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Levels of language & pop group names
Analysis of the popgroup name, The Spice Girls
Perhaps the most obvious thing about the name of the Spice Girls is that
it has an intertextual allusion to a well-known nursery rhyme:
| What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails
That's what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all things nice
That's what little girls are made of.
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In the nursery rhyme the boys and girls are contrasted. The boys are
composed of unpleasant things (things which would be unpleasant to eat)
and the girls are composed of nice things (things which are pleasant to
eat).
However, this 'reading' is dependent on a particular construal of 'spice',
namely as the generic name for ingredients like cinnamon and nutmeg which
can be used with sugar and other ingredients in cake-making, a construal
which is made stronger by the overall contrast between the two stanzas
of the nursery rhyme and the co-ordination of 'spice' with 'sugar and
'all things nice'. It is also interesting to note, in this respect, that
in Yorkshire dialect 'spice' can be a synonym for 'sweets' or 'confectionary'.
Although the allusion to the nursery rhyme, and the pleasant association
for the Spice Girls is clear enough, it is also possible these for 'spice'
to refer to considerably fiercer ingredients, like pepper of various kinds
and ginger. With the spread of East and South-east Asian cooking, this
meaning of 'spice' is stronger in the native English-speaking world today
than in former times, and is the semantic base for a series of 'spicy'
metaphors. So, for example, someone with a spicy temper is bad-tempered
and someone with a spicy sense of humour is risqu and a bit dangerous.
The Spice Girls thus manage, in connotative terms, both to have their
cake and eat it. The allusion to the nursery rhyme reminds us of traditional,
safe, pleasant associations for girls, whereas the metaphorical reading
suggests a more fiery, uncontrolled, girl-power nature. In addition, the
name has associations for most native English speakers with far-off and
mysterious parts of the world, where spices originate from (India, Eat
Asia and, of course. the Spice Islands). So, they look nice, they taste
nice, but watch out! A neat set of associations for the world's most famous
girl group to date. Their group name effectively licenses them to behave
in more or less any way they please, good, bad and any mixture thereof.
Finally, there is another possible allusion, to the well-known saying
‘variety is the spice of life’ which connects well to the
idea that, although they are a group, they are also individuals (and indeed
they have each had a solo career, with varying degrees of success).
Interestingly, Victoria suggested, rather tongue-in-cheekly, in an MTV
interview (dated 2.01.97), that the girls' are named 'Spice Girls' because
they're 'all different like different spices'. In the same interview,
Mel B likened herself to 'black pepper', and Emma to 'cinnamon, 'cause
it's sweet, but leaves a horrible aftertaste!' (www.mtv.com).
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