By Jordan Wardell
For this week’s throwback I would like to take it back to the mid to late ’90s and talk about the Spice Girls. When I was little, all of my favourite songs were by the Spice Girls (except for “Barbie Girl” by Aqua). I knew all of the moves to the dance for their hit “Stop” by the age of four. Yup, I was that kid at preschool that was teaching all the other kids how to do the dance.
In case you are unaware, the Spice Girls were a British, all-girl pop group that formed in 1994. Their first single was “Wannabe,” which is probably one of the most iconic Spice Girls songs ever. Not only is it super catchy, it is also a pretty empowering song for girls. To this day, it’s one of the only songs I can think of that strongly supports girls and their friendships over a relationship with a guy. Now, I’m sure that there are a lot of other songs out there that do this but I just don’t know them.
The Spice Girls are the only all-female group that I knew of in the ’90s that didn’t only sing about going out or getting guys. Each member of the band had their own personality and character. You had Scary Spice, who was kind of the badass, Posh Spice, who was very into fashion and well, being posh, to Baby Spice who was the bubbly little blonde of the group. They were all very different people with different looks. To me they broke the cookie cutter mold that pop groups were put in. Growing up listening to the Spice Girls, I looked to them as role models. They were actually women that my mother didn’t have a problem with me looking up to. The Spice Girls are also the bestselling female group of all time. Even their reunion tour broke records. They were able to come back into the music scene almost 10 years later after not making any music or appearances and still sell out a world tour (which 13-year-old me was devastated to miss).
The Spice Girls really were huge trend setters in the ’90s. The ever so popular union jack mini dress was first worn by Ginger Spice. That dress was auctioned off in Las Vegas for over £40,000. Even their movie Spice World was hugely successful making $77 million at box offices worldwide.
Well, thank you for looking back at the Spice Girls with me. They were and will forever be my favourite pop group. It’s hard for them not to be, considering I grew up and danced to their music every weekend. I hope people appreciate this iconic group as much as I do!
