The writing was on the wall by the time Spice Up Your Life was released.

Even though I was only 8 at the time, I felt a huge shift in the atmosphere when SUYL came out. It's like they became uncool overnight. My weird kid's intuition was "they'll be finished in a year" (Geri did leave in May 1998!). People say the backlash started when they dumped Simon Fuller as their manager but it really began a little earlier.

Simply, they reached market saturation far too quickly. And releasing SUYL at a time when they were becoming so over-commercialised was a mistake. It was loud and abrasive and seemed strictly aimed at fans - it was never going to be a huge crossover hit like Wannabe or SYBT. The song was too self-referential. It doesn't really make sense outside the Spice context and couldn't really be enjoyed by general pop lovers the way the singles on the first album were.

It was also the perfect theme for this beginning of them becoming caricatures of themselves. That slight edginess and punkish energy they had in their first era was kind of drained away and repackaged to sell them purely as products. Lest we forget, the Spice Girls were legitimately taken seriously as a cultural phenomenon at the beginning, even the "serious" media would frequently run coverage on what they represented in terms of societal change. (Related to this, I highly recommend the Kathy Acker interview with them from May 1997!. )

By the time SUYL came out, it was clear that the Spice Girls brand was now becoming synoymous with merchandising and product. I'm not saying they were some DIY punk band at the beginning, it was always commercial, but late 1997 was just an insane level of exposure and so many people, even kids, began to get turned off. They did win both Best AND Worst Band at the 1997 Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party after all... The "put their faces on everything!" approach would always limit their shelf life. They became burnt out and by 1998, were basically all dressing in suits looking like they were going for job interviews. I blame Simon Fuller for this. He did everything too fast too quickly. An album and era like Spiceworld would have made more sense as a third album. Kind of like how Britney kept it "steady" (an appropriate level of exposure) for her first two albums but went into full overdrive with media coverage and merchandising/movies with her third album.

None of the songs on Spiceworld were big hits. I love the album from a place of childhood nostalgia, but it definitely feels like corners were cut. Selling 8 million copies less than Spice when they were even more famous when they released Spiceworld was worrying. Mel C admits this in her autobiography quality control suffered when making the record. She says the only time the girls had proper breathing space to sit down and really concentrate on writing, they came up with Viva Forever, a 10/10 song. Imagine how good the album could have been if they had been given the same time and space with the 9 other songs?

The Spice Girls story to me is a story of unrealised potential. Biggest girl band in history, yes, but so many what-ifs!