James Silkstone

2 Justin Bieber - Sorry 0.6788 3 Shawn Mendes - Stitches $ 0.6757 Shawn could get to #2! :cheer: :o

I knew 'Stitches' would do OK, but I never expected it to be a Top 3 contender!

Shawn at #6 on iTunes and #8 on Spotify :cheer: at least we'll have one new top ten entry this week

Shawn coming in for #6 soon :cheer:

Years & Years just loosing out on that T10 placing at the last minute :(

Shawn Mendes seems to have taken a bit of a hit

09 What Makes You Beautiful 01 Gotta Be You 09 One Thing 07 More Than This 06 Live While We're Young -1 Little Things 10 Kiss You 04 One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks) 10 Best Song Ever 11 Story Of My Life 03 Midnight Memories 09 You And I 07 Steal My Girl 08 Night Changes 09 Drag Me Down 08 Perfect 07 History

Last Christmas is such a classic

I'd say Robin Schluz, Shawn Mendes, Craig David, Little Mix/Derulo, The Weeknd and Elle King all have a very good chance of making the top ten post Xmas. Selena's a hard one to predict, she's really not been that sucessfull in the UK, but seems like she could score a big hit at anytime. I expected it to be 'Same Old Love' but that stalled at #81, maybe this one could be it?

30th April 2011 - Lady Gaga - "Judas" Just a quick FYI, I've decided not to include Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' in this thread as it already hit the top ten in the 80's. However, songs from other decades that hit the top ten for the first time in this decade will be getting full reviews - and I do really like 'Fast Car' if anyone was wondering Onto Gaga, and for me, this was where I was kind of sold on the 'Born This Way' era. The title track really hadn't done much for me and I was a little relieved when 'Judas' came out as I'd been so disappointed by the overhyped comeback single and I wanted from Gaga what I was expecting to get. Back in May 2011, I was still a massive Gaga fan and I wanted her to come back stronger and more bizzarre than ever but 'Born This Way' just felt like trying too hard - 'Judas', to me, was a step in the right direction. Yes, the concept is way over the top and probably deeply offensive to anyone that is religious of any kind (atheism coming in handy once again for me here) but god do I love this. This is the Gaga I love, absurd but brilliant. Invoking religious imagery and folklore in order to tell a story of conflict and love is a fascinating move and no matter what Gaga's critics were saying back then, I could always defend her by saying that there was really nobody around in music at the time who was willing to push things in such a way. For me, 'Judas' is just a very enjoyable and fun pop record and maybe I should be getting more bogged down in the theology of it all but I experience what I experience - a very fun, pretty different topic wise pop song that really pulled me back onto the Gaga bandwagon after I briefly almost stumbled off. wagn8Wrmzuc

30th April 2011 - Wretch 32 feat Example - "Unorthodox" On top of the mountain of University work that was bogging me down, I think a major factor in this thread having such a long sabbatical was a little to do with procrastination on my point. As much work as I had to do since September, there probably was enough time for me to carry on this thread to a reasonable degree however the point we're at now - April 2011 - is a point in chart history where there's really not much music around that I like or find interesting enough to really talk about. I actually disagree with those who say that the 2010's has been crap for mainstream chart music, because for the most part, I've enjoyed a lot of the music that each year has had to offer, and even if I don't like it - I can at least find something in it to warrant discussion, but there have been periods which for me on the review front, have been pretty dry and we're in the middle of one now. The last few entries for me have consisted of pretty boring, generic, mainstream at it's worst type music which I don't find very compelling to write about - but, I'm giving it a shot, as 2011 soon turns a corner and I just need to work through this blip. So, 'Unorthodox' for what it's worth is a big step up from Wretch 32's last hit in that I can actually stand to listen to it and it's fairly catchy. ....And that's why I had the big long winded explanation paragraph before because I have nothing else to say about this. LysZJBo2HI4

