| "The Spice Girls are Pathetic" The Toronto Star April 15, 1997 Written by Tom Maurstad |
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The Spice Girls' performance on
Saturday Night Live last weekend was billed in NBC press releases and newspaper
previews as the group's "first live television appearance."
If
you didn't know better, you would have thought the Spice Girls were five women
who had won some sort of contest with a first prize of performing on Saturday
Night Live. Not surprisingly, i n recent months, there have been reports on the
"persistent rumors" of the Spice Girls' inability to perform live -
Milli Vanilli Syndrome.
So the Spice Girls had something to prove. And
they proved something all right, just not what they intended to prove. As it
turns out, questioning whether the Spice Girls can acutally perform their songs
live is like wondering whether CheezWhiz actually has any cheese in it.
The
quintet of singers, whose debut single, "Wannabe," has become a
fixture on radio and MTV, and are the latest marketing assult on reality - a
real-life cartoon Josie And The Pussycats come to life. Working out of a
tradition owing more to the Mightly Morphin Power Rangers than the Beatles, the
Spice Girls are five singing/dancing characters with distinctive looks and
personalities, so fans can have fun choosing and arguing over favorites.
The
Girls' Wannabe video is slickness itself, a swirling, candy-colored three-minute
rush of smooth singing and high-energy dancing. The Girls' live performance of
"Wannabe," in jarring contr ast, was amateurism itself, a stiff,
off-key shamble ofbad singing and shameless mugging. When the package becomes
the product, the real thing is never as good as the simulation of the real
thing.
The old-fashioned responce while watching the Spice Girls is
dumbstruck amazement that such extraordinarily untalented individuals could be
pop music's latest sensation. Simply put, the Spice Girls can neither sing nor
dance. With theri off-key wailingsas they swapped verses, it seemed likely that
the Girls were lip-synching their way through the perfectly crooned choruses.
And
then there was the, um, dancing. You could almost see the Girls' lips moving as
they tried to remember and work throgh the rudimentary dance steps pounded into
their heads in a blitzkrieg of dow n-to-the-wire rehearsals.
The above article does not represent The Spice Shack's views.
The Other Side of The Coin
In response to the above article the Spice Shack has been flooded with comments from Spice fans around the world, particularly Canada. I realise the article is the opinion of just one man so here's the response from one other man. (Which is typical of the emails we've received. Please do not email the Shack about this. If you want to talk about it then please do so at the Chat Shack.)
Dear Spice Shack,
I am writing this letter in reaction to the article from the Toronto Star.
First off I live in Brantford, Canada about one hour from Toronto. I saw the
Spice Girls on Saturday Night Live and I am disgusted that someone could write
something like that about such a talented bunch like the Spice Girls. And as for
the dancing, I don't know what that idiot is talking about it looked pretty damn
good to me, especially Geri who I felt shined during the show.
I just
want you to know that not all Canadian's feel that it was a bad show. I enjoyed
it very much and I hope you there in the UK can see it sometime. I know the
Girls aren't going to take this to heart because of what some stupid, fat, bald
reporter wrote - who's favorite music is probably Polka Time! So please don't
feel that Canada hates the Spice Girls because of that reporter's views - Canada
loves the Spice Girls, what's there not to love, and that's all there is to it.
Well I hope this clears Canada's name because that means a lot to me.
Adam
Dolezal
Okay. Finally, a lady's
point of view which touches on the idea of "Girl Power" .
I saw the Saturday Night Live performance and I loved it, you
could tell that they were having a ball and I think that they did a fantastic
job.
Danielle Limon, USA
'Nuff said.
No more emails, thank you.