Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: A & E

Media Credit: Virgin Records

In 1996, music video channel "The Box" introduced me to five singing English gals that went by " Posh," "Scary," "Baby," "Ginger" and " Sporty." Also known as the Spice Girls.

At 11, I bought their self-titled debut album and blasted, I mean I blared, "Wannabe" in my room until my mother yelled for me to "knock it off." My goal was to learn that fun little rap snippet in the middle of the song that everyone always tries to sing but only end up salvaging a few words and humming the rest.

The album fell victim to the bubble-gum-pop reputation the group carried around, but that's what sold at the time and people were definitely buying.

I like to think that songs like " Love thing" and " If you can't dance" taught young girls that friendship is important and that it's okay to stand up to the boys when they think they can push you around. Granted that those little girls grew up and started to think a bit differently about the opposite sex, that fundamental lesson is still present.

During the Spice Girls craze two groups were formed. There were those who loved them and took their so-popular message of "girl power" to heart (girls approximately ages 10 to 14), and then there were those who hated them, but still sang their songs after tossing back a few.

Today, "Wannabe" is still sung after tossing back a few and is still the hottest song played at any dance party and will go down in history, in my opinion, as another "It's raining men" due to the "bubble-gum" sound some complained to be annoying.

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