23rd April 2011 - Chris Brown feat Benny Benassi - "Beautiful People" I've already made my thoughts on Chris Brown and his continued success following his blatant assault on his girlfriend so I won't bore you with them again, and instead, I am going to focus fully on the music. Here's the thing - even before he was the Rihanna bashing anti-christ we know him as today - I was never all that taken with Chris Brown. He came out around the same time as Ne-Yo; who is way more talented, has a much better voice, writes his own music and doesn't behave in a way I find morally deplorable. Ne-Yo's music, for the most part, is sexy and smooth whilst Brown's can be guilty of coming off as either needy, aggressive or completely soulless none of which are particularly enticing things for me when it comes to music. Without a shadow of a doubt, 'Beautiful People' remains the most generic thing Chris Brown has ever done, and that's saying something. I know the song got a lot of love when it first came out for being "an absolutely massive tune" or whatever but for me it's always been grossly repetitive and generic, plus I am incredibly cynical towards its success. Of course this was going be a huge hit in 2011 - it fit the mold of what music was both mainstream and acclaimed at the time, as well as the fact that the song is so anonymous that even if you were morally opposed to listening to Brown's music you wouldn't even know it was him. Just a waste of three perfectly good minutes e2oRqyn7ToQ

16th April 2011 - Snoop Dogg vs. David Guetta - "Sweat" ....And we're back! Apologies for the three month silence but I really didn't want to make myself worry about this thread during my first semester back at University and as of 10 minutes ago, my final essay has been submitted and I feel free enough to kickstart this - for a while. It's a shame really that we come back with a song as generic and baseless as "Sweat" which for me was the very low point of the whole dance-pop invasion that occurred in the early parts of the decade - a gross crass song in its original form is not particularly well hidden by some generic Guetta beats and I've always hated the duck like sounding repeats of Snoop's voice after he utters the word 'sweat'. Sorry for the negativity, but at least the thread is back! KnEXrbAQyIo

Edited up to date!

Hoping increased airplay will see Shawn Mendes creep into the Top 40 during a quiet week.

It seems strange to even question it now that she's so successful, but Adele all of a sudden blowing up with '21' is one for me. It's not like it was a record that just got bigger and bigger over time, it started out with sales over 200,000 so was massive from the start and what confuses me is where did that demand and sudden popularity come from? Yeah, 'Rolling in the Deep' was a big single but considering Adele's previous album had done well but not spectacularly, I find it very hard to believe that RITD inspired some 150,000 extra people to go out and by Adele's new CD on its own. She'd been in Duffy's shadow all the way through 2008, and Duffy's second album which was released a few months before '21' totally flopped. Adele returning with such sales after a not unsuccessful but fairly average first era is a bit of a mystery to me. Was it the fact she won 2 Grammy's? Was it do to with 'Make You Feel My Love' being big in the months before? Is it just a case of strong critical praise actually making people go out and by it?

One thing I don't understand is why so many people were willing to spend their money on Robson & Jerome records, thereby denying iconic songs like 'Common People' and 'Wonderwall' #1 status* *That said, there's something about those records stalling at #2 that fits in a weird way

Considering the popularity of other American female singer-songwriters (Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morrisette, Tori Amos) at the time, Jewel's lack of success in the UK gets me a little. 'You Were Meant For Me' is one of the biggest records of all-time in the U.S. peaking at #2 and being on the chart forever, whilst here it limped to #32. It doesn't seem like a record that would have alienated the UK record buying public too much, and certainly seems radio friendly enough. 'Hands' peaking at #41 is much the same deal, perhaps to a larger extent as it is certainly a lot more typically commercial sounding than 'You Were Meant For Me' is The same can be said, I feel, to acts like 3 Doors Down and Matchbox Twenty who did nothing in the UK despite their sound being perfectly commercial and radio friendly. 'Here Without You' by the former has X Factor staple written all over it.

