Spice Girls - marketing or music?

[onlinehimbo]

I was listening to the Spice Girls' recently and it hit me that the songs themselves - bar a handful - are actually just standard pop fare, and really nothing special. 'Stop', for example, and 'Love Thing'.

So what I'm wondering is do you think the Spice Girls were so successful mainly through marketing, or through their music? I'm not denying they were a fantastic pop phenomenom, and I still have a place for them in my heart; I just wonder what popular educated opinion is on this.

[davaninja]

Its a little of both...I mean with all the good will in the world a record company can only do so much marketing if they have a decent product to sell. The Spice Girls had decent tunes, which were sing-a-long...and ok while looking back lyrically they made no sense whatsoever they had some brilliant momments.

But also it was a case of them having the right product at the right time, filling the void Take That had left, appealing to everyone accross the board, and not being an indie/brit-pop band. They were five distinct personalitys/characters who could be identified with. Also there was something a little bit rebelious about them with there loud mouth attitudes, tatoos, and piercings which made them more appealing to kids then say Eternal who were to 'mature' to appeal.

There is a lot of dirge on there albums, but if you look back at a lot of the pop albums being made back then they were a long affair. The music industry was singles driven and thats were the focus on pop songs used to be. For example i love Eternal but I cant really remember any great album tracks by them, that werent mid-tempo ballads.

[calvinsteps]

Well I still like their music today. But marketing obviously played a huge part in their success. I'm going with both.

[Jon]

I think the music was and is amazing - it stands the test of time. Pop magic.

Also, it was marketed extremely well by people who knew how to market pop perfectly.

The combination of the two led to the huge success. I don't think the Spice Girls would have been half the phenomenon they were had they been shit music with good marketing or fab music with lacklustre marketing.

[dborhem]

The marketing thing was huge,i used to sell the lolly's out of the big tins (don't know if i can say the name here),but people even collected the tins,no matter if you asked a price for it!
But the fact that astounded me is they actually planned their movie 3 years ahead,just assuming that it would be really made!
Shows how predictable the musicindustry really is.....

[pushthebutton2]

I think they were as musically ambitious as they were commercially.

I can't imagine any act, let alone pop act, of 2006 making an album as downright defiant as Spiceworld. It shamelessly and effortlessly skips through ten different genres in as many tracks. And I don't think any commerical act these days could or would dare to end an album with a track as audacious as The Lady Is A Vamp. Unlike most people in the charts these days, they had balls, and that's why they were a phenomenon.

Spice was a also a good album, if less unique, but it did contain some of the best pop of the nineties (Say You'll Be There, 2 Become 1).

And anyone who says it wasn't about the music only has to look at Forever. As soon as the fizz of Spiceworld was replaced by the factory-line R'n'B of Darkchild, the bubble burst.

[ladylloyd]

Marketing had a huge point but wannabe was out before they spices even had their nicknames.
They just had a fantastic personality. I have just finished reading the book Wannabe: How the Spice Girls re-invented Pop Fame. and it is amazing..finally a journalist/writer who is remember things as they happened rather than looking in hindsight and laughing...He mentions many times how great the music was and i totally agree with him. The first two album were brilliant pop songs. It really is a fantastic book and is on sale for 3.99 at hmv.
x

[onlinehimbo]

I'm actually waiting for HMV Online to send the book out to me - it's on order apparently. I've wanted to read it for a while.

[starla]

a beautiful blend of both.

the benchmark for modern pop marketing.

[vasilios]

No the marketing was in full force for the second album/movie. From Wannabe to Mama, there was no hype - just amazing singles in a row!

[letuinmybackdoor]

Too much wasn't much cop, Stop was much better, that should have been #1, Too much #2

[056]

You can have all the hype and the press and the media attention, but you still need a good song.

(Exhibit a: Charlotte Church)

[shakeitondown]

Pop/rock/whatever is all about image/marketing *and* the music. Always has been, always will be (and thank God for that).

I'm not a fan but the one thing you have to admire is how they cracked the States like no other British band/act has done since.

[ladylloyd]

I loved Too Much - its gorgeous!