The Spice Girls at 20: How Did They Change Britain and Pop Music?

The Spice Girls made "Girl Power" sweep Britain. They were less pop icons than pop stars of social culture.

For the first time since the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the Spice Girls are getting back together.

In early August this year, "Scary Spice" Melanie Brown revealed that the group will tour again in 2016: "It's been 20 years, it's time (to get back together)... I have so many wonderful memories of touring the world with my four best friends." The group first came together in 1993, and 2016 marks exactly 20 years since their first single, Wannabe, came out in 1996.

Mention the Spice Girls today and you may think only of Victoria Beckham. But this five-woman group (Victoria plus four others) may be one of the most successful girl groups of all time. Let the numbers speak: from 1996 they released 3 albums, 2 of which topped the UK album chart, and 9 number-one singles. Their total record sales passed 85 million.

Those sales make the Spice Girls the best-selling girl group in history, anywhere in the world (that phrase carries some weight, doesn't it?). Between 1996 and 1998, their concerts, records, films and endorsements earned them roughly US$500 million to US$800 million.

Apart from Beyoncé's Destiny's Child, it is hard to name another girl group in the same league. To this day, whenever a stylish singing-and-dancing idol group appears in Europe or America, someone calls it "the next Spice Girls." And as one of the faces of the revival of British pop culture in the 1990s, the Spice Girls hold a special place in British hearts. In a 2010 poll on "the most influential cultural icon of the 90s," 80% of 1,000 British respondents voted for them.

Why can't people forget this band? What did the Spice Girls do for Britain, for their once-teenage fans, and for pop music? Let's start at the beginning.

"A Spice Girls song is fast and fun, like shaking a can of fizzy drink and hearing the happy bubbles."

In February 1993, the British magazine The Stage ran an advertisement: "Are you between 18 and 23? Can you sing or dance? Are you adaptable, ambitious and determined? We are forming an all-female singing and dancing group. Auditions will be held at..."

The ad was placed by Bob Herbert and Chris Herbert, a father and son who worked in entertainment management. In the 1990s the hottest acts in British pop were boy bands, such as Take That and East 17. The Herberts decided it was time for a girl group. But their reasoning was rather "skewed": boy bands, they thought, could only attract girls, so they wanted a group of sexy young women to draw male fans.

The story will sound familiar to anyone who knows how today's Korean groups are formed. About 400 girls auditioned. After a round of competition and line-up changes, the five-piece took shape, at first under the name Touch. The five girls moved into a company house and spent a stretch as "trainees."

Chris Herbert made them dress alike and sing covers, presumably because he thought that would appeal to men. The girls had had enough of their managers and walked out in 1994. After asking around the music business, they finally found a manager they were happy with: Simon Fuller. In 2008, Billboard named Fuller the most successful music manager in Britain. He has also managed Amy Winehouse, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, among others, and created American Idol, the show that started the talent-show boom.

Under Fuller, the Spice Girls' career quickly took off. On July 7, 1996, they released their first single, Wannabe. The music channel The Box played it more than 70 times in a week; it shot to number one on the UK singles chart and stayed there for seven weeks. It also reached number one on music charts in 37 countries. The Spice Girls had arrived. Their self-titled debut album, Spice, sold 30 million copies worldwide and became the best-selling album ever by a girl group.

"We all remember how big Wannabe was. Fast, fun. Like shaking a can of fizzy drink hard and hearing the happy hiss of bubbles. The song changed the sound of British pop; the sweet pop-rock of the 80s was back," music critic Cameron Smith wrote in an article titled "The Influence of the Spice Girls."

In the Wannabe video, the five look like girls giddy about a party and about boys. They tease stuffy passersby, dance the latest moves, and finally jump on a bus and leave. The lyrics celebrate sisterhood: "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends." The song was also where the "Girl Power" the Spice Girls came to stand for began.

Take That had announced their split in 1996, and teenage girls and boys were looking for someone new to worship. The moment the Spice Girls appeared, this girl group, as bubbly as a can of fizzy drink, won their hearts.

Posh, Ginger, Scary, Sporty, Baby: the five Spice Girls could hardly be more different. Which one would you pick?

Perhaps because they had spent three years as "trainees" learning to work together, each member's character was fully formed by their first official appearance. Victoria had straight black hair, a cool gaze and elegant manners. Melanie C wore a tracksuit, moved like an athlete and even did a front flip. Emma Bunton wore pigtails and a white dress and had a sweet smile. Melanie B, who is Black, had a big curly afro and a deep, rich voice. Geri Halliwell was lively and warm, with striking red hair.

In 1996, Top of the Pops magazine gave each of them a nickname, the way fairy tales give their characters pet names. The five became "Posh Spice," "Sporty Spice," "Baby Spice," "Scary Spice" and "Ginger Spice."

Posh Spice, Victoria

Sporty Spice, Melanie C

Baby Spice, Emma Bunton

Scary Spice, Melanie B

Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell

The nicknames caught on fast because they were "so useful." Each girl's image snapped into focus. Together, the group was richer and more fun; apart, fans could each pick a favorite. Music journalist David Sinclair said: "Since the four Beatles, the Spice Girls were the first band where the audience remembered the character of every member."

