The Spice Girls Reunite…Why?
A World Tour and a Greatest Hits Album. Could It Be About Money?
Oct 18, 2007
A Surprise Announcement
For many, a Spice Girls reunion seemed to come out of the blue. After the group informally split in 2001 to concentrate on solo careers, the Spice Girls seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Sure you would casually hear news of a new solo album or rumors of a possible pregnancy from gossip mongers such as Perez Hilton but otherwise there was no hard core attention being paid to the former “Girl Power” phenomenon. The only real press they seemed to generate was from the over publicized marriage of Victoria “Posh” Spice to soccer player David Beckham and the very public paternity suit between Mel B. “Scary” Spice and actor Eddie Murphy.
Why Now?
What would suddenly spark a reunion after 6 years of being virtually unemployed? Some would agree that the Spice Girls were never known for their amazing singing voices or in-depth, emotional lyrics. Like most music artists of the teen pop craze (Britney Spears, N’Sync, etc.), they were known for their cartoonish music personalities. Throughout their careers their main talent seemed to be capitalizing on their popularity by promoting and selling the Spice Girls name.
Could The Reunion Be Financially Motivated?
Each Spice Girl is reportedly making £10 million (approximately 20 million dollars) for participating in a “Greatest Hits” reunion tour. With paychecks as high as those, it makes you wonder how the tour sponsors plan to make any sort of profit to cover their expenses. The only way they can make up the difference is if they literally charge hundreds of dollars per ticket. The results have shown that in the first onslaught of ticket sales, individual seats sold for more than $500 each from TicketsNow.com. In some cases, seats were selling for over $1,000 each. Even though the tour is being created by the brilliant Jaime King (whom has worked with Prince and Madonna just to name a couple) would a vast number of people really pay that much money to see the Spice Girls?
Pop Stars of The Past
The pop surnames of “Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty” were once hailed as being almost as well known as John, Paul, George and Ringo of The Beatles. The pop group was even described by biographer David Sinclair as being "a social phenomenon that changed the course of popular music and popular culture.” Their 1996 pop sensation “Wannabe” spent 7 weeks on the top of the UK singles chart and set the ball rolling for 3 studio albums that sold approximately 55 million units worldwide.
Are They Worth It?
Today, the appeal of the Spice Girls seems to be solely based on the fact that they haven’t been the focus of the universe for a while. The public has had time to create a “legend” around them because they seem to have forgotten what the Spice Girls were actually like when they were at the height of their popularity. But who knows? The Spice Girls may prove that they have earned their place in the pop culture history books, but they may also make people wonder why they paid anywhere from $500-$1,000 or more just to kill some time.
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