Wannabe by the Spice Girls

"Wannabe" music video

One time I was helping chaperone a group of middle school students (5th or 6th graders) on a trip to a movie theater. As we were walking in the parking lot after the movie, I heard some of the girls talking about guys they thought were cute and how they wanted to get their phone numbers. I asked the group, “Well, once you do get the phone number of a guy that you like, what do you?” One of the girls responded, “Well, what you do is get their numbers, but you don’t call them, that would just be weird.”

Young girls have interesting and sometimes mystifying ideas about love and friendship. Almost all of the drama in the 4th graders I work with comes from the girls. There are fights over many topics including what to play at recess and who wasn’t invited to a birthday party. They conflicts are over the way they think they are perceived by their friends and not being able to work through misunderstandings. I’m not saying their isn’t drama among the male students but it’s different. With the boys I observe, the conflicts less emotional and there is more of a focused on solving the issue as opposed to understanding the feelings involved. I’m not saying that guys are smarter or dumber than girls. However, there are clear differences in the way that boys and girls socialize and mature and whether that is due to nature or nurture does not change the fact that it is apparent and prevalent.

When Elvis Presley broke out in the late 1950s, America witnessed something they had never seen before, pre-teen and teenage girls screaming in excitement. This escalated to hysterics when the Beatles became popular in the 1960s and artists and producers have since marketed music towards the pre-teen and teenage girl demographic. Pop groups that were created to appeal this audience included the Jackson 5, New Edition, New Kids On the Block and the Backstreet boys. Then in 1996, for the first time a pop group made of woman were manufactured and marketed for young female audiences introducing the world to the Spice Girls.

Don’t worry, I don’t think the Spice Girls are the greatest pop group of all time and I don’t think that “Wannabe” is a critical, and defining artifact in our cultural canon of art. However, “Wannabe” an insight into not only the minds of young girls but into the power that art can have in speaking to a specific audiences. And anyways, this song is just fun.

When the Beatles first came to America, the press gave them nicknames, John was the smart one, Paul was the cute one, George was the quiet on and Ringo was the funny one. This inadvertently helped market the Beatles to girls as each Beatle now represented different types of guys and because of this, there seemed like there was a Beatle for every type of girl. The Spice Girls took the idea a step further and made it more personal. Instead of helping girls identifying and define the kind of guy they liked, their Spice Girl personas were something that girls could identify their own personalities with. If you loved sports, you had Sporty Spice. If you loved shopping, there was Posh spice. If you were a little cutesy, there was Baby Spice. I guess some girls like the idea of being Scary Spice (I don’t claim to completely understand the minds of young girls), and well honestly, I’m don’t have a clue what kind of girl is Ginger Spice (maybe it’s a British thing).

The Spice Girls released “Wannabe” as their first single, which was their opening statement on their term “girl power.” In the song, the girls explain what they want and what someone would have to do to become one of their “lovers.” Once upon a time like most kids I thought that lover was just a term for someone that you loved. It wasn’t until I watched the trailer for the Ellen DeGeneres’ film, Mr. Wrong, which featured Bill Pullman describing Ellen’s character as his lover and make a thrusting motion that I realized that lover meant “sexual partner.” I was fourteen years old when I came to this realization and I think most kids don’t really understand the full context of the word “lover” and I don’t think that the Spice Girls are really talking about sex. Some of the lyrics have sexual overtones like “I won’t be hasty, I’ll give you a try” but it’s followed by “If you really bug me then I’ll say goodbye.” This line makes it seem like she’s giving the guy a try as a boyfriend, not a sexual partner as most people have figured out if the person “bugs” them before taking them as a lover (we hope).

Like the girls I talked to at the mall, the Spice Girls have a sense of what relationships mean but they don’t really know what they want. The song opens with Scary Spice singing about how she will tell us what she wants. And after listening to her tease us for 15 seconds about what she wants she tells us that what she really wants is “zigazig ha.” That’s exactly the kind of thinking that the middle school girls I was talking to me displayed. They do things to get a guy but they are devoid of understanding of what they really want from a guy once they got one.

Young girls may have already developed a desire for boyfriends but they may not have developed their self-esteem and an understanding of what they deserve as a girlfriend. The Spice Girls help girls understand what kind of standards to have with some simple guidelines:

Your past should not be your boyfriend’s focus. Relationships should never feel like a waste of time. A boyfriend should make an effort to be friends with your friends. A boyfriend should enjoy giving things to you and you should feel the same way. Be patient with boys, give them a chance, but if they are annoying it’s ok to dump them and um. . slam your body down and wind it all around . . . fall on the ground and wind up into a ball? (I never said that this was a perfectly interrelated song).

These ideas are not only important for girls to understand but are good advice for boys. The album that featured “Wannabe,” Spice sold over seven million copies in the United States, so I’m sure that some guys bought it, I mean, I couldn’t have possibly been the only guy to buy that album.

The singing in this song is unremarkable. The first verse starts after the whole “zigazig ha” thing. Sporty Spice begins the verse with her closed and thin nasal voice and is followed by Baby Spice who has a pleasant voice but lacks much tone and energy. Scary Spice follows singing with great energy her singing technique more resembles yelling than singing and Ginger completes the verse barely able to define the pitches she is singing. It’s not good and we are spared the worst singer of the group Posh Spice (Mrs. Victoria Beckham) singing a solo line but if you really want to know what she sounds like by herself check out “2 Becomes 1” and slide to the middle of the second verse (1:27). Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to give her a solo during a slow song?

The Spice Girls are not exemplary singing models but that’s ok. Most middle school girls do not have the vocal capacity to emulate an opera singer or even Beyonce. The Spice Girl’s voices are not threatening. They sing in a way that young girls cannot only relate to but can also imitate. There’s a level of accessibility to the music when people can not only understand a piece of art but replicate it and the Spice Girls create this for not only young girls but for people of all ages.

When there is music that you don’t understand, try to find out who does get it. Musicians often create music for a specific audience and often art will make more sense when you see it through the eyes of the intended audience. With this perspective, will you instantly enjoy the song? You might, but even if you don’t you will understand just a little bit more about that audience.

Now here’s the answer to the most important question.

God knows I am not coordinated enough to be Sporty. Scary, yeah right I’m about as scary as a My Little Pony, Baby, seriously maybe when I WAS a baby. I still don’t know what Ginger is and even if I go with the South Park definition, I don’t have freckles or red hair. So that leaves, Posh.

If I was a Spice Girl, I’d be Posh Spice.

I can live with that.

“Slam your body down and wind it all around!”