Justin Bieber "One Time" Entered: December 12, 2009 Chart Peak: #36 Weeks in Top 40: 4 "Love Me" Entered: January 23, 2010 Chart Peak: #32 Weeks in Top 40: 6 "Baby" Entered: February 27, 2010 Chart Peak: #8 Weeks in Top 40: 9 Y/E 2010 Position: 105 "Eenie Meenie" Entered: May 1, 2010 Chart Peak: #7 Weeks in Top 40: 15 Y/E 2010 Position: 71 "Somebody To Love" Entered: June 19, 2010 Chart Peak: #3 Weeks in Top 40: 22 Y/E 2010 Position: 30 "Never Say Never" Entered: December 11, 2010 Chart Peak: #5 Weeks in Top 40: 12 Y/E 2010 Position: 130 Y/E 2011 Position: 111 "Next To You" Entered: July 9, 2011 Chart Peak: #9 Weeks in Top 40: 17 Y/E 2011 Position: 76 "Boyfriend" Entered: April 28, 2012 Chart Peak: #3 Weeks in Top 40: 22 Y/E 2012 Position: 47 "All Around The World" Entered: June 30, 2012 Chart Peak: #26 Weeks in Top 40: 7 Y/E 2012 Position: 129 "As Long As You Love Me" Entered: July 7, 2012 Chart Peak: #1 (2 weeks) Weeks in Top 40: 23 Y/E 2012 Position: 28 "Beauty and a Beat" Entered: September 29, 2012 Chart Peak: #2 Weeks in Top 40: 20 Y/E 2012 Position: 42 "Confident" Entered: January 11, 2014 Chart Peak: #40 Weeks in Top 40: 1 "Where Are U Now" Entered: May 23, 2015 Chart Peak: #6 Weeks in Top 40: 14 "What Do You Mean?" Entered: September 5, 2015 Chart Peak: #1 (1 week) Weeks in Top 40: 13 (still charting) "Sorry" Entered: October 31, 2015 Chart Peak: #1 (2 weeks) Weeks in Top 40: 5 (still charting) "I'll Show You" Entered: November 21, 2015 Chart Peak: #21 Weeks in Top 40: 2 (still charting)

01. Imagine Dragons - It's Time 02. Years & Years - King 03. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time 04. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 05. Mariah Carey - Fantasy 06. Savage Garden - To The Moon and Back 07. Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven 08. Madonna - Frozen 09. TLC - No Scrubs 10. Sia - Chandelier 11. Jennifer Lopez - Waiting For Tonight 12. Avril Lavigne - I'm With You 13. Robyn - Dancing on My Own 14. Rihanna feat Jay-Z - Umbrella 15. Ariana Grande feat The Weeknd - Love Me Harder 16. Taylor Swift - Blank Space 17. Aqua - Turn Back Time 18. Adele - Rolling in the Deep 19. Christina Aguilera - Genie In a Bottle 20. Madonna - Take a Bow 21. Taylor Swift - Style 22. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone 23. Pink - U & Ur Hand 24. One Direction - Story of My Life 25. Madonna - The Power of Goodbye 26. George Ezra - Listen To the Man 27. Pink - Who Knew 28. Walk The Moon - Shut Up and Dance 29. Mariah Carey - Beautiful 30. Janet Jackson - Together Again 31. Santana feat Rob Thomas - Smooth 32. Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love 33. Spice Girls - Wannabe 34. Christina Perri - Human 35. Natalie Imbruglia - Torn 36. Michael & Janet Jackson - Scream 37. The Vamps - Somebody To You 38. LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight 39. Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes 40. Girls Aloud - Call The Shots 41. Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back To Me Now 42. Paramore - Still Into You (I know they're "rock" but this is a pop song all damn day) 43. Pink feat Nate Reuss - Just Give Me a Reason 44. Bruno Mars - Grenade 45. Justin Timberlake - Cry Me a River 46. Spice Girls - Goodbye 47. Bruno Mars - Treasure 48. 5 Seconds of Summer - Don't Stop 49. Robbie Williams - No Regrets 50. Justin Timberlake - Like I Love You 51. Years & Years - Desire 52. Ella Henderson - Ghost 53. Celine Dion - A New Day Has Come 54. Cee Lo Green - Forget You 55. Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha 56. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble 57. Marina & The Diamonds - Primadonna 58. Kylie Minogue - Better the Devil You Know 59. Mariah Carey - We Belong Together 60. The Wanted - Glad You Came 61. Christina Aguilera - Hurt 62. Backstreet Boys - The Call 63. Britney Spears - Oops! I Did It Again 64. Mariah Carey - Always Be My Baby 65. One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful 66. Sugababes - Too Lost In You 67. Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do 68. Adele - Set Fire to the Rain 69. Chesney Hawkes - The One and Only 70. Celine Dion - Nothing Broken But My Heart 71. Nelly Furtado - Say It Right 72. Britney Spears - Toxic 73. The Saturdays - Ego 74. Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This 75. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together 76. Celine Dion - That's The Way It Is 77. Spice Girls - Viva Forever 78. Take That - Rule The World 79. Shania Twain - You're Still the One 80. The Saturdays - Higher 81. S Club 7 - Never Had a Dream Come True 82. BBMack - Back Here 83. No Doubt - Don't Speak 84. The Wanted - Lose My Mind 85. Mariah Carey - Dreamlover 86. One Direction - You & I 87. One Republic - Counting Stars 88. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way 89. Avril Lavigne - Rock N Roll 90. Mariah Carey - Honey 91. NSYNC - Tearin' Up My Heart 92. Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker 93. One Direction - Kiss You 94. Ellie Goulding - Lights 95. Lady Gaga feat R. Kelly - Do What U Want 96. Mariah Carey - Vision of Love 97. One Direction - One Thing 98. Pussycat Dolls - I Hate This Part 99. Kylie Minogue - Confide In Me 100. Katy Perry - Wide Awake 101. The Saturdays - Not Giving Up 102. Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There 103. NSYNC - It's Gonna Be Me 104. Jewel - Hands 105. Hanson - MMMBop

