I wish so much that they could have a Saltburn / Stranger Things moment with Stop and have it go to #1. They so deserve to be in the incredibly limited run of acts with ten #1s, if they had released Stop a week earlier as planned they would have done it too!

 

 

Why was it delayed by a week?

I wish so much that they could have a Saltburn / Stranger Things moment with Stop and have it go to #1. They so deserve to be in the incredibly limited run of acts with ten #1s, if they had released Stop a week earlier as planned they would have done it too!

 

So why did they oush it back??

 

Ego Spice quit due to it missing too, so they may have got 3 albums with her had they released one weel earlier!!

Did she though??

In defense of Stop's release date...when the release schedule was coming together, could the girls have known how huge It's Like That was going to be?

 

That's an honest question, actually. It's Like That turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 1998 in the UK. But...to people living there at the time...how far back did people see that coming? It's certainly a bit random to me. It's a remix of an early 80s song from a group that hadn't been especially active in a while. For contrast, here in the US, the It's Like That remix didn't break the top 100 at all.

 

If the girls had released much earlier in the month, they would have been up against Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On...the gargantuan soundtrack song from Titanic, practically the movie of the decade. It's also one of only two 1998 singles to outsell It's Like That in the UK. If they released earlier than Celine, they would have been up against Madonna's Frozen...an epic lead single from the album the world was heralding as her career best.

 

Honestly, if I were the girls, I would have chosen to go up against It's Like That too...

In defense of Stop's release date...when the release schedule was coming together, could the girls have known how huge It's Like That was going to be?

 

That's an honest question, actually. It's Like That turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 1998 in the UK. But...to people living there at the time...how far back did people see that coming? It's certainly a bit random to me. It's a remix of an early 80s song from a group that hadn't been especially active in a while. For contrast, here in the US, the It's Like That remix didn't break the top 100 at all.

 

If the girls had released much earlier in the month, they would have been up against Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On...the gargantuan soundtrack song from Titanic, practically the movie of the decade. It's also one of only two 1998 singles to outsell It's Like That in the UK. If they released earlier than Celine, they would have been up against Madonna's Frozen...an epic lead single from the album the world was heralding as her career best.

 

Honestly, if I were the girls, I would have chosen to go up against It's Like That too...

 

Interesting, maybe they were trying to avoid going against Celine indeed.... I never quite got the success of the It's Like That tbh. Stop deserved, and even thought it did not get to #2, it was a huge hit anyway the world over, it was still everywhere.

 

Also, its quite interesting that the single that ultimately got them to break their #1 streak, is one of the most endured hits nowadays! Time really is the ultimate truth teller

I don't think I have the greatest perspective on this matter because I was only 10 years old at the time, and I don't think I became aware of It's Like That until it reached #1!

 

Regarding Celine Dion... My Heart Will Go On was in its 5th week on sale in the week that It's Like That and Stop were new entries. So a week earlier, Stop would have been going up against Celine's 4th week. It might have been touch and go. Celine was #1 that week with 112,000 sold. A week later, Spice Girls were at #2 with 115,000. If they'd stuck to the previous week, would it still have sold 115k? More, or less? Who knows!

 

If you were to base it on radio airplay, the chart runs give the impression that Stop should have easily been able to outsell It's Like That. Stop reached its peak of #3 on radio when It's Like That was only at #20 - and yet this was the same week that It's Like That entered at #1 (243,000 sales) and Stop at #2. So Spice Girls certainly couldn't blame a lack of radio support for how Stop sold. Even though It's Like That spent 6 weeks at #1 in the singles chart, this major success only translated to eventually peaking at #4 on radio (coinciding with its 6th and final week at #1 in the singles chart). Interestingly, Stop also performed better on radio than My Heart Will Go On (Stop - 6 weeks in the radio Top 5, My Heart Will Go On - 2 weeks in the radio Top 5).

 

Radio Airplay

36-18-10-07-06-05-04-06-07-09-09-09-14-23-42-42. My Heart Will Go On

00-00-34-14-04-04-03-03-03-03-06-07-11-25-28-40-48. Stop

00-00-00-31-25-30-20-07-09-06-07-04-05-08-13-22-25-26-35-00-41-40. It's Like That

 

I'm assuming that a major aspect in It's Like That becoming popular was its music video, with the breakdancing, that it must have done really well on music channels. Unfortunately there's no data going back that far for TV airplay. No doubt it must have been popular in clubs too.

 

Promotion for Stop wasn't really on the level of their previous singles, was it? It had the Brits performance... but weren't they too busy with the tour, to do their usual rounds of kids TV appearances? Maybe that held it back a bit.

 

I also feel that for some odd reason Stop just didn't seem to click with the masses in 1998? It wasn't even just the fact it missed #1, but its sales were well down on what they were accustomed to. They followed 6 platinum singles with Stop only managing silver... and then it was back to normal for them with Viva Forever and Goodbye being platinum #1s. Stop really sticks out as a momentary downturn in success for them in the 90s. It's funny that despite this, it grew into being one of their clear signature hits, as Mr.X mentioned. It's arguably ahead of a few of the #1s in terms of being enduring with the public (and it eventually became a platinum success too thanks to streaming).

Stop just sounded very dated at the time given the influence and a bit safe, perfect for radio but not a rush and buy it to have it on repeat on cd type of song.

 

That works in its favour now as it is a perfect song for some passive playlist streams (which is like today's radio play) and being dated means it doesn't sound 90s it sounds classic.

