Spice Girls' "Wannabe" is still an amazing and important pop song 18 years later

by Anne T. Donahue

July 8, 2014

0

0

0

0

0

Email this article to a friend

Brothers and sisters, let’s get right to the point: on this day in 1996, the Spice Girls released “Wannabe,” and the landscape of pop music changed forever. The world as we now know it truly began.

And I know what you’re probably thinking: “It was a song, Anne. Relax.” And I won’t. I refuse. Whether you were at a formative age upon its release (I was 11 when it came out — what’s up) or an already-jaded adult, the impact of “Wannabe” is widely recognized as a big one. And for good reason: in addition to its irresistible danceableness, the presence of five boss-ass women telling you what they really, really wanted (and, of course, the phrase “zig-a-zig-ah”) the song implanted a perfect message into our hearts and minds: Sisters before misters. Hoes before bros. Ovaries before broveries. Uteruses before duderuses. Girl Power.

Of course, circa 1996 we had yet to realize what Girl Power actually was (and arguably, it was the message of “be yourself!” while flashing the peace sign and saying “Girl Power!”), but “Wannabe” set the precedent. You want to hook up with me? Cool. But you better be down with my posse before you think about trying. This, in comparison to the grunge boy sorrow of the early-to-mid 1990s (and later the “baby, I know you’re hurting” ballads of BSB and *NSYNC that same year) was welcome. While Lisa Loeb asked boys to “Stay” (beautifully, I should add — that song is amazing), and Courtney Love angrily challenged gender and beauty conventions through Live Through This a few years earlier, those of us who craved good, old-fashioned pop music were given our own voice. “Wannabe” was proof that you could have fun and still empower yourself, no matter how simply and with dance moves to boot.

And the video re-iterated that. Our first look at the Spice Girls delivered five colossally different women wreaking havoc in a restaurant most of us could only dream about. And they were so unabashedly themselves: one of them liked sports! One of them embraced traditional femininity! One loved fashion! Another was rebellious (she wasn’t scary, she was assertive)! One reclaimed the idea of mainstream sexuality! And they were all friends. Friends who — in two takes — fucked up a restaurant, basked in their sisterhood, and looked into our faces and said, “If some bro doesn’t like you and your friends, he can go right to the devil.” (Which is what I think zig-a-zig-ha means anyway.)

At 11, this concept was new. More realistically, it seemed crazy. It was common sense, but it was also a novelty. “Get with my friends?” I remember asking. “Like, date them?” No, my Mom clarified. They have to like your friends. “Well, duh,” I thought. “Why wouldn’t my boyfriend like my friends?”

Because of a lot of reasons. But through “Wannabe,” the Spice Girls made a complicated concept simpler: your friends are your family. And if some guy (or any partner) doesn’t like your family, they don’t get to like you.

But it doesn’t end there. “Wannabe”‘s words of empowerment applied to women not just in 1996, but continue to resonate even now. Behold, the following line: “Now don’t go wasting my precious time / get your act together, we could be just fine.” Hello, millennials. Also, arguably, it’s the basis of most of Hannah Horvath’s conversations with Adam during the first two seasons of Girls.

And the song’s relevance continues. “Wannabe” urges the whoever-in-question to forget someone’s past if focusing on their future. It also paints the Spice Girls (and their fans) as carefree, freewheeling, independent women whose identities weren’t and aren’t tied to sexual or romantic partners. In their words, “If you really bug me, then I’ll say goodbye.” How Joy Behar (“So what? Who cares?”). How not sad BSB. This wasn’t a song about pining, broken hearts, or vying for attention — it was an anthem that made it okay to say, “I’m in charge, so GTFO.” (Even at 11, when the only thing some of us were in charge of were which Barbies to play with.)

So while “Wannabe” is a danceable, peppy, poppy track usually met with shrieks (by me) and declarations of love (also by me), it’s important. It proved — in the ever-jaded, guitar-fuelled 1990s — that pop music would not only always have a place, but that pop music could have a message. It taught us that it was possible to plant the first inklings of feminism through only a verse, that “Girl Power” was something powerful, and that regardless of how different your friends were, you could join forces to destroy a 1% restaurant (even if it was only for a music video).

Get with my friends, or get the fuck out. Zig-a-zig-ha.

Tags: Music, News, Spice Girls

0

0

0

0

0

Email this article to a friend