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July 06, 2006
Girl Power: 10 Years Later
11:47 PM
I hate to break this news to all my visitors, but I have to say that we’re officially old!
It will be 10 years tomorrow, that the Spice Girls’ first single, Wannabe, was released in the United Kingdom. Surely, the Canadian release occurred later that year, but still, it’s been ten years folks!
Ten years! My gosh!
I shamelessly admit that I really enjoyed the Spice Girls. Sure I was a closeted elementary school queer, but that didn’t get in the way of getting into the Spice Girls groove. I enjoyed watching the continuous reruns of their concert at the famous Wembley Arena on Muchmusic. I also remember going to the puny Scarborough Town Centre Cineplex (now closed) to watch their hilariously ridiculous movie, Spice World, with Mark Kung— who was also as weird as me when it came to Spice Girls.
Actually, I remember skipping religion class (isn’t that ironic?) in high school , so that we can head down to the Yonge/Dundas HMV to get their autograph. Too bad, it was later cancelled.
My favourite Spice was definitely Victoria, Posh Spice. She was then definitely the hottest Spice Girl— though in retrospect she couldn’t sing for beans. As I grew, however, I had an increase liking for Mel C, Sporty Spice. She is indeed a great singer, who would do so well had she came into the spotlight as a solo artist.
Whether you like them or not, these girls have really left a big cultural imprint in the Western world in the mid/late 90’s. They definitely revived the pop music scene from the clout of rock and alternative-rock that dominated the airwaves. Many group pop acts followed after their fame— on the top of my head, I could think of: All Saints, Destiny’s Child, Atomic Kitten, Blaque— not to mention some greater male groups like Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, 98 Degrees, and even B44!
Surely, they’re now only good for tabloid gossip, but they should still be applauded for their tremendous impact on youth culture at the time.
It’s just so weird to think that almost 10 years ago, I would blast my radio and sing to songs like Wannabe. Now as I recollect my thoughts, Grades 7 and 8 were definitely a very interesting period in my life.
As with any early-teen, I recall going through quite a few bumpy moments, including the whole awkward stage of “changing bodies.” Some of you fortunate ones might recall how my legs weren’t quite same length, my voice continuously cracked, had to get my first pair of glasses.
Heres’a few other intersting notes of Matt in 1996:
- I still had my nasty braces
- I was actually good at math
- I enjoyed playing double dutch with the girls
- I ate “ball cake” while unsuccessfully catching a football during our famous four-hand touch football games— it broke my glasses (“Eating ball cake” is a Chinese collequial term describing one who gets hit by the ball in the face)
- I hated gym class
- We had a teacher who we suspect was getting it on with the principal
- The French teacher deservedly screamed at me countless times
- My best sport was sprinting— if that even counts
- I took the big yellow school bus to school each day
- I had longer hair— similar to this one of Matt Damon— which funny enough is sort of what I hope to revive (but just less poofy a la Pete Wentz!)
So all in all, Matt was a queer nerd… so I guess not much has changed. Haha.
Spice Girls - [wikipedia.org]
Filed under Music, published In Toronto
8 Comments
July 7, 2006 09:55 AM
lol! thanks for an entertaining blog entry... and also for reminding me how OLD i am! eek! the same thing happened when alanis morisette did her 10 year anniversary cd of "jagged little pill"... or when "big shiny tunes 10" came out and I realized i had been around for the originals.
i think sporty was my fave, even though her voice never blended in with the rest of the girls. i liked her b/c she did back handsprings in the videos. Posh definitely had the best clothes though.
I think my fave song was "Say You'll be there"... I wasn't a huge fan of "Wannabe". "Goodbye" was our grad song at my all-girlie school...
In MCAT class, we were discussing perfectly inelastic collisions (when two things collide and stick together) and the teacher said it made her think of a SG song and immediately we all knew which one, "2 become 1" LOL. It was great.
(P.S. got ur e-mail, too bad you can't make it tomorrow, but Ang and I have a reservation for Pony so I will deff tell you how it is!)
July 8, 2006 12:17 AM
Argh, I did it again!
Sorry Shima, I accidentally erased your comment while deleting comment spam!
Ah! I always do this, and too bad I couldn't recover it too!
But i think I remember everything that you wrote-- so here I go trying to test my memory:
- You played SPORTY SPICE at a talent show
- You didn't like your boobs and didn't like your big hips-- unlike the tiny Asian girls-- except for Brenda-- and that's why two were were close!
- You were actually good at math, too-- until Grade 11
- You had short poofy hair with bushy eyebrows. lol
Hope I didn't miss anything!
July 8, 2006 03:51 PM
Oh man, I was watching all the Spice Girls' videos on YouTube, and I have to say that my favourite video is HOLLER!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX20A_70Puw&search=spice%20holler
Holla, Holla, Holla!
Oh man. I think four people makes for cooler looking dancing-- I love the pyramid part.
----
While Shima brings up about pushy hair, I was at the time beginning to grow hair above my lip-- and being that I'm Asian-- I hold had more like patches of hair only on the sides of my upper lip.
I have pictures of them in my maximum security photo album, for my eyes only. lol
July 8, 2006 04:09 PM
Denise:
My elementary school graduation song was Mariah Carey's Hero. Quite interesting really. I totally love 2 Become 1-- the girls definitely looked their hottest in that video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCSqDt0WXcw&search=spice%202%20become%201
Awww, though I would enjoy it more of they used London has their video backdrop, rather than NYC.
OMG, I love and continue to love Alanis. Jagged Little Pill was a great album.
If you remember the Big Shiny Tunes series, you must then remember the DANCE MIX series!
I loved the Muchmusic Dance Mix series!
Dance Mix 95
http://www.discogs.com/release/528351
Dance Mix 96
http://www.discogs.com/release/528665
I rememebr going crazy for EMJAY's Take Me In Your Arms, lol-- in fact, it's still on my ipod! Also DARKNESS' In My Dreams.
I swear, it would've been cool to be gay in the 90's-- the dance music was sooo good! lol.
July 9, 2006 08:51 PM
When you go on Viva, does it make you think of the song Viva Forever?
July 9, 2006 11:54 PM
hahha.. oh jason.
now i won't think of viva the same way again.
YRT should hire Spice Girls to perform as a marketing campaign.
Spice Girls on random buses, and you just have to ride it to see if they're on it.
Wow.
July 10, 2006 12:05 AM
When I was at MMM working on the VIVA project, someone brought that up...
I don't remember the context as to why it was brought up, but this blog posting, coupled with your interest in Viva and transit stuff in general stirred that memory up for some reason.
July 13, 2006 04:13 PM
AHAHAHA I remember Matt of 1996. I hate thinking about how dorky I was in 1996... oh just everything. Especially the yearbook thing, where I was all SPICE GIRLS and GIRL POWER.
I also remember the canceled the autograph session. But I think that was canceled a week ahead so you didn't have to skip your precious religion class. ANd I remember watching Spice World many times in the theatre, so much so me and Tanya could mouth the words to the movie. Sad.
Oh and too bad Victoria and Mel C have seriously downgraded nowadays. Especially Victoria http://s2.supload.com/image.php?get=5119-413x600.jpg
And the French teacher you speak of... was that Mdm Francessca (shiney face lady) or Monsieur Le Blanc (I felt pity for him, even if he did banish me from the class a few times and made me write an apology to him)? In retrospect, I don't jive well with most French teachers... including Mdm Kennedy in H.S.
AND WHAT teacher was getting it on with the principal???!!!!