How Does the Spice Girls' "Wanna Be" Capture the Zeitgeist of the Time?

In the music video "wanna be" by Spice girls -a famous British music group- the feminism spirit and the shift of the humanity toward an equal society regarding sex is being expressed. As the video starts running, poor homeless people sitting by the wall of a luxurious hotel, while a lavish expensive car drives into view ridden by a wealthy family is brought to attention. As the wealthy family starts getting off the car, the girls start talking to them in a vain attempt. The pose of the wealthy family, their behavior and the way they ignore the girls are all signs of the pointlessness of the girls' efforts. It is a demonstration of contrast among different social classes in the society and the fruitless attempts of the local class to bring this contrast into notice. Later on the girls enter a very luxurious hotel and start shuffling papers and making a mess. This brings to mind the idea that new movements are accompanied by chaos and resistance in the beginning of their birth, which cannot be interpreted as their negative side, since all the chaos occurs as the result of the dominance of the old ones and their tyranny. The way the girls are dressed (not wearing bras) is conveying their support of the feminist movement. The lyrics are representing changes in the common convictions of male-female relationships which considered male sex as the dominant one. "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends" This part of the lyric is demonstrating a strong female who does not need the dominant male to go on with her life, she is not as flexible as she was before in order to not to be alone. She has her wishes and her desires, and she will not give up until her expectations are met: "If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give, Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is." This idea is given strength to by the scene when Melanie Brown makes a move on a guy by kissing him. This is the do-whatever-you-feel-like-doing spirit, regardless of common guidelines of the female behavior. In the ending minutes of the video, the well-off community in the hotel starts to dance and sing with the girls, implying that it is possible to make the change if its spirit is consistent. The girls could bring out their message and make it accepted. The "wanna be" music video, the lyrics and the feminist movement are all in accord with the idea that females can be who they want to be, and having no specific definition of who they should be is an encouragement toward genuineness racing against being a copy pasted of an already existing social guideline.

By: Mina Sheikhha