "Say You'll Be There" hit #1 in the U.K., #2 in France, Ireland and New Zealand and #3 in the United States, and also went Gold.




A third single, and another worldwide smash.  "2 Become 1" hit #1 in the U.K., #2 in Australia, #3 in the Netherlands and New Zealand and #4 in the U.S., and sold over one million copies.


 The Spice Girls won American Music Awards for Favorite Pop Group, Favorite Pop Album and Favorite New Artist.  Although it wasn't released in the U.S., "Who Do You Think You Are"/"Mama" was a double-sided Top 10 in most countries, hitting #1 in the U.K. and Ireland and #2 in the Netherlands.




"Girl Power" became the promotional phrase of the group, and their image was watched and loved by millions of females.  Under the direction of manager Simon Fuller, through record albums and merchandising, the Spice Girls brand was red-hot.  Another great track on the album is "If U (sic) Can't Dance".




In their first year, Top of the Pops magazine gave a nickname to each member of the group, names which were adopted by the group, media, and fans.  Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair wrote that "Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty were the most widely-recognized group of individuals since John, Paul, George and Ringo."  That's quite a statement. We feature another song on the album--"Love Thing".

The Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in London.  Fuller arranged for the group to set up sponsorships with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury's and Polaroid.  Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book, was premiered at the Virgin Megastore in London and sold 200,000 copies within a day.  It was eventually translated into more than 20 languages.   

The group began filming the movie Spice World in June, 1997, and captured an MTV Video Music Award for Best Dance Video for "Wannabe".  The Spice Girls won four Billboard Music Awards:  New Artist of the Year, Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Album Group of the Year and Album of the Year (Spice). 

In 1997, the Girls released the single "Spice Up Your Life", which reached a familiar spot in the U.K.; it was the group's fifth consecutive #1 single in their native country.  Released in advance of their follow-up album, the song hit #2 in New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, #3 in France, #5 in Switzerland, #8 in Australia, but only #18 in the United States.

The Spice Girls performed their first major concert before 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey.  They then traveled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela.  The group released Spiceworld, which set a record for the fastest-selling album when seven million copies were moved in two weeks.  

Spiceworld has now sold four million copies in the United States and 20 million worldwide, while the movie grossed $77 million.  They signed over twenty sponsorship deals, as companies were greedy to use the girls to their financial advantage.


The group fired manager Simon Fuller after performing at the 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards.  "Too Much" was the next single, again #1 in the U.K., #5 in Ireland, and #9 in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.  The song became their first million-seller since "2 Become 1".






The single "Stop" put an end to their streak of #1's in the U.K., peaking at #2, but the Spice Girls did achieve either #1 or #2 in their native land with 10 consecutive releases.  It also peaked at #3 in Ireland, #5 in Australia, #6 in the Netherlands, #8 in Sweden and #9 in New Zealand, but again only #16 in the U.S.






"Viva Forever" wasn't released in the U.S., but it probably should have been; it's one of their better songs.  While the record company's mistake kept them from having more hits in the United States, it did not affect their ranking in this special--we're aware of its quality and gave the group credit just as if it were a single release.  

The song did give the Spice Girls another #1 in the U.K. and New Zealand; it was #2 in Australia and Ireland, #3 in Switzerland, #4 in Germany, #6 in Sweden and #7 in the Netherlands.

The Spice Girls embarked on a world tour of Europe and North America that included two shows at London's Wembley Stadium before 150,000 fans.  The tour was recorded for a planned live album release, but those plans too were shelved.

"Never Give Up on the Good Times" was another song that should have been a universal hit, but the record company changed plans to release the song as a "double-A side" single with "Viva Forever" when Halliwell left the group in May of 1998 to attempt a solo career.  

Halliwell's departure threw many of the group's plans into disarray.  The remaining members vowed to continue, but work they had already done with Halliwell on a new album had to be scrapped, and an animated film for Disney also never came to light.

The Spice Girls continued to record while on tour, and released the song "Goodbye" at the end of the year.  It was a #1 song in Canada for 16 weeks, and their eighth #1 in the U.K.  "Goodbye" also peaked at #1 in New Zealand and Ireland, and reached #2 in Sweden, #3 in Australia, #4 in the Netherlands, #8 in Switzerland and #11 in the United States.

"Goodbye" was the group's final worldwide Top 15 song.  Brown and Adams announced they were pregnant at the same time, and Adams married soccer player David Beckham in a highly publicized celebrity wedding in Ireland. Another popular track on the album was "The Lady Was a Vamp".

In 1999, the group began working on a third album, and producers Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and others were brought in.  The Spice Girls toured the U.K. featuring songs from their upcoming album.  They recorded "My Strongest Suit" for the musical album Aida.   

In 2000, the Spice Girls released the album Forever.  Although they scored a double-sided European hit with "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", success was contained there, and Forever's sales paled in comparison to the group's first two albums.

The remaining members did no coordinated promotion of the album and began concentrating on solo career.  In December of 2000, the group unofficially announced that they were beginning an "indefinite hiatus".

But in 2007, the group held a press conference to announce that they were reuniting for a worldwide concert tour.  Tickets for the first London concert sold out in 38 seconds, as five million people signed up for the "ticket ballot".  Sixteen additional shows in London were added, and all sold out. Shows in North America sold out as well.

The tour was filmed and released as the documentary Spice Girls:  Giving You Everything.  The single "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" was released as a charity single for Children in Need.  The song did reach #3 in Sweden, but only #11 in their native country, the only release to not land at either #1 or #2.  

In February of 2008, the group announced that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled because of "personal and family commitments".

The Spice Girls reunited with Fuller to work on the Spice Girls musical Viva Forever.  In 2012, they held a press conference to promote the project.  In August, the group performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.  

The Spice Girls won three American Music Awards, three World Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award in their career.  They have sold 14 million albums in the United States and 80 million albums worldwide, making them the top-selling female group of all-time and one of The Top-Selling Artists of the Rock Era*.  

They are by far the top-selling British group since the Beatles.  From a marketing standpoint, the story of the Spice Girls are one of the most successful marketing engines of all-time, with internationally-recognized nicknames and global income of $600-800 million between 1996 and 1998.

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