Week 21: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[bobsticks]

This has developed in to a much deeper and more poignant tete-a-tete than one would have thought possible given the topic; good show all around...

...but a pox on all your houses for even mentioning Sigue Sigue Sputnik in the same thread as the Spice Girls

[DariusNYC]

I should say two things:

One, I'm pretty well convinced by the main thread of MGH's (J's) arguments, and find myself largely in agreement with him on his main point after digesting the thread. (One problem with discussions like this on our board is that we at our ages tend to have ignorance about the influence of stuff that hits people much much younger than us.)

Two, I note that several of the posts in this series by Swish (and not always the ones you'd predict) have resulted in good discussion about music, and this one is no exception. So thanks again to Swish for continuing to post these.

[Troy]

What a horrifying choice.

Yet, still, I'm gratified that there is finally something on this list that we can ALL agree on . . . except MGH. (yes I'm messin with ya)

3LB nailed my feelings on this when he invoked The Archies, Monkees, Tiffany, Back Street Boys etc.

Yes, Spice Girls made more $ than all those others combined, but the reason for that is not because they were better than everyone else making music in the 90s. It's because the media marketing machine was SO well tuned by that point that it was able to create mass hysteria about this musically derivative and inconsequential group. The hype machine is so strong now that if it gets behind ANYTHING (Richard Hong, anyone?), it's guaranteed to sell millions. The Spice Girls' clothing was more important to their fans than any of the music they made.

The Spice Girls did not change music with their music. It could be argued that their MARKETING Svengali's changed music, but the reality is that they took an already established marketing strategy (see: The Archies, Monkees, Tiffany, Back Street Boys etc.) and simply spun it into overdrive utilizing the relatively new, all pervasive, world-wide media machine.

By a considerable margin, the worst/most misguided item on this list to date.

When I worked for Galoob Toys in the 90s we did Spice Girl dolls. Barbie sized dolls. I still have a quart-sized jar of spicegirl heads on my shelf right here next to me.

[3-LockBox]

The Spice Girls did not change music with their music. It could be argued that their MARKETING Svengali's changed music, but the reality is that they took an already established marketing strategy (see: The Archies, Monkees, Tiffany, Back Street Boys etc.) and simply spun it into overdrive utilizing the relatively new, all pervasive, world-wide media machine.

My point as well. They don't get credit for what was an incredible job of market saturation and media blitz, in an already established business model. That's like giving Dale Ernhart credit for inventing the wheel. Anyway, to mention these guys in the same list as some of music's pioneers is a sham. Credit does go to anyone but the artist in this case. Sh!t, put the Wiggles on the list too.