Erika
10-02-2007, 07:02 AM
Cheetahs vs. Spice: A girl power overload Updated
By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
In the pre-iPod dark ages, five British women rode a wave of "Girl Power" to the top of the music charts. But what the Spice Girls were to the late '90s, the Cheetah Girls are to today's tweens: a group of carefully assembled proto-feminist sirens whose success hinges in no small part on good looks and savvy marketing.
Both groups may be battling for the same eardrums this fall. The Cheetah Girls have just released TCG, their first studio album. The Spice Girls have a greatest-hits album out Nov. 6 and are reuniting for a world tour, launching Dec. 7 in L.A.
USA TODAY compares the Cheetah sheet to the Spice rack.
SPICE GIRLS VS CHEETAH GIRLS
Created by
Simon Fuller, the British pop-culture guru behind American Idol. Born in 1994, the group gelled after a national casting call and was a calculated attempt to create a flip side to the boy-band craze. Its debut album, Spice, was such a global hit that the resulting Spicemania drew comparisons to Beatlemania.
Created by
Walt Disney. Four girls — including Cosby Show cutie Raven-Symone — were cast to star in the 2003 Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls, based on the popular novels by Deborah Gregory. Its immediate success quickly spawned sequels and myriad merchandising tie-ins.
http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ipr/grey.gif
Group name
Originally named Touch, the band's revised moniker innocently invokes flavorful food while also suggesting underlying sexuality.
Group name
The animal reference summons images of both stuffed animals and sleek power.
Cast of characters
There's something for everyone in this almost cartoonish quintet — Posh (Victoria Beckham), Baby (Emma Bunton), Sporty (Mel C), Ginger (Geri Halliwell) and Scary (Mel B).
Cast of characters
Nixing their movie alter egos (Chanel, Dorinda and Aqua), TCGs are now known as Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams.
Resident diva
Tough call between Halliwell, who famously left the group in 1998 after disagreeing with some of her spicy sisters, and Beckham, wife of soccer megastar David Beckham, who despite the band’s long hiatus remains among the most paparazzi-stalked women on the planet.
Resident diva
Although she could yet return to the fold, Raven didn't participate in this album, preferring to burnish her lucrative That's So Raven solo star.
Notable spinoff
In a weak nod to The Beatles' A Hard Day’s Night, the Spice Girls 1997 cinematic effort, Spice World: The Movie, featured guest stars Elton John, Roger Moore and Meat Loaf.
Notable spinoff
In a licensing coup the Fab Four couldn't claim in their heyday, the Cheetahs star in an eponymous video game that allows players to mix and match outfits as they battle to win a singing competition.
Scandal score
Mel B (Melanie Brown) delivered baby Angel last April. The father is Eddie Murphy, which the screen star doubted until a DNA test proved it.
Scandal score
Zero. Were there any, it's unlikely the famously strict House of Mouse would keep the violator around long.
http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ipr/grey.gif
Pop-culture spotlight
Mel B is shaking her groove thing, admittedly in a more refined way, on the new season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. Her competition includes . . .
Pop-culture spotlight
. . . Sabrina Bryan. Their onstage experience makes them early favorites in a group that includes entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves.
Future plans
After their 11-show tour, which will take them from the USA to China, "that will probably be it," Beckham said at the June press conference in London announcing the reunion. "Our priority is our families."
Future plans
Following a promotional campaign for TCG that includes their faces on 70 million Kraft Macaroni & Cheese boxes, the trio heads to India in early 2008 to shoot the third Cheetah Girls movie, then goes on tour.
http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ipr/grey.gif
Source: USA Today
By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
In the pre-iPod dark ages, five British women rode a wave of "Girl Power" to the top of the music charts. But what the Spice Girls were to the late '90s, the Cheetah Girls are to today's tweens: a group of carefully assembled proto-feminist sirens whose success hinges in no small part on good looks and savvy marketing.
Both groups may be battling for the same eardrums this fall. The Cheetah Girls have just released TCG, their first studio album. The Spice Girls have a greatest-hits album out Nov. 6 and are reuniting for a world tour, launching Dec. 7 in L.A.
USA TODAY compares the Cheetah sheet to the Spice rack.
SPICE GIRLS VS CHEETAH GIRLS
Created by
Simon Fuller, the British pop-culture guru behind American Idol. Born in 1994, the group gelled after a national casting call and was a calculated attempt to create a flip side to the boy-band craze. Its debut album, Spice, was such a global hit that the resulting Spicemania drew comparisons to Beatlemania.
Created by
Walt Disney. Four girls — including Cosby Show cutie Raven-Symone — were cast to star in the 2003 Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls, based on the popular novels by Deborah Gregory. Its immediate success quickly spawned sequels and myriad merchandising tie-ins.
http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ipr/grey.gif
Group name
Originally named Touch, the band's revised moniker innocently invokes flavorful food while also suggesting underlying sexuality.
Group name
The animal reference summons images of both stuffed animals and sleek power.
Cast of characters
There's something for everyone in this almost cartoonish quintet — Posh (Victoria Beckham), Baby (Emma Bunton), Sporty (Mel C), Ginger (Geri Halliwell) and Scary (Mel B).
Cast of characters
Nixing their movie alter egos (Chanel, Dorinda and Aqua), TCGs are now known as Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams.
Resident diva
Tough call between Halliwell, who famously left the group in 1998 after disagreeing with some of her spicy sisters, and Beckham, wife of soccer megastar David Beckham, who despite the band’s long hiatus remains among the most paparazzi-stalked women on the planet.
Resident diva
Although she could yet return to the fold, Raven didn't participate in this album, preferring to burnish her lucrative That's So Raven solo star.
Notable spinoff
In a weak nod to The Beatles' A Hard Day’s Night, the Spice Girls 1997 cinematic effort, Spice World: The Movie, featured guest stars Elton John, Roger Moore and Meat Loaf.
Notable spinoff
In a licensing coup the Fab Four couldn't claim in their heyday, the Cheetahs star in an eponymous video game that allows players to mix and match outfits as they battle to win a singing competition.
Scandal score
Mel B (Melanie Brown) delivered baby Angel last April. The father is Eddie Murphy, which the screen star doubted until a DNA test proved it.
Scandal score
Zero. Were there any, it's unlikely the famously strict House of Mouse would keep the violator around long.
http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ipr/grey.gif
Pop-culture spotlight
Mel B is shaking her groove thing, admittedly in a more refined way, on the new season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. Her competition includes . . .
Pop-culture spotlight
. . . Sabrina Bryan. Their onstage experience makes them early favorites in a group that includes entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves.
Future plans
After their 11-show tour, which will take them from the USA to China, "that will probably be it," Beckham said at the June press conference in London announcing the reunion. "Our priority is our families."
Future plans
Following a promotional campaign for TCG that includes their faces on 70 million Kraft Macaroni & Cheese boxes, the trio heads to India in early 2008 to shoot the third Cheetah Girls movie, then goes on tour.
http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ipr/grey.gif
Source: USA Today