@Leon Said 
Well I wasn't really commenting in the Girl Power thing, but rather commending their ability to make millions off of what it was they did, like it or not, agree with it or not.
As far as the Girl Power thing, I think Jennifer is indeed giving them a bit too much credit. Yes, girls are definitely viewed in a different, more empowering light today than in the past, but that was a work of many societal factors and influences. Certainly the Spice Girls were an avenue for the celebratory expression of such change, but it would have still been happening without them in my opinion. They were not the cause of it. As you point out, other acts have done the same thing. It was the times more than anything.
Your last sentence makes the most sense. It was the times. All along in this thread, I've been talking about what happened to my generation. What influenced anybody else is up to them but as this whole discussion about the Spice Girls won't seem to lie down then what happened then, at that time is the most relevant thing.
I wasn't born when Aretha Franklin sang "Respect" in the USA, a song that didn't even chart in the UK (not that I can find, anyway and I've looked) and would probably never have been heard by anybody here who wasn't a dedicated fan of hers, if it hadn't been featured on the Blues Brothers movie (which also came out before I was born).
Be that as it may.
The shift in attitudes is, I agree, a longer process than being affected by one influence, but there are such things as "tipping points".... a situation where a movement can be in progress for a long time but achieves little until something happens which provides the final push. This is what I believe happened in the mid 1990's... at least in London.
There were a number of things that came together (I've already said this in previous posts) which contributed. The Internet / Mobile phone technology and market realisation that adolescent girls had greatly increased spending power were two such things.
I must confess to being a tad bemused at being told by middle aged Americans who have probably never been here, who know very little about my country or its social influences, about what happened to me in my city when I was actually in the middle of the 'revolution' and experienced it as a contemporary of that time.
I was a teenage girl, attending a south London school, was a big fan of the Spice Girls and had first hand experience of what was happening amongst me and my peers, what we felt, what our attitudes were and how it all influenced us. I was there, guys. In person.
Far be it from me to play 'one-up', but don't you think you're not really in any sort of position to tell me that I'm "Giving them too much credit"...?
We sure as heck weren't listening to Aretha Franklin, I can tell you that for certain (most of us hadn't even heard of her at that time).
It's fine to have an opinion... I'm not knocking that, but please.... making broad, sweeping statements on things you didn't experience, weren't of the same generation, and didn't even live in the same country, let alone the city where it was focused is a bit rich.
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Aug 14, 2012 @ 18:11:49
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