| abstract
| - Wannabe received mixed reviews from music critics. Allmusic's reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave a positive review: Erlwine said "none of the Girls have great voices, but they do exude personality and charisma, which is what drives bouncy dance-pop like 'Wannabe', with its ridiculous 'zig-a-zig-ahhh' hook, into pure pop guilty pleasure". Christina Kelly from Rolling Stone gave a negative review: Kelly called the Spice Girls "another bubblegum pop group that offer a watered-down mix of hip-hop and cheesy pop balladry, brought together by a manager with a marketing concept", adding "Spice Girls's idea of power seems to be flaunting that they are all that, but the lyrics make Alanis Morissette's sound like Patti Smith's. A few nuggets: 'If you want to get with me, better make it fast...' Despite their pro-woman posing, the Girls don't get bogged down by anything deeper than mugging for promo shots and giving out tips on getting boys in bed." In a poll conducted by the magazine to identify the ten most annoying songs, this song was ranked eighth. Matt Diehl from Entertainment Weekly gave a positive review: Diehl also noticed the combination of genres describing "Wannabe" as "more a compendium of music styles (from ABBA-style choruses to unconvincing hip hop) than an actual song", but added that "there's something endearing about this goofily formulaic Euro pop". Pedro B. (a.k.a. ReturnTo Rock) from Sputnikmusic gave a negative review: In a review for Spice, B. called the lyrics "dire" and wondered "how could parents feed this to their 10-year-olds? The album's lyrics are so heavily laden with smut, I'm surprised they even let their kids have the album" and then used "Wannabe" as an example saying "The gist of the song is basically get your act together and treat me right, or there's no show. Not to mention the famous zig-a-zig-ha... try replacing it with the word 'sex' in the lyrics and see how it all suddenly makes perfect sense", adding "this track is built around an infectious keyboard riff, and so profoundly annoying, you'll want to rip your toenails off just so it will stop. But it's also really catchy, which makes you hate it even more." Another review by Daniel Incognito from Sputnikmusic gave a positive review: Incognito said "The lively bubble-gum pop of the Spice Girls embodied a gender not willing to lie down, and their debut single "Wannabe" acted as a proverbial kick in the pants for male chauvinists worldwide."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)