When there was S Club 7, everyone wanted to be Rachel. Cheryl was the favourite in Girls Aloud, Nicole Scherzinger is the only name we knew back when Pussycat Dolls were at large and of course, Beyoncé was queen of Destiny’s Child. If we all look deep into our nostalgia driven hearts, we know who the most popular member of the Spice Girls was too. But just to make it official, a study has gone and confirmed what we already knew.
YouGov did survey of 31,000 people and asked who their favourite Spice Girl was. Baby Spice came up on top winning 37 percent of the vote, followed by Sporty at 23 percent, Ginger at 19 percent and Scary bringing up the rear with just 9 percent of people saying that they liked her best. Shock horror, amirite?
The survey found out lot of other things like how those who liked Scary Spice best were most comfortable calling themselves a feminist, Posh Spice fans are most likely to agree with the statement 'my friendship group is a really important part of my life' and, unsurprisingly, Posh's fan base are more fashion-conscious than those who preferred the other band members.
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In a nod to those playground arguments about who would get to be which member of the Spice Girls in your conflated school talent contest, it seems who you pick as your favourite band member says a fair bit about your personality. But, why is it that so many of us are drawn to the 'Baby' types, and uninterested by the 'Scary's?
The name 'Scary Spice' no doubt didn't help with her popularity with young girls, but there's as much to be said about the fact that Mel B was set the personality of the animalistic (hello leopard print), forceful (you'll notice she stomps and punches a little more than the other girls in their music videos) and assertive (big hair, loud frequently featured laugh) one in the group. Not to mention her inherent position as the only woman of colour.
Emma Bunton's character was far more appeasing of course. Cute, blond and innocent looking. Allow me to be analytical for a moment. Even without being specifically told so, we're kind of subconsciously conditioned to favour Baby Spice. Against names like Scary, Posh, Ginger and Sporty, she's the only one to have a name that suggest a familial or personal connection. Also it helped that she, as a character, was neither mean nor outspoken. She was inoffensively beige. And the world secretly loves beige.
While the Spice Girls and their clever management team did it intentionally, assigning characters to members of the band is something we're all familiar with. Even with groups like One Direction, who would you assign the role of hearthrob? The correct answer is Harry Styles, although Liam Payne had a little look in the early days before Harry was solidified as lead singer. Zayn was the bad boy, Niall was the nice guy and sadly Louis often found himself as the 'other guy'.
It's all an intentionally divisive and cynically really smart marketing tool to make us identify with (and then favour) a particular band member, you see. And evidently the Spice Girls really nailed the brief with Baby.
MORE: The Girl Bands Of The 90s And 00s We Wish Were Still A Thing
The Debrief 90s Girl Bands
1 of 18TLC
The outfit game was so, SO strong with these three. If you don't know all the words to No Scrubs, where you been? TLC were also the biggest selling girl group in the world until the Spice Girls came along...
2 of 18tATu
Oh, what a moment for one hit wonder duo tATu. I'm pretty sure the music video to All The Things She Said is still firmly etched in your mind. It was back when 'sexy school girl' was the look.
3 of 18Misteeq
If the words 'so, so, so, scandelous' don't send chills down your spine then you need to revisit the *Eye Candy *album. Fun fact: Tina from S Club 7 was originally in the group until she landed a spot in the band.
4 of 18Girls Aloud
I have few regrets in life, but one of them has to be not giving Pop Stars: The Rivals the attention it clearly deserved because the creation of Girls Aloud was entertaining as hell. Word on the street is that lead signer Nadine is still angling for a reunion though so, watch this space.
5 of 18Sugababes
Ten points if you can name, in order, all of the members of Sugababes and which grouping they appeared in. OGs Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan were the shit, though. And don't pretend that 'Angels With Dirty Faces' wasn't somewhere on your MySpace page.
6 of 18Atomic Kitten
Is anyone else surprised when they realise that Kerry Katona was only around for about three years? She'd left somewhere between* Whole Again* and Eternal Flame. We all enjoyed their little stint on ITV2 The Big Reunion, though. You know, before Kerry left again.
7 of 18Cleopatra
If you can't quite put your finger on why you often follow 'Cleopatra' with the words 'comin' at ya', it's down to these girls. Cleo, Yonah, and Zainam Higgins were the coolest sisters around and no, we never really understood the swimming goggles either. But Nelly never had to explain the plaster on his face so, you know...
9 of 18Spice Girls
No one knows where to start with the Spice Girls these days. And while some sort of reunion has been confirmed, a tour date is yet to be given the go ahead. Might have something to do with Victoria only agreeing to come back if she doesn't have to sing...
10 of 18En Vogue
If you're not all that familiar with the group, you'll be familiar with the song *Don't Let Go. *There are few songs that quite hit the 90s R&B nail on the head so well. You're gonna want to revisit it.
11 of 183LW
Okay we're about to take it way, way back with obscure cultural references here. But anyone who watched Nickelodeon's *Taina might remember the episode where 3LW appeared as super cool girl group Blue Mascara. They performed 3LW's best selling song No More (Baby I'ma Do Right) *and it changed my life. Obviously, if you neither remember this nor know the song, this means nothing too you. But they had another song called *Playas Gon Play *which was kind of involved in that Taylor Swift lyric lawsuit drama.
12 of 18The Cheetah Girls
Disney kids rejoice, because this was the coolest (yes, coolest) music to come out of that damn channel before High School Musical became a thing. The Cheetah Girls existed beyond their Disney TV films too, you know?
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13 of 18Blaque
Remember N'Sync? Of course you do. But do you remember that gem of a song they featured on with Blaque on? It's called *Bring It All To Me *and the music video is a lot. It has nothing on *808 *though.
14 of 18Las Ketchup
There's no shame in having attempted to type and translate the lyrics to The Ketchup Song via Google. We all did it in a desperate bid to know what we were singing while wiggling our knees and whaling our hands around to that stressful routine.
15 of 18The 411
There are two songs to recall here: Dumb (diggi-diggi-di dumb) and *On My Knees. *Their presence may have been fleeting, but they were present. For a bit.
16 of 18Dream
Dream were pretty much everything you expect from a strategically put together girl group, but even more intense. At least that's my vague memory of them and that overwhelmingly 'pop' single He Loves U Not.
17 of 18Eden's Crush
We were not first introduced to Nicole Scherzinger via The Pussycat Dolls. No, no. She first entered our lives via Eden's Crush who were formed on the American version of *Popstars. *I honestly couldn't tell you what happened to the others, but Nicole seems quite happy on the X Factor and eating Muller yogurt.
18 of 18B*Witched
Boys in trees and a hella lot o' denim. Life was so much simpler back then and we still long for those vibes.
Follow Jazmin on Instagram @JazKopotsha
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.