“So, here’s a story from A to Z, you wanna get with me, you gotta listen carefully.” What a throwback. Yup, these are the famous words from the Spice Girls’ first album. My personal favorite is their second album Spice World, released in 1997. This album was the start to a childhood of wonderful tunes wherever and whenever. You can never go wrong listening to the Spice Girls — I should know considering I haven’t felt this way for a decade.
When I was growing up, I think I can speak for every girl: The Spice Girls were the coolest thing since sliced bread. Britney Spears competed for this top spot for a while, but I think it is safe to say that Spice Girls came out on top. Sporty, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Baby were all so different, yet all worked together to become idols for girls all over the world, and possibly for the boys who wanted to date them. For me, these five seemed like ordinary girls whose dreams came true alongside their best friends. What else could a little girl want?
Their first album was the start of their success. I would listen to it all the time, but did not fall in love with them just yet. They were new and intriguing, yet it took their second album to seal the deal for me, and countless girls globally. Their first album was their attempt to catch the attention of the youth and get a feel for what their audience liked and disliked. Once they realized the success of the song “Wannabe,” their second album consisted of numerous songs of the same ilk, which is exactly what we wanted to hear.
Spice World is a classic GNO (girls night out) pick-me-up. When you are feeling sad and alone, there is nothing better than blasting Spice World in your room, singing into a hairbrush and dancing like no one’s watching — which hopefully no one is. Besides making you feel better, these classic songs even get you motivated to clean your room … if it is even possible to get motivated to do such a thing.
Music has never been, and will never be, a major part of my life, except in providing me with a way to escape the hard times and enter a fantasy world. Life is challenging and music is a way to forget, for just one second, how difficult times can get. I have had a bumpy childhood — illness has plagued my father since I was in the sixth grade — and I’ve felt like I can always rely on music to turn to if I just needed to have a good time. The classic lyrics in “Never Give Up on the Good Times” — “Never give up on the good times, gotta believe in the love you find” — are words that remind me of the positive things in life, something everyone needs to recall at times.
When I listen to this album now, fifteen years after I first fell in love with it, I am older, wiser and not much taller, yet the album raises in me the same emotions it did when I was young with a simpler state of mind. When “Spice Up Your Life,” “Stop” and “Never Give Up on the Good Times” come up on shuffle on my iPod, there’s always a smile on my face and embarrassing dance moves to follow suit. Maybe the dance has changed since I was younger, and my smile no longer consists of bucked teeth, but the feeling I got then and the feeling I get now when these classic elementary school throwbacks come on is the same warm sensation.
Picking my favorite album was tough, mostly because love Taylor Swift, but her songs are starting to all sound the same. Music will never be as good as it used to be, which is why the Spice Girls’ legacy will forever remain strong for me with a positive connotation whenever their name is mentioned. People can try to replace them and try to impact little girls the same way the Spice Girls impacted me, but I do not think anyone has the capability of ever having the same significance. The Spice Girls were so loved by girls like me that they were able to reconnect with one another and do a tour so many years later, one that sold out at every stop it made. That says something, if not everything. If Spice World did not have the same influence on your life as it did on mine, maybe this is the time to look back and give it another shot. You will not have regrets, just a new fantasy world to escape to.
Original Author: Jacqueline Glasner