"The cleverest thing about the group is that together they stand for female strength and friendship, yet they also insist that women should live however they like, and that they can all succeed. How you look matters far less than your personality. Watch the Spice Girls' interviews: all five say whatever they think. There is no right answer. And they don't compete with one another," a Huffington Post commentary said.

After 2000, idol groups around the world learned to use "personality labels." Taiwan's girl group S.H.E, for example, is made up of the gentle, sweet Selina, the quirky, impish Hebe and the "tomboy" Ella. Korean groups go further: agencies design each member's "role" in advance. But have you noticed that the "stock personalities" a girl group can choose from hardly ever stray beyond the Spice Girls' five?

The Spice Girls spread "Girl Power" among young women. It may sound a little childish, but it was a positive message all the same.

Little Mix won the British talent show The X Factor in 2011, the first girl group ever to win it. Their single DNA debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard chart, beating the Spice Girls' record debut at number 6 in 1997.

For girls Little Mix's age, the Spice Girls were the idols they grew up with: "When we were little, we looked up to groups like the Spice Girls. They really give you energy and make you feel amazing. Now it's time for another round (from us)." Little Mix shares the same lively, "fizzy" sound and also plays up its members' different personalities.

The Spice Girls started a cultural wave called "Girl Power." A 1997 article on the BBC News website described it: "Girl power is now a social phenomenon. The Spice Girls have made the slogan popular across the country. Their pull on millions of young fans cannot be ignored." So great was its reach that "Girl Power" entered the Oxford English Dictionary as a new term.

What counts as "Girl Power"? The Spice Girls' official principles were to be positive and cheerful about life, to have clear goals, and to be good friends to other women. It boils down to three words: "confident, ambitious, happy." It could hardly be more upbeat!

In practice, it came down to the Spice Girls' music and the way they behaved. In the video for their second single, Say You'll Be There, for instance, they appear in a desert out of an American Western, in modern leather outfits, holding all kinds of weapons and doing high kicks, with looks of total confidence. The male models, naturally, are just pretty ornaments. And whenever they appeared in public, they were all smiles, every inch of them saying, "I'm beautiful, my friends are beautiful, and so are you."

The BBC also noted the wider social background: the women's movement had been under way around the world for nearly 30 years. Many British girls were doing better at school and felt optimistic about the future. This generation was labeled the "can-do" generation; they felt they had "power."

Some critics found this slogan-style "female awakening" contrived and shallow, a bit like primary-school girls forming a gang to take on the boys. The Huffington Post called "Girl Power" "a Disneyfied, infantilized feminism."

Still, childish or not, it was a positive message, and since many Spice Girls fans were teenage girls, encouraging them to stay optimistic can hardly be a bad thing. The social commentator Miranda Sawyer approved of "Girl Power": "If it makes young women more confident, makes them like what they see in the mirror and stop agonizing over their image all the time, that's a good thing."

The British loved their country more in the 1990s, and the Spice Girls were one of the reasons.

At the 1997 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls won two awards and gave a dazzling performance. In 2010 it was voted "the most memorable performance in 30 years of the Brit Awards."

But the real star of the night was a dress worn by "Ginger Spice" Geri Halliwell: a skin-tight minidress printed with the Union Jack. Halliwell later admitted it had started life as a tea towel. Her label first wanted her in a black Gucci dress, which she found too "boring," so she had her sister turn a Union Jack tea towel into a dress. She decided to wear it on stage to "celebrate being British."

And so a big tea towel went down in history. The day after the show, photos of the Union Jack minidress led the news everywhere. Many viewers went out and bought clothes with flag motifs. In 1998 Halliwell put the dress up for auction, and it sold for £41,320, the highest price for a pop star's clothing in the Guinness World Records.

In the 1990s, ordinary Britons got their national pride back. The economy had been growing since 1993. Tony Blair's newly elected Labour government worked hard to look young, charismatic and "cool." And British pop culture, after the slump of the 70s and 80s, finally revived. The Spice Girls broke through in the US, Japan and around the world. Oasis and Blur became famous across the globe too. In the same years, fashion and art produced a crop of new designers. All of this made Britons more optimistic. A term was coined for the phenomenon: "Cool Britannia."

That is why Ginger Spice's Union Jack minidress arrived at exactly the right moment. People were in the mood to "celebrate being British" with her. Oasis's Noel Gallagher, with his Union Jack guitar, also rose to fame in this period.

Like other idols who became famous worldwide, the Spice Girls served, to some degree, as "national cultural ambassadors." Their cultural and musical influence cannot compare with the Beatles', but they were closely tied to "Cool Britannia," the slogan of national renewal. The British were proud of them. The Spice Girls were received by the Queen and met Prince Charles (Ginger and Scary both kissed him on the cheek). In 1997 they went to South Africa with Prince Charles to meet Nelson Mandela. Mandela called them "my heroes": "I don't want to be too emotional. But this is one of the greatest moments of my life."

