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England's sassy girl group the Spice Girls can be single-handedly credited with ushering in the British pop revolution. The Spice Girls provided a stark contrast to the dour, typically all-male guitar bands like Oasis and Blur that were ruling the British music scene at the time. At the height of their career, the fun, photogenic five-piece were beloved across the globe, earning Spice-fever comparisons to Beatlemania. Their smash debut 1996 single "Wannabe" was a frothy, catchy confection that included nonsense slang and one of the clunkiest rap interludes ever recorded. That didn't stop it from hitting no.1 on pop charts around the world and setting a record for girl-group single sales with six million copies sold. The Spice Girls never had any illusions that they were anything other than a perfect pop group. The group was formed after members responded to a newspaper ad placed by the father and son management team Chris and Bob Herbert. Each girl picked a "Spice"alter-ego that reflected her personality. If you did a survey, you'd probably be shocked to find that anyone who was a teenager in the mid-90's can easily rattle off all five Spices; there was Sporty Spice (Mel C), Scary Spice (Mel B), Baby Spice (Emma Bunton), Posh Spice (Victoria Adams) and, of course, the vivacious Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell.) The girls all wore relevant costumes in their videos and during performances, but it was Geri's famous "cool Britannia"Union Jack one-piece dress that would become iconic for the quintet. After "Wannabe," the Spice Girls continued to rule the pop world, and their singles "Say You'll Be There,""2 Become One"and "Mama"were MTV staples. The Spice Girl's follow-up to their Spice album was the record-shattering SpiceWorld, which featured singles "Spice Up Your Life,""Too Much"and "Stop."The madcap movie Spice World, directed by Absolutely Fabulous mastermind Bob Spiers, grossed over $100 million and showed the world that the girls had a lighter side too. It would take far too long to catalog the post-Spice solo exploits of all five Spice Girls (Victoria Beckham, anyone?), but with a reunion on the horizon, we'll leave you with a simple "Girl Power!?

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