With them not being able to promote while on tour + the single version is exactly the same as the album + no B-side incentives to buy (could have kept Walk of Life for Stop instead)

I wish so much that they could have a Saltburn / Stranger Things moment with Stop and have it go to #1. They so deserve to be in the incredibly limited run of acts with ten #1s, if they had released Stop a week earlier as planned they would have done it too!

 

Especially since it’s one of their most remembered hits! So glad I was too young to listen to the chart show back then :lol:

I noticed this week how much the VF lyric video has increased its YouTube views. When it was around the 800k mark the Stop video was well over a million. VF lyric video now stands at 1.570 million views and is now 35k views ahead of Stop.

I wonder why Spice Up Your Life has dropped off so much on Spotify, now down to their 5th most popular behind 2 Become 1!

Really!? Hmmm that is interesting. What is the rest of the top 4? Let me guess:

 

1. Wannabe

2. Stop

3. Say you'll be there

4. 2 become 1

5. Spice up your life

 

If so I'd say it's possibly because Spiceworld doesn't get the streams Spice does which boosts the Spice singles up. Stop is the anomaly of course but that has turned into a stand out song of theirs on it's own.

TLC - No Scrubs has recently overtaken Wannabe on Spotify:

 

1,149,589,085 - No Scrubs

1,147,194,847 - Wannabe

 

(before taking into account that No Scrubs has a further 6,445,397 plays from a Radio Version)

I wonder why Spice Up Your Life has dropped off so much on Spotify, now down to their 5th most popular behind 2 Become 1!

 

I imagine this was effect of the Barbie playlists getting less attention over time. I see now it's up to #4.

A fan on Spice Circle calculated their streams on Spotify and YouTube and it seems that for the world's biggest girlband ever, they are lagging far far behind quite a lot of older and newer girlbands <_<

 

On Spotify they don't even make the Top10 :o Like, I knew they weren't the biggest thing but they are even behind Pussycat Dolls and other contemporaries from the pre-streaming eras :blink:

 

Most Streamed Girl Groups on Spotify

 

1. BLACKPINK - 14.044 Billion

2. Little Mix - 9.913 Billion

3. TWICE - 9.181 Billion

4. Fifth Harmony - 5.597 Billion

5. NewJeans - 5.545 Billion

6. Destiny's Child - 4.002 Billion

7. (G)I-DLE - 3.777 Billion

8. Red Velvet - 3.632 Billion

9. LE SSERAFIM - 3.427 Billion

10. ITZY - 2.869 Billion

11. The Pussycat Dolls - 2.855 Billion

12. TLC - 2.648 Billion

13. IVE - 2.419 Billion

14. Spice Girls - 2.344 Billion

 

 

Most Streamed Girl Groups on YouTube

 

1. BLACKPINK - 28.586 Billion

2. TWICE - 14.046 Billion

3. Fifth Harmony - 7.858 Billion

4. Little Mix - 7.317 Billion

5. Girls' Generation - 5.117 Billion

6. (G)I-DLE - 3.560 Billion

7. Red Velvet - 3.216 Billion

8. The Pussycat Dolls - 2.949 Billion

9. Mamamoo - 2.788 Billion

10. ITZY - 2.590 Billion

11. 2NE1 - 2.346 Billion

12. NewJeans - 2.135 Billion

13. AKB48 - 2.095 Billion

14. Destiny's Child - 1.950 Billion

15. LE SSERAFIM - 1.706 Billion

16. IVE - 1.540 Billion

17. Sistar - 1.530 Billion

18. 4Minute - 1.498 Billion

19. Spice Girls - 1.195 Billion

20. GFriend - 1.190 Billion

 

Currently TLC has 1.050 Billion streams and is getting 500k streams per day on Youtube and Spice girls are only getting 350k per day so eventually they will overtake them bumping them down to #20.

It's what they deserve. Their catalogue is so small and they don't do anything about it. No new single, new album, no tour, nothing.

Christmas Wrapping up to 3rd place on their Spotify list, and Goodbye is back in in 10th place, replacing Mama.

‘Love Thing’ Live at Wembley Stadium has reached 1 million views on YouTube. It’s the 6th live performance to reach over a million.

Live at Wembley

Edited August 2Aug 2 by Spice Girls Net

I’ve been meaning to post about their YouTube views for a while to say that ‘Viva Forever’ will overtake SYBT in the next few months (March 2026) to become the 2nd most viewed music video behind Wannabe.

The video was originally behind 2B1 by 10 million views and eventually caught up and now has well over 11 million more views than 2B1 currently.

Although SYBT is at 94m it won’t reach 100m until May 2027. I am glad Viva Forever is getting recognition. It would be nice if it got the same on Spotify.

Edited August 31Aug 31 by Spice Girls Net

I just discovered that YouTube Music is a whole different thing from youtube.com lol It's almost like a Spotify version of YouTube where the focus is on the tracks but also you can also watch videos there...

The video streams seem the same as the YouTube.com page but the music is different! They have millions of plays there too... for instance:

Wannabe 1 billion streams

Viva Forever 153million

Say You'll Be There 126million

Spice Up Your Life 64million

2 Become 1 105million

Stop 85million

Who do You Think You Are 47million

Too Much 40million

Mama 45million

Goodbye 40million

Holler 32million

LLLTW 9million

Headlines 7million

They also have 85million regular listeners of their music which is incredible!

It's quite something, I think! Plus all the videos. Considering YouTubeMusic is quite a recent streaming platform, it looks like they do really well there