Oooooh! I'm on this

I imagine songs like Since U Been Gone, Pon De Replay, Unwritten and Boulevard of Broken Dreams which didn't hit #1 would still do alright today. I'm so-so on 'Hung Up' being a big hit though.

Backstreet Boys. ‘As Long As You Love Me’. Backstreet Boys (1997) I don’t care if you’re a serial killer, as long as you love *me* If I’d been more sentient in 1998, I would have found myself in a bit of a quandary as to whether I liked the Backstreet Boys or NSYNC more. Not in terms of who I found cuter (I know NSYNC had Justin, but he looked like he was auditioning for Annie back then) but actually in terms of whose music I actually thought was better because truth be told, I highly enjoy listening to both band’s music to this day. They’re very different in a way; the Backstreet Boys are what we think of as the poster boyband for a reason and that’s because they fit all of the stereotypes about boybands that can possibly exist but at the same time, they play to their strengths very well and showcase each voice fairly – and each voice is very good. NSYNC were more showmen than a boyband in the truer sense of what a boyband is – lead primarily by Justin and JC, there music tended to stray away from the traditional idea of what a boyband song is and they weren’t afraid to call out girls in their song as opposed to idealizing them in the way many other boybands do. NSYNC’s greatest advantage was how well they performed, where the Backstreet Boys succeeded was a sense of proper earnestness and a sense that underneath it all, there was something more to them than just being soppy boyband members in love and they did develop a more deceptively “hard core” image as they moved forward. The boyband phenomenon is something to this day that baffles me a little, mainly because despite my fondness on both the main boybands of the 90’s, Blue in the 00’s and One Direction now, many, many boybands are musically terrible. I have thrown pillows more sexually threatening than Westlife who also released terrible single after terrible single and in a way completely subverted the idea of how boybands function and why they’re popular. It’s all about appeal, a sense of providing the primary audience of teenage girls, something to grab, hope and hold onto. This is why there is a boyband ‘type’ when it comes to who they pick to be in one and it’s why music often comes across as an afterthought with these groups – like I’ve said before, Backstreet Boys are the classic model for a boyband perfected because they succeeded in every possible way that a boyband can succeed and what’s more so – they did it with consistently good songs, save for one or two blips, which truth be told air more on the side of being boring than outright bad. They’re the perfect boyband due to our idea of what a boyband is – Westlife, Boyzone, 5ive even Take That had the concept down but were guilty of going short on the music one or two times. Take That and Five eventually developed into solid performers whilst the amount of covers in Westlife and Boyzone’s final days kind of prove my theory (the shift from teenage girl to woman of a certain age demographics is something I’ll cover in more detail when/if I decide to talk about Westlife or Boyzone). So yeah, when it comes to the cream of the crop, I’d probably say on the quality of the songs and me buying into the idea of what a boyband is and what it should be – I’ll go with the Backstreet Boys as my favourite, but that is not to say that they were without flaw. 0Gl2QnHNpkA That is best highlighted in their 1997 hit ‘As Long As You Love Me’. Fun fact, this is actually their biggest selling single in the UK something which surprises me as naturally you would assume that ‘I Want It That Way’ had sold the most on the sheer iconic pop-song factor. But it actually has quite substandard sales for a #1 single in 1999, then again ‘As Long As You Love Me’ peaked at #3 and had a very good top ten run in late 1997 which was quite possibly the strongest sales climate in the UK Chart history, at least until 2011-mid 2013. So, what is wrong with ‘As Long As You Love Me’? Well, on the surface, nothing too drastic – one who doesn’t read as deeply into pop music as I do would probably say it’s a dull, kind of drippy ballad that’s entirely one dimensional and pretty forgettable and I’d say that’s true to the point, but at the same time it is a song that I enjoy the sound of at least. The vocals are very good and the boy’s harmonies blend well together on the chorus and at face value, for me, this is a perfectly passable boyband ballad that maybe borders on the boring side a little too much. But then, like the Jessica Simpson record that started this thread, the intrigue comes with the lyrics which paint a rather different and slightly pathetic picture. When one really sits down and takes in what the song is saying, you realize how utterly disturbing it all is. This is essentially the tale of a lonely boy who’s been so desperately lonely and looking for love that if/when he finds love, he’s going to totally ignore any negative aspects of that person’s character as long as they provide him with the love and attention he needs/craves. Now, this element of the song was totally lost on me for many years and I can’t imagine any of the Starstruck 13-year olds who listened to it at the time picked up on it either – but this really is some messed up, needy, almost emotionally abusive kind of shit. “I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you did, as long as you love me”. I will forgive your murdering spree, as long as you love me. I don’t care if you’re running off to support ISIS, as long as you love me. It’s weepy and pathetic. As a concept, there’s nothing really wrong with making a song around the saying “as long as you love me” – take Justin Bieber’s identically named 2012 song for example. Whilst certainly no great musical masterpiece, the message of that song is that the world can beat Justin and his girl down in whatever way it wants but as long as they have one another and love one another – he will be fine, he will withstand the blows. The Backstreet Boys aren’t saying that – what they’re saying is they don’t just want to love someone, they want their entire existence to be dependent upon the love of someone else. I may be jumping the gun a little with all of this but there’s definitely a notion of idealization of women at best, or outright ignoring negative traits at worse both of which send a really poisonous message I like the Backstreet Boys, I really do, but this song needs destroying or at least re-worked and positioned in a way that doesn’t attempt to justify and normalize such a sense of neediness and dependency.

