AIBU to think that the Spice Girls were absolute rubbish?

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

Just that really. I think some of them could sing, one better than all of them, but their songs and persona, just no. I was about 16 when they appeared on the scene, so I was too old to be their target audience, I suppose. But I've always thought they were very Emperor's New Clothes.

Our DD's loved them, and we had the horror of seeing them live in concert once. I can't tell you how bad their singing was, even Mel C was struggling.

As for girl power, what a heap of shit. Prancing around half naked isn't girl power. Nor is getting involved with men in relationships and newborn babies, is it Geri...............

At least they had five distinctive personalities, even if they were essentially caricatures. The Appleton sisters were to 'All Saints' what John and Terry were to E17, while Blatt was an unpleasant bully. It was really only Shaznay who had anything approaching talent; and I'm not really sure how much of that. 'I Know Where It's At' was pretty catchy, but I never got the appeal of 'Pure Shores'. Everyone behaving like they were 'Fleetwood Mac', or something - they were fractionally cooler and edgier than The Spice Girls, but they were still a load of Italia Conti 'Mels' at the end of the day. Without the record sales

One of them was in Hollyoaks I think, and married one of Westlife (or Boyzone!)

they were still a load of Italia Conti 'Mels' at the end of the day

absolutely

I liked Never Ever, mostly just the intro tbh, but think their being 'cooler' than the Spice Girls was so over-egged.

I was on the fence re: Spice Girls - neither liked nor loathed them, but at least they had some level of identifiable personalities and looked different to one another and gave as good as they got in interviews, whereas most girl groups never really seemed to have much to say. Musically, I always preferred girl groups like The Sugababes and All Saints, but I do think Spice Girls caught a zeitgeist with the 'girl power' thing and rode that wave for all it was worth.

For my money, the 'most crap' girl group of recent times is Little Mix - truly risible 'music' and styling. I accidentally caught one of their videos whilst flicking through the music channels the other night - can't recall the name of the song, but the video is (unintentionally, I'm sure) hilarious! They're in a warehouse, all decked out in some mash-up of bondage/fetish/goth gear. DH and I were pissing ourselves laughing. The faces they're pulling and the 'punching yourself through a wall', over-the-top contrived dance moves (which none of them can pull off with any aplomb whatsoever) had me suspecting their management, stylist, choreographer, producer and director alike were all in it together to ensure Little Mix's career hit the skids thereafter. If you need a laugh, I recommend finding it on You Tube.

Something I don't like. Spice Girls may have been successful, but tbh lots of crap (imo) groups are successful.

However, I do remember reading that their record label wasn't particularly keen on promoting them because they didn't think girl groups would sell. That annoyed me.

@LetHimHaveIt - 'Italia Conti Mels' had me in stitches!

I'd be shook if someone compared me to John or Tezza from E17

Spice Girls was the first album I owned, I was the core target market and I loved them! Now of course I can look back see that the songs and singing were not exactly the ‘best’ however you want to measure that, but they were so fun and different at the time. The marketing certainly worked on me!

Total rubbish, no idea why they were so popular at the time.

There were plenty of good girl groups around pre The Spice Girls, why they thought the public wouldn't like another one I've no idea.
Playing up to their own cartoon characters was genius , say ' ginger spice ' or ' baby spice' to most people and they know who they are , even if they were only small when they were really famous.
I did like All saints too, but not as much as the spices who had the best catchy pop songs at that time.
I admit that ' spiceworld, the movie ' was dire though. They couldn't act very well , but it all added the 'Brit pop ' agenda well I suppose with lots of Union jacks and so on.

They were not amazing singers, but they were good performers and could put a song across. I think they all knew that they had been lucky and in the right place at the right time, and had a good sense of humour, and were about having a good time. They had a lovely energy about them. Plus I am about the same age and was a in a group of five friends (still friends now) and it felt like we had a lot in common.

Absolutely. All Saints took themselves far too seriously in a way that the Spice Girls never did.

They were awful, what was worse was some of the others who followed in their slipstream, so to speak. Bewitched, Westlife (who I called Pondlife until I realised I was being offensive to frogs, fish and other pond residents), Atomic Kitten, to name three.

Agree about the comments about Shaznay of All Saints, perhaps the only one with talent.

I remember thinking they were awful and embarrassing at the time- I was a teen listening to "cool" britpop mid 90s but I secretly liked when two become one.
All Saints were too try hard alternative with their cargo pants.