One celebrity photographer admits to sending pictures to editors based on which Spice Girl they found most attractive, knowing it would result in a better chance of a commission. Other contributors, such as Miranda Sawyer, examine the harsh Nineties music landscape for women, which was characterised by the “lad mag” culture of FHM and Loaded, and the way female artists were “pitted against each other” and “shamed” by the publication of revealing photographs. The first episode also traces the group’s famous “Girl Power” slogan back to its Riot Grrrl roots (via feminist punk bands like Bikini Kill), exploring how their new feminist manifesto reached millions of young girls via huge album sales around the world – especially through their first single “Wannabe”, which reached No 1 in over 40 countries. “Back then, expectations of women in the music industry – the most important thing was definitely image and sex appeal,” singer Lianne Morgan says. It’s a crushing environment, and one unsuccessful candidate from the same audition is brought in by directors Vari Innes and Alice McMahon-Major to recall the harsh realities of the process. “Putting it bluntly,” he says, “what I would do is work ’em.” As far as concerns about mental health and wellbeing go, there are few.
#Girl power music how to#
In that same audition scene, the team’s business manager, Chris Murphy, is asked how to successfully manage an act. It’s just one example of the patriarchal behaviour the group come up against in Channel 4’s revealing new three-part documentary, which marks 25 years since the release of the band’s debut album, Spice, and spans from the group’s “manufactured” formation in 1994 to their eventual breakup in 2001.
#Girl power music skin#
“Dancing – six singing – five looks – seven, not very good skin personality – five.” They have a rating system for the applicants, and Chris reads aloud the scorecard of one such hopeful: a 20-year-old Victoria Beckham. In the first episode of Spice Girls : How Girl Power Changed Britain, we see father and son management team Bob and Chris Herbert holding auditions for “a girl version of Take That”.
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