Taylor Swift. ‘You Belong With Me’. Fearless (2008) You sing-a-long to *that* part, you know you do Ah, Taylor Swift. Things have really changed haven’t they? And to be honest, it really does not seem like six years ago that all of this was going down and I have to say, for a song that only peaked at #30 before falling down the charts like a stone, ‘You Belong With Me’ has certainly done a good job of making itself remembered by the masses hasn’t it? Her bigger commercial successes not arriving in the UK until 2012, by late 2014, this was still in her top ten biggest sellers list which was playing on MTV in my Uni canteen one lunchtime during my first year and I’ll be damned if most – if not all – of the people in the room at the time either sung a long with this to themselves or seemed to give some kind of recognized smile at its presence on the television screens. So, not only was this #30 hit from 2009 remembered by everyone I knew at the time – it seemed to have been remembered fairly fondly as well. I’ve theorized before that ‘You Belong with Me’ has been remembered because it was the video that won Taylor her award that Kanye West ended up jumping on stage and protesting about. But then I thought – that incident is remembered a lot more for Kanye than Taylor in general, much less the song of the video she won the award for in the first place so quite how ‘You Belong With Me’ has etched itself into most young people’s collective consciousness in this country still baffles me a little. Not so much in the States though, where it was a genuine hit, but how it’s been so well remembered here is confusing especially as in 2010, Taylor registered another #30 peaking single – ‘Mine’ – that sank like a stone and no one remembers that unless they’re an active Taylor fan. Of course, Taylor had had a big hit earlier in 2009 with ‘Love Story’ – a song I’m not going to get too far into at the moment because I do plan on covering it at some point – but I wasn’t that keen on it in 2009. I wasn’t keen on Taylor overall in 2009 to be honest, the situations have actually reversed in our household now, but back then it was my little sister who was the Taylor loon and I can’t begin to tell you how many times I heard the full Fearless album that year. So much so that to this day, it actually remains my least favourite of any of Taylor’s albums – including her self-titled 2005 country debut. Even if the commercial success was a bit slow to catch up over here save for that one single, Taylor was an instant celebrity at least amongst my age group, and maintained a decent presence through her celebrity until she started scoring consistent hits in 2012. So, what is it about ‘You Belong with Me’ that has stuck around? It’s a nice little number but not so critically acclaimed that people are now looking back and wondering why it didn’t do more on the charts. But maybe that’s because people just assume it did as so many people seem to remember it? VuNIsY6JdUw So, what are we working with here? Well, if there was ever a song to showcase how much Taylor has grown up as a song-writer and person in general, I think it would be this one (or ‘Picture to Burn’ but reviewing that would mean I’d have to listen to it and I REFUSE). Taylor’s in love with a boy. Fine. She doesn’t like his girlfriend. Fine, if the girlfriend is genuinely a dick but if you’re not liking her based purely off of the fact that she’s his girlfriend then you’re kind of a dick, Taylor. Then, she decides for some reason that this boy doesn’t belong with the girl he’s chosen to go out with, he belongs with her. Here’s the thing – we learn a lot about Taylor and her love rival in this song – she wears high heels, Taylor likes sneakers. She’s cheer captain, Taylor’s on the bleachers. But we learn absolutely jack shit about the boy in question – the boy who is apparently so amazing that he has two girls chasing after him – and what he likes? If he’s a good-looking teenage boy with plenty of girls chasing after him then he’s most likely a dickhead and he probably does only go for the girls who are cheer captains and wear high heels and to be honest, who can blame him? I always felt like Taylor’s “character” in this song was the one who sounds highly strung, clingy and unreasonable. If the guy is having genuine problems with his girlfriend, fine, but she at no point ever seems to consider it may be – and let’s be honest, probably is – his fault. The fundamental problem with Taylor’s grand statements of love and understanding here is that we never get even an impression that this boy likes her back or is even aware of her existence – the video, of course, tells a much different story but none of that is explicitly referenced in the song’s lyrics and by the point of the video’s happy ending, Taylor is still singing about him not liking her back so it’s all pretty moot if you ask me. Taylor hasn’t performed this song – one of her best remembered hits – on her recent tour and I think that’s telling. I can see her leaving out a majority of her pre-Red singles except for the two that were genuine crossover hits; this and ‘Love Story’. But, ‘Love Story’, is there – a bit re-worked, re-framed and re-modeled but it still made the set list whilst this has been glaringly omitted. I see this as acknowledgement from new feminist Taylor that this song is really, really not that nice behind its cutesy little pop/country sound and very problematic for Taylor’s new-found feminist cause. It’s a song, at its course, about self-centeredness and objectification of ones crush. Taylor’s love interest here is totally idealized and made into some prize at the end of a competition, his girlfriend torn to pieces for merely existing and having won the puberty lottery whilst Taylor’s needy, clingy, presumptive protagonist is clearly meant to be the one we are rooting for her despite the fact that if she were a dude singing this – everyone would’ve acknowledged how genuinely creepy this whole thing is Does the song leave a bad taste in my mouth? Not really, it was written when Taylor was 17, and 17 year old’s often suffer from tunnel vision when it comes to love also for all of its flaws the song remains very catchy and an enjoyable listen if you don’t think about it too deeply.

