Shiny & New Turns 2: #17 "Holler" - Spice Girls

"Imagine us together me driving you insane / You will give in to me / Don’t be afraid to play my game"

I will never be able to conjure the sentences required to truly help someone else form a completely accurate picture in their minds of how much I adored the Spice Girls. They were my first introduction to music, to pop music, to an obsession – to strong, charismatic, powerful women. They set me off on my path which I’m still walking now, a path of complete fascination and passion for music – and Ginger Spice was my favourite. Gobby, brash, curvaceous; she was my first gay icon. Then she left. This tore my eight year old world apart – looking back to eleven years ago its hard to fathom how much someone that age could care, but I did.

And then the Spice Girls made “Holler”. One of Darkchild’s first major productions, in the canon of the Spice Girls’ solidly consistent excellent pop music, “Holler” is possibly the only one which still remotely has any credibility. In this wave of recognition for late 90s/early 00s RnB we’re currently undergoing, “Holler” stands proud as one of the finest examples. Ironic because it sounds nothing like any of the songs which made the Spice Girls shoot right through the stratosphere and beyond. The cascading guitar introduction, the hip-gyrating beat – who am I kidding, the highlight of the entire thing is Melanie C’s performance in the video. Never have I been more aroused by a fat, hot, sweaty Scouse mess.