1996 – Ready, VSHN Player One?

There’s this great song from Arthur Brown, which doesn’t qualify for the blog, as we’re limited to seventies to noughties and it’s from 1968. It starts off with a terrifying threat: “I am the God of Hell-fire, and I bring you…” only to immediately switch to the cutest little melody. 28 years later, Keith Flint came over way more menacing when he – who at the time was a dancer for Prodigy, had never sung on a track and for whom the English language most definitely wasn’t his strong suit – decided to live up to his surname and added lyrics to what was supposed to be an instrumental piece.

The video, shot in black and white for budget reasons, was considered so grisly that fire brigades felt the need to compel what they regarded as an incitement to arson and the tabloids chastised it for frightening kids.

Flint was promoted from dancer to frontman.

He also owned a little pub in Essex that had an open fireplace. If you caught him lighting a fire there and brought up the song you had to donate a pound to charity.

While one might argue that the original concept of “Boy Bands” probably dates as far back as the 19th century Barbershop Quartets, in the 1960s the concept took on a new facet, when “The Monkees” were drafted – as opposed to bands who formed themselves. This turned out to be quite a lucrative formula and so over time other bands were created with the specific goal of luring in the cash of teenage girls, most famously The New Kids on The Block, Take That, Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, or in newer times, One Direction. However, when two English blokes tried to apply the concept to a female band back in 1994 everything turned out a bit different.

They found their five members easily enough, having received hundreds of applications and only one of them was replaced by the time the group was ready to start recording. But… being the ambitious talents they were, the girls soon became frustrated with their management’s unwillingness to take on their ideas and parted ways, in order to full-fill their own artistic visions.

The principle would be applied more than once over the span of their career, not least when it came to the video of “Wannabe”, their first single. While considered flawed in several ways (“lighting!”, “old guys!”, “nipples!?!”) by Virgin, their new marketing channel, the Spice Girls insisted they did not want to do a re-shoot, and the commercial success would most definitely prove them right.

a primer to music pop culture from the eighties to the noughties

Category: 1996

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Boy Bands? Girl Power!