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Spice Girls
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One of the lasting images from the Spice Girls is Geri's Union Jack outfit from the Brits - one of the items she sold for charity after she split from the band. There is no doubt the girls sound British when they talk and rap but are The Spice Girls a particularly British band? In a way not since their brand of pop has many US R&B influences. However it's their attitude, to the press, the public and the music industry, that really marks them as being more American than British. They knew what they wanted from the very start and have jolly well gone out and got it. Their success too was groundbreaking. Apart from Bananarama who are the exception that proves the rule, only a few British girl bands had been successful in Britain prior to Wannabe.
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The Spice Girls are an English all-female pop group, which formed in London in 1994. The Spice Girls signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe", in 1996. the group established as an "international phenomenon", selling in excess of 53 million records world wide. The group embraced merchandise and became a regular feature of the British press. Each member of the group was given an alias by Top of the Pops Magazine in 1996, aliases which were adopted by the group and media alike.
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The Spice Girls haven't been afraid to have a little fun with their sexuality on stage recently. Not only did Melanie Brown reach over and grab bandmate Victoria Beckham's breast at Sunday night's show, left, but she was a little candid to the crowd about her and her new husband's holiday activities in the bedroom, according to a report by the Daily Mail. The girl group is on a 17-night run at the O2 Arena in London, Jan. 4, 2008.
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Eventually, Spice Girls signed a contract to Virgin Records, but they were without a manager, which made recording a debut album nearly impossible. All five members moved into a house and went on the dole as they searched for a manager. By the end of 1995, the group had signed with Annie Lennox's manager Simon Fuller, and began writing songs with Elliot Kennedy. "Wannabe," Spice Girls' first single, was released in the summer of 1996, and it became the first debut single by an all-female band to enter the charts at number one in England. It remained at number one for seven weeks, and by the end of the year, "Wannabe" had hit number one in 21 other countries. Immediately following the success of "Wannabe," Spice Girls became media icons in Britain as stories of their encounters with other celebrities became fodder for numerous tabloids, as did nude photos of Halliwell that she posed for earlier in her career.
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On November 7, 1997 the Spice Girls fired Simon Fuller. It was reported on the front page of The Sun newspaper and around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. According to their various autobiographies, it was mainly Geri and Melanie B who pushed for Fuller’s dismissal. They cited that he had become too controlling by restricting their personal and artistic freedom. The group quickly found the burden of managing themselves time consuming, so they assigned various responsibilities to each member of the group, Melanie B's: Tour Control, Geri's: Sponsorship, Emma's: Personnel, Schedule and Charities, Victoria's: Merchandising and Finance, Melanie C's: Record Company, Singles and Formats.
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The Spice Girls success story was down to a number of factors. Most importantly, they managed to add post-feminist attitude to a commercial pop package - the boys could still fancy them, although their first loyalty was to each other and their fellow females. However, they ... had a set of highly hummable pop ditties, so that female bonding and the arcane mysteries of the zigazig-ha never got in the way of the pure disco thrill. Wannabe and the follow-up, Say You'll Be There, had all the glorious catchiness of Take That or Wham! at their commercial peaks.
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