Spice Girls. “2 Become 1”. Spice (1996) *Me suddenly at 15* “holy shit, this song is about sex!” For some reason, after finishing my One Direction review, my mind just couldn’t stop thinking about ‘2 Become 1’. If One Direction are the Spice Girls of the 2010’s, then I guess this makes sense as ‘2 Become 1’ and ‘Night Changes’ are rather similar – both are wintery ballads that put one in mind of the Xmas season even if the holiday is not explicitly mentioned in the lyrics, both showcase the two most talented members of the band at their best and really show how they elevate the band (Harry Styles, Emma Bunton) and despite both being songs with positive, uplifting message they’re inexplicably tinged with a sense of melancholy and longing which, truth be told, I’m a bit of a sucker for. October to December is my favourite period of the year and any single that reminds me of that time is going to be a winner for me. I was born in 1995, so whilst I was alive during Spice mania in the late 90’s I was a little too young to be really swept up in it. If my mother is to believe, I was fond of ‘Stop’ whenever it came on the radio and the video for ‘Spice Up Your Life’ used to scare me (it’s also the song that was at number one when my sister was born) but that’s about all I’ve been able to find out in regards to how I felt about the Spice Girls when they were at their peak. By the time I really got into pop music in late 2003, the Spice Girls had long gone and the girls solo careers were also beginning to dwindle somewhat so it wasn’t until the fuss over their reunion in 2007 that I really dove into their back catalogue. There were, however, two songs of theirs that I was familiar with by this point; “Wannabe” as it’s iconic and most people know and “2 Become 1” which is played a lot near Xmas time and was a favourite of my mothers. I grew up with ‘2 Become 1’ as opposed to the Spice Girls themselves so it does hold a bit of a special place in my heart whilst a lot of their other songs leave me a little cold as they don’t have that nostalgia attached. Like it says above, I was a bit blindsided by childhood nostalgia so the true meaning of the song did not occur to me until I was literally fifteen. In a way, you’d think this would taint the song for me in some way as those precious, innocent childhood memories could now be seen as having been tainted by the images of sex and protection – but on the contrary, realizing the meaning of and message to the song only made me love it more. I love the soft but firm approach the song takes towards protection and how it really does promote sex as a loving action between two people; I feel like my generation has become very desensitized to sexual content with the rise of internet porn that’s disturbingly easy to access as well as the constant objectification of women in music videos so a soft, realistic gentle approach to the act that also promotes safety in it is absolutely fine by me. Songs about sex tend to be about the pleasure, the experience of sex has some kind of overly erotic romp and seem to completely miss the part of sex that is about communication and love between two people. Of course, I’m not naïve enough to suggest that everyone who has sex is in love with the person they’re having sex with but a song using sex as a pleasurable but gentle act is a very good thing in my book FA5jsa1lR9c Making the whole thing what it is, of course, is Miss Emma Bunton. I’ve heard people say Mel C is the most talented Spice Girl and I’d certainly agree that some of her solo material is fantastic – but for me, Emma is the most talented and has had the best solo career. Quite like Harry Styles, Bunton’s clearly natural grace and charisma are perfectly represented through her voice and that comes across on many Spice Girls singles and singles of her own but none more so than in ‘2 Become 1’. Her voice is perfect here for the tone and mood of the song; sweet and playful, almost teasing and coy whilst making absolutely sure that her lover is going to ‘put it on, put it on’. Yet, as I said before, the whole thing feels rather tinged with a sense of melancholy – maybe that’s retrospective melancholy; the images of the twin towers in the music video of such a beautiful, toned down song feels rather poignant and sad. The song seems to be the conclusion of a journey for me – like this girl has been looking for the right kind of love for so long and has just found it. I absolutely adore the melancholic feel too it – in a way, it’s kind of the perfect Christmas song even if it has nothing to do with the holiday. My favourite Spice Girl single, and by quite some distance.