#Johan Camitz

[retropopcult]

"Wannabe" was the debut single by the British group Spice Girls. Written and composed by the group members in collaboration with Matt Rowe and Richard "Biff" Stannard for their first album, Spice, released in 1996. The song was written, composed, and recorded very quickly; but the result was considered lackluster by their label, and was sent to be mixed by Dave Way. The group was not pleased with the result, and the recording was mixed again, this time by Mark "Spike" Stent.

The song is an uptempo dance-pop track which features Mel B and Geri Halliwell rapping. The lyrics, which address the value of female friendship over the heterosexual bond, became an iconic symbol of female empowerment and the most emblematic song of the group's Girl Power philosophy. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, the single rocketed to #1 in the UK, US, and 20 other countries and won the British Single of the Year at the 1997 Brit Awards.

The music video for "Wannabe" was the first for director Johan Camitz. He was hired on Fuller's recommendation because of his commercials for Nike and Volkswagen.  The original concept for the video was a one-take shoot of the group arriving at an exotic building in Barcelona, taking over the place, and running riot—the same way they did when they were looking for a manager and a record company. But a few days before the shoot, they were denied permission to use the building, so the filming was relocated to the Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London.

[stream]

💋 SPICE GIRLS ✨ Wannabe (1996) dir. Johan Camitz

[antville]

the Spice Girls 'Wannabe' dir Johan Camitz '96

www.youtube.com

Camitz died in 2000 - www.nytimes.com

a post (https://ift.tt/3cShlao) from antville: https://ift.tt/LlSWZe

[lucasthuha]

#Repost @spicegirlsvideos (@get_repost) ・・・ The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" was released 21 years ago on this day, 8 July 1996. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. The song was written and recorded very quickly; the result was considered lacklustre by their label, and was sent to be mixed by Dave Way. The group was not pleased with the result, and the recording was mixed again, this time by Mark "Spike" Stent. "Wannabe" is an uptempo dance-pop song that incorporates a mix of hip hop and rap. The lyrics, which address the value of female friendship over the heterosexual bond, became an iconic symbol of female empowerment and the most emblematic song of the group's Girl Power philosophy. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, the song won for Best British-Written Single at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards and for Best Single at the 1997 BRIT Awards. "Wannabe" was heavily promoted by the group. Its music video, directed by Johan Camitz, became a big success on the British cable network The Box, which sparked press interest in the group. Subsequently the song had intensive radio airplay across the United Kingdom, while the group performed it on television programmes and started doing interviews and photo shoots for teen magazines. It topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks and has received a double Platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In January 1997 it was released in the United States, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. It was the group's only number-one single in that country. By the end of 1996, "Wannabe" had topped the charts in 22 nations, and by March 1997 this number had climbed to 37. "Wannabe" became the best-selling single by a female group in the world, with 1,360,000 and 2,910,000 copies sold in United Kingdom (by 2015) and United States (by 2014), respectively, and over 7 million copies worldwide by the end of 1997. In 2014, it was rated as the most easily recognizable pop song of the last 60 years.

[tashacassidy-blog1]

The relationship between organic and manufactured musicians

While its definitely common that people meet, become friends and create a band over their love of music, sometimes it doesn’t happen like that and people are put together with careful consideration and thought by an external source. Commonly, a band manager holds auditions for potential band members to find the right people to fill the line up of the band. They often focus more on the looks or personalities of the people they choose, rather than on their musical abilities. This formula can be very successful and many of the top boy bands and girl groups started this way.

An example of a manufactured, yet highly successful, band is the Spice Girls. The Spice Girls were put together when a management team of Lindsey Casbon, Bob Herbert and Chris Herbert of Heart Management saw a gap in the market for an all-girl band when boy bands such as Take That and Boyz II Men were at their peak of popularity and dominated the music scene. In February 1994, auditions were held for an all-female pop act and out of approximately 400 women the 5 members were chosen. The group felt unconfident about the lack of a contract and was frustrated by the direction in which Heart Management was steering them and in March 1995 the group parted from Heart Management, due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. After contacting many producers trying to get them to work with them, the Spice girls came to the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment who signed them to his company that same month. In July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks leading up to the release, the video for "Wannabe" (directed by Swedish commercials director Johan Camitz and shot in April at St Pancras Chambers in London), got a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live TV slot on broadcast on Surprise Surprise. Spice Girls have been role models for girls everywhere, and continue to be so as each have become celebrities in their own right away from the band. The Spice Girls sold over 80 million albums worldwide from 1994 to 2010. They’ve also happened to win most of the awards they’ve been nominated for with 53 nominations and 42 wins. I feel that the Spice Girls are such good example of how manufactured bands can still be hugely successful.

Although I make this point, I feel that it can be argued that far more technically talented musicians can be out there, not quite at the right place at the right time and don’t make that break. Manufactured bands have a lot of the hard work done for them for example, writing music and promoting the band and the music. Whereas musicians who try to work their way into the music industry themselves often have to write their own original music and spend their own money on promoting the music and the band. Manufactured bands often lack narrative as they are told which direction to take their music, it takes away the personal feel to the songs.

A good example of an organic artist, I feel would be Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran is an English singer songwriter from Suffolk. In autumn 2009 at from the age of 18, he attended the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey as an undergraduate. In April 2010, Sheeran bought a ticket to Los Angeles, he played open mic nights all over the LA, before he was spotted at The Foxxhole by Jamie Foxx, who was so impressed that he offered Sheeran the use of his recording studio and the bed at his Hollywood home for the rest of his stay. Throughout 2010, Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan-base grew, with him also getting credit from The Independent newspaper, England football captain Rio Ferdinand and Elton John. Sheeran independently released the EP, No. 5 Collaborations Project, which gathered the attention of Elton John and Jamie Foxx.  After signing with Asylum Records, his debut album, + ("plus"), was released on 9 September 2011 and has since been certified six-times platinum in the UK. The album contains the single "The A Team", which earned him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2012, Sheeran won the Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. A lot of Sheeran’s fame has come from the contacts he has made, although this is a case of being at the right place at the right time, Sheeran has had to out of his to make sure he was at that right place. It hasn’t been a case of just one lucky break he has had to work hard for where he is today. Not only does Ed Sheeran write all of his own material, also write songs for other artists, for example X Factor’s One Direction.

I think it has been important to compare two well know acts and explore how, although both have been and still are very popular, the way they came into the music industry has been very different.