2004 Pop Conference Bios/Abstracts

Irene Nexica
Cultural Critic

Irene Nexica has lived in England, both north and south, starting in 1993 and has loved and analyzed music since before her first hand-me-down transistor radio at age 6. She has a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, another in (British) Commonwealth Literature, and is about to have another in Ethnic Studies. Her research seeks to explore the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, nationality, sexuality and other quirks of identity in conjunction with popular musics and cultures. She is co-editor of The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness (Duke University Press) and lives with four cats.Panel(s):
Cultural Conquests
Saturday, April 17, 2004, 5:00 - 6:30Abstract:

""But Hip Hop is Harder" - Watching the Spice Girls Take Over the World"
1997 was an ambivalent time for mainstream Britain. Mad cow scares and Europe boycotting British beef. Hong Kong was returned to the People''s Republic of China and Argentina wanted the Falklands back. Chicken tikka masala was named the most popular dish in England. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry ruled that the police deliberately underinvestigated the racially motivated killing of a black youth. The country was deciding between the familiar Tories or New Labour at a time when the youth vote could be the deciding factor. Scotland was forming their own Parliament. The European Monetary Union was becoming closer to reality and Eurosceptics were rife. The Booker Prize for contemporary fiction went to the first Commonwealth subject not living or educated in Britain. There was wide public debate over the dumbing down of British culture and American media domination.

And the Spice Girls, who in 1997 were at the height of their cultural and economic powers in the UK and abroad. Using video, photos, and music, this presentation will use a 1997 Spice Girls performance in India as a lens to view, interpret and discuss these political, economic and cultural events from an unsettled year in British history. This telecast of their hit single "Spice Up your Life" on Top of the Pops is metonymic of the relationship Britain had with its commonwealth, with communities domestically and in Europe, and with the United States. These 3 minutes will be viewed (literally) as the convergence of histories at this point in the British timeline, written through the garb, words, sounds, and context of the group in this singular place and time.