Piccoli, S. (1998, June). Ginger-less spice girls don’t miss a beat. South Florida Sun Sentinel.

OVERVIEW

Against most predictions, the British Spice Girls proved to be more than not-to-be-taken-seriously bubble-gum, or at least proved that they could make it big. That was when they were five. But in 1998, Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell went solo, and that left four with the spicey nicknames they’ve taken:

• Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown,
• Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton,
• Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisolm, and
• Victoria "Posh Spice" Adams.

In their first American appearance as a foursome, the Spice Girls "strutted and preened" through their 2½ year (and two album) period of popularity "a catalogue of genre-hopping, smiley-faced crossover smashes": "Too Much," "Spice Up Your Life," "2 Become 1," "Move Over," "Say You’ll Be There," "Stop," and the song that started the whole craze, "Wannabe."

Here is how this reviewer describes their concert before 20,000 at the Coral Sky Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach.

To ask how they did without Halliwell is to miss the point of the Spice Girls.

The foursome was nothing if not prepared: The massive, multitiered stage show was vast enough to accommodate six male "Spice Boy" dancers, a six-piece band—including a percussionist encased in plexiglass—with film-grade live video...

The Girls even brought "Star Trek" alumnus William Shatner, the inimitable Captain Kirk, who was credited as Captain Spice for furnishing the introductory voice-over: ‘Spice, the final frontier...’ The show—more event than concert—was a triumph of coordination.

Vocally, the group pretty much just went along for the ride, covering their verse bits adequately, without distinction. The all-important choruses appeared to benefit from a little pre-recorded assist, but Spice World: The Tour was so plainly cinematically prefab, anyways, the vocal padding hardly mattered.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Does this sound like a fair review (even though you did not attend)? Is this the kind of interpretation and evaluation that music deserves? What do you find missing?
2. Do you know anyone who likes the Spice Girls? If no one does, from where do they get their popularity and high success?

IMPLICATIONS

• Youth workers cannot stop interpreting the stuff to which young people listen and attend.
• We need both to understand popular culture and the reaction of young people we know to it.