As for Prime Minister Tony Blair, he made "Cool Britannia" one of his slogans while in office and worked hard to court the arts world. Once, after failing to name all the Spice Girls on a TV show, he was seen leaving the studio shaking his head and sighing for a long time.

The Spice Girls and Mandela

The Spice Girls and Prince Charles

Interlude: some people hated the Spice Girls, of course, for much the same reasons you might hate TFBOYS

No real explanation is needed: the Spice Girls were an idol girl group.

Here are some of the reasons, put with real flair.

Critic Sady put it this way: "In the late 90s, there were few people on earth I hated more than the Spice Girls! And I wasn't alone. The Spice Girls had lots of fans, but plenty of adults couldn't stand them. They were too loud! Too fake! Too full of themselves!"

Slate said the Spice Girls stood for the death of music: "Pop music is staging its own Jurassic Park."

The Huffington Post said: "The Spice Girls were never taken seriously, despite their fame. But given that they made themselves a popcorn movie, Spice World, they probably didn't take themselves too seriously either."

We will always need a girl group that looks good, sounds good and is fun. The Spice Girls broke up, but they had already shown how it is done.

In May 1998, "Ginger Spice" Geri Halliwell announced she was leaving the group, saying she was exhausted and needed a break. The other four carried on with their planned North American tour. At Christmas, the four-piece Spice Girls released the single Goodbye. Its line "Goodbye, my friend" was taken as a farewell to Halliwell. The song also topped the UK singles chart.

The final goodbye came soon after. At the end of 1998, "Scary Spice" and "Posh Spice" both announced they were pregnant. Their third and last album, Forever, released in 1999, sold only 5 million copies, far short of the tens of millions sold by the first two. Finally, in December 2000, they announced they would pursue solo careers.

A still from the Goodbye video

Fans kept waiting for a reunion. Everyone knew that five women whose lives had gone in different directions were unlikely ever to regroup. But the fans once moved by "Girl Power" still hoped to see them stand together again, each in her own style, full of confidence, singing that line: "If you wanna be..." In 2007 and 2008, all five reunited for a world tour. Tickets for the first London show sold out in 38 seconds, and more than 5 million people around the world logged on to the ticketing site.

At the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, "James Bond" Daniel Craig escorted Queen Elizabeth II as she "parachuted" into the Olympic Stadium, and the Games began. Across the opening and closing ceremonies, the stars of British pop culture came on one after another: Mr. Bean, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, Coldplay, Blur, the Pet Shop Boys, Beatle Paul McCartney... How could the Spice Girls be left out? Baby, Ginger, Posh, Sporty, Scary: the five sang Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life once more.

Counting from their first single in 1996, the Spice Girls lasted a mere 5 years and released just three albums, yet became the best-loved girl group of all.

You can also see traces of them in the female singers who followed: Britney (who, early on, could also pass as a spokeswoman for "Girl Power"), the British girl group Girls Aloud (seen as the Spice Girls' successors; Cheryl Cole went on to do best of its members), and today's four-piece Little Mix. And when Korean girl groups caught the attention of music fans worldwide, American critics called Girls' Generation a modern-day Spice Girls.

That is where the Spice Girls' greatest influence lies. We will always welcome a female idol group that looks good, sounds good and is fun, one that makes us happy just to see them. And the Spice Girls have already shown how it is done.

Girls Aloud

Girls' Generation

By the way, we hear Posh won't be joining next year's reunion concerts

At the 2012 London Olympics, Victoria appeared as one of the Spice Girls, while her husband, David Beckham, appeared as the most successful footballer of his era.

Their love story began on March 15, 1997, when manager Simon Fuller took Victoria Adams (she still went by her maiden name) to a football match between Chelsea and Manchester United. After the game, Fuller introduced Victoria to David Beckham in the players' lounge.

It was also a story of a rich girl and a poor boy. Beckham grew up in a working-class family: his father was a kitchen fitter and his mother a hairdresser. Victoria's family was well off; her father owned an electronics retail business. Before they started dating, Beckham knew nothing about fashion. The best-known anecdote has him once thinking Versace was an Italian footballer. Victoria remade him: she took his hair from brown to blond, brought him into her social circle and took him along to fashion magazine shoots.

The Beckham the public sees today, with his stylish clothes and sexy tattoos, endorses Adidas, Breitling, Coty, H&M and Sainsbury's, among others. Without Victoria, none of it would have happened.

Victoria once put it this way: "It's a gift women have. We pick men who aren't particularly special, change their clothes, change their hair, and they become hugely popular idols."

And it was precisely because she married the "hugely popular" Beckham that Victoria stayed in the public eye after the Spice Girls split, as if she had never left the headlines, and is now the biggest star of the five. In 2006 she launched her own brand, DVB, named for the initials of David Victoria Beckham. Its style suits the "Posh Spice" name, with clean, elegant silhouettes, and she has designed many of the figure-hugging dresses she herself loves to wear. In 2011 she won Designer Brand of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.

As for the 2016 reunion concerts, Posh is too busy with her fashion career to take part. It is a pity, but it can't be helped: she has come a long way from the Spice Girls.

A good-looking family

Beckham takes the children to Victoria's show

Their wedding photo