‘Being in a girlband, we all went through a lot, but we had each other…’
Following the success of Boybands Forever, the BBC’s first foray into the pop bust and boom of the ’90s and ’00s, we now have Girlbands Forever. While I enjoyed the lad’s edition, it was hard to see past the fact that many of these men enjoyed success that most can only dream of and yet they seemed bitter and resentful that it didn’t last longer. Unsurprisingly, the men who made such insufferable music were largely insufferable themselves. Girlbands Forever presents us with a collection of musicians (I use the term loosely in some cases) who are not only more interesting sonically, but they also seem much nicer and more grounded than their male counterparts…
Weirdly narrated by former Coronation Street star Jill Halfpenny, Girlbands Forever begins with Eternal and the Spice Girls and ends with Sugababes and Little Mix via Atomic Kitten, All Saints and Mis-Teeq. What is striking about this iteration of the … Forever format is how much harder the girls had to work to become successful. Across the many interviews with the various managers and record label executives (exclusively men), it is clear that all of these groups were seen as a commodity to be flogged to death while they were on top. In at least two cases, members of Atomic Kitten and Sugababes were forced to return to work only weeks after giving birth, resulting in post-natal depression and feelings of guilt and anxiety. It’s scandalous, really. It is also interesting to note that many of these acts came from working-class backgrounds and so were seen as gobby or thick by the tabloid press. While this is grossly unfair, an even worse tragedy is that the avenues for working-class talent to make it in the music industry now have all but shut down. There simply could never be another Atomic Kitten now. It’s an easy joke to say ‘Good’. But it isn’t good. Because we still have naff pop acts, it’s just now they all went to private school.
Girlbands Forever is great as a nostalgia exercise, but it also has something to say about the state of the music industry, not just in the ’90s and ’00s, but also in 2026.
