Spice Girls
The Fat of the Land
This is probably why the music press has handled the Spice Girls and the Prodigy with kid gloves. Few critics want to come across as curmudgeons dumping on the kiddies’ new fave raves or clueless old farts who are out of step with the latest trends, especially when it’s just as easy to condone them with a sly wink. Those who have lashed out have resorted to the same tired arguments about authenticity: The Prodigy isn’t really a band, it’s a front for Liam Howlett, a programming whiz with a knack for punching in high-octane drum grooves and pecking out extremely memorable synth riffs. And the Spice Girls were recruited through a newspaper ad to fill preordained roles in a carefully contrived girl group to rival boy teenybopper bands Take That and East 17.
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The Spice Girls have some slogans, too, also splashed across the album artwork. “Silence is golden but shouting is fun–freedom fighters–future is female,” reads part of their manifesto. But the future they outline in their lyrics sounds more like the American 50s, right from the very first lines: “Say you’ll be there / I’m giving you everything, all that joy” (from “Say You’ll Be There”). “Candlelight and soul forever / A dream of me and you together” (from “2 Become 1”). “Treat me right, all night / Makes me feel good, like you should” (from “Last Time Lover”). In their big hit “Wannabe,” the Girls proclaim time and again that they’re gonna tell us what they want–what they really, really want!–but when they finally get around to it, the only desire they can articulate is, “I wanna zig-a-zig, ha!